Tag Archives: funeral

The Humming Step-Grandpa

Age: 18

Context: The following story was told on April 28th, 2026, in my dorm room to me by the informant, who is one of my close friends.

Me: “Okay, so just go ahead and just tell the story like how you normally would.”

NB: “Okay, so this was the day of my step-grandfather’s funeral. I will never forget this day. This, I have no explanation for this. Still, no one knows. It’s like a complete mystery. We don’t know what was going on. But anyway, basically what had happened was my grandma had went to the church already with my uncle to take care of like a few things before the funeral actually happened. My mom was putting on her makeup in her room, and when we woke up, my dad wasn’t in the room, but, um, we just assumed that he was in the bathroom because the bathroom was closed. And my sister and I were just, like, talking and whatever, and we were like, oh my god, like dad’s taking, like, forever in the bathroom, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then we knocked on the bathroom door, and then we heard humming, and we were just like, really?”

Me: “And this was in your house that you still live in?”

NB: “Yes.”

Me: “And you’ve lived in this house like your whole life?”

NB: “Yeah, my entire life. And yeah, it has a lot of history. Like every single one of my family members has grew up there, including my mom. So, yeah. And we’ve never moved. But it has a lot of history, but anyway, basically, we knocked on the door. Um, we heard humming, and one thing about my dad is he’s not a sing-songy person, like, he’s not someone who hums, and, like, that was just really unusual for him. And when we heard it, it was like weird because it was like in a much deeper voice. It genuinely sounded like my step-grandpa, and we were like weirded out by it because we were just like, dad doesn’t do that. Like, it’s very odd. And basically, we went back in the room and we were just waiting because we were like, oh, dad’s taking forever. And my mom was like, oh, what’s going on? And we’re like, ugh, like dad is taking forever. But she looked at us like, what are you talking about? Like, what do you mean dad? And we were like, I don’t know. And then my dad came home with breakfast. And we were just like, what the, like, what? You weren’t in the bathroom? Like, what happened? And, um, he was just like, no, like, I wasn’t in the bathroom. I was getting breakfast, and we were talking to our mom, and my mom was like, oh, like, maybe your step-grandfather was just, like, getting ready for his funeral or something in the bathroom, and we were like, what?”

Me: “So did he live in the house prior?”

NB: “Yeah he did. Okay. We all lived in that house together, just like one big Brady bunch, like genuinely, but it was…it was weird, and I still, like to this day, I’m like weirded out because we we’re the only ones home, and, like, I don’t know. Like, there’s no explanation for who was in the bathroom, but yeah.”

Me: “So like, overall, like, what do you make of it? Like, you think…do you think it, like, was his spirit or you just, you don’t know what to think?”

NB: “I just think that maybe, because I do believe in like the paranormal and stuff, I think maybe, yeah, if… I mean, if I died, I’d want to get ready in my house too. So I think that, yeah, it’s valid if he just wanted to get ready one last time before he was buried. Um, but yeah, and that day when I woke up, the house just like felt very off. I’m very like into like energies and like sensing tensions and stuff and that day was just really gloomy and it was just really sad. And then I remember as soon as we buried him, like the sun came out. So it was very, very strange and yeah, half of me just doesn’t know what to make of it. But then another part of me is like, maybe that was him, like, possibly.”

Personal thoughts and analysis: This story was very interesting to hear, as unlike some ghost stories, this one doesn’t really have a logical explanation, and as a skeptic, it has me very conflicted. I believe the informant and their siblings’ account, which conflicts with my views on the dead interacting with the living. The only explanation I can think of is perhaps some sort of appliance was on that sounded like a hum; however, this appliance sounding like the informant’s step-grandpa on the day of his funeral would be a very interesting coincidence. Overall, if it was the spirit of the informants’ step-grandpa just getting ready for the day one last time before he was put to rest, there is something very wholesome about that.

Walking Home Backwards After a Funeral

Nationality: American & Trinidadian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Glendale, AZ
Language: English

“A superstitious belief in my family and some of my friends have is that after a funeral, we will enter our homes backwards.It’s mainly so the spirit doesn’t follow you home, especially if you go to the graveyard site or cremation site.”

Can you please explain to me how they enter the house backwards?

“From what I’ve seen from my parents, they fully enter backwards, so they don’t start facing our house or like the front door if that makes sense.” She goes on to explain to me that “someone’s been there to let them in, or it just matters that they enter the first door frame facing backwards.”

Context: The informant identifies as a Hindu.

Analysis: In Hindu traditions, this superstition is common after funerals. It is believed to prevent the spirit from following the family home and getting stuck there, essentially aiding in their transition to the afterlife. This tradition is also a way to purify the home from any lingering negative energies after death that might have followed the family home. Spirits and ghosts in folklore tend to be tied to a property or area, so this practice prevents this from happening to their loved ones. This superstition has also shown up in other folk superstitions, and the consistency of walking backwards out of a cemetery seems to be the common trope. This practice shows how universal superstitions might be if you look beyond the religious contexts. 

Traditional Guatemalan Funeral

Nationality: United States
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

Text: “When my grandmother passed away, we held a traditional Guatemalan funeral. The night she died, we stood over her body and prayed the rosary from 5pm to 8am. The next day, we walked her to the cemetery, stopping to pray at four different places: the house doorway, the yard, the entrance to the street, and the first street corner. On the third day, we celebrated her life with a big gathering. All of her neighbors came, bringing food and support. We served Guatemalan hot chocolate, tamales, and tostadas.”

Context: The informant, N, shared this ritual during a conversation surrounding the passing of her grandmother and the traditional Guatemalan funeral that followed. N grew up in a Guatemalan household and explained how these practices have been followed by her family for generations. N described the multi-day ritual, which included an all-night rosary and a massive celebration. To N, these rituals don’t help her just honor her grandma but also help her stay connected to her cultural and spiritual roots.

Analysis: This is an example of a traditional death ritual that reflects deeper cultural beliefs surrounding death and spiritual transition. The rosary allows N’s family to show love for her grandma as each bead represents a prayer for her soul. The four stops along the funeral procession symbolize spiritual check points that allow for her soul to be gradually released from the physical world. The massive gathering on the final day brought the entire community together, turning grief into a beautiful moment of collective remembrance. This ritual shows how Guatemalan funerals combine Indigenous and Catholic practices to create a meaningful service that brings people together in support and remembrance.

Jewish Funeral/Death/Graveyard Rituals/Traditions

Nationality: Israeli-American
Age: 17
Occupation: High School Student
Residence: Bellevue, Washington
Language: English

Text:

Jewish funerals don’t use coffins and instead the body is just buried in the ground. The purpose of this is to return the body to the ground where it came from. Gravestones are lying down on the ground over the body. The ten commandments on two stones are placed where the head of the person would be. The graves all face Jerusalem. There is a lit candle at the back of the grave that symbolizes their soul. For seven days after the death (called the shiva), the entire family sits in the house of the deceased. They don’t work and don’t cook but just share stories of the person. The door is meant to always be open so that neighbors can come in to bring food and hear stories. The full mourning period is thirty days where there are other restrictions such as not shaving.

For graveyards, you always have to exit in a different way than how you entered, otherwise the spirits will follow you out. When someone visits a grave, they find a rock to leave as a gift to the deceased.

Context:

The informant is from an Orthodox Jewish family. They heard a lot of these traditions/rituals from their parents and the community around them or from visiting the graves of their family members. The Informant said they haven’t experienced a shiva before but that they regret missing it for their recently deceased grandmother. The informant likes the concept of the shiva because it is a celebration of life and remembering a person rather than being sad. They also like the graveyard ritual of leaving a different way than how you entered because it is fun, not because they believe in ghosts. The informant said that as a kid, they would paint rocks to gift to their deceased family members as a way to commemorate the things they remembered about the person.

Analysis:

The placement of gravestones on top of the body could be interpreted as them keeping the person in the ground. As the culture also is afraid of spirits following a person out of a graveyard then it is not impossible that there could also be a fear of someone rising out of the ground. Putting the person in the ground without a coffin and pointing them towards Jerusalem likely both have religious significance. A person might not be able to rest in Jewish culture unless they have no barrier between them and the Earth. Jerusalem is the promised land to Jewish people so pointing them towards the most significant place within the religion might be to help the spirit back to there in death.

The shiva is a community building event. By creating an expectation for a family to not work or cook, it forces neighbors to come by and support them. Leaving the door open means that everyone is welcome. Community has to come together in times of mourning and it makes it impossible for someone to grieve alone or for someone to die without community remembrance. The shiva is also a time for celebration rather than just sadness. Remembering a person by talking about stories and good memories helps people to feel a sense of resolution rather than tragedy. The seven day period blocks out specific time that is meant for mourning/celebration, giving the community time to process rather than forcing people to move on without working through their emotions. The longer thirty day mourning period likely acts as a reminder of who has been lost and honoring their death through daily actions. The informant felt like they had missed out on part of the mourning process because they missed a shiva, showing its importance for the processing of emotions in family members of the deceased.

Leaving a rock on the grave of someone deceased acts as a way to leave them a gift as well as a way to keep them in your mind. The visitor is meant to find the rock as they go to visit a person’s grave so they have to think about the person and what they might want. The informant mentioned how they found this to be a fun tradition, especially as a child, as it was a way to engage with death through memory and love rather than grief.

Leaving the graveyard in a different way than how you entered is an example of apotropaic magic as well as a prohibitive action. Entering and exiting the same way could bring on something bad but by changing something when you exit, you protect yourself from harm. Death is a scary concept so many people would want to protect themselves from harm while leaving a place that is full of it.

Post Funeral Practices

Nationality: American
Age: 50
Occupation: Home renovator
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

Text:

“After funerals, we always wash our hands with pomegranate leaves in a bowl before we can enter the house. Also, you cannot go straight home directly after a funeral, as it will bring bad luck. You always need to go somewhere else.”

Context:

My informant learned this from the older Chinese generation in his family. His mother would always remind him to do these rituals after attending a funeral.

Analysis:

Chinese culture has many superstitions regarding funerals, as demonstrated through these rituals. This practice of washing your hands before entering the house is related to apotropaic magic in that the symbolic action is intended to wash off any bad luck or ward off evil spirits. This falls under the category of contagious magic, the idea that things that were once in contact will influence each other even after the contact is broken. In the context of a funeral, individuals who have come into contact with impurities must wash it away to break the connection.