Tag Archives: Superstition

Flickering Lamp

Age: 19

Ghost story

After my great grandmother passed, I remember the feeling of being sad both because my grandmother died and because I couldn’t be around my family due to Covid restrictions. I sat in bed crying after my dad gave me the news and I was distraught. Because this is the first family member I had passin my life, I didn’t know what to do and so I asked for a sign that she was okay. About 20 minutes later my dad came in my room to check on me and turned on a lamp I had never turned on despite living in that house for a year already. As soon as he turned the light on, and I told my dad that I wanted a way to know that she was OK, I turned to the lamp and it started to flicker. I had never used the lightbulb in the lamp and to this day It hasn’t flickered again, but that was my sign. 

Context: This story was told to me during a topic of religion. It was me, my roommate, her, and her friend. She stated that she does not believe explicitly in god, but instead believes in spirits. She then elaborated, telling this story.

Analysis: She thinks that it was her grandma. I think it was just a coincidence. It resembles the flame motif and ancestral ghosts. One attribute that could represent why she believed more was that she was younger, and this was the first time that a relative had died for her. Her emotional state could have been less stable, making her easier to persuade.

Fallen Rose

Age: 19

I was there when my grandma passed. The room had that still, suspended feeling—like everything was holding its breath. I had brought a single rose and placed it gently beside her on the bed, not really knowing what else to do except be there and give her something soft, something beautiful.

When the doctor finally said the time of death, everything seemed to freeze. And then, right in that exact moment, the rose slipped off the bed and fell to the floor. No one touched it. There wasn’t any movement that I could see that would’ve caused it. It just… fell. It caught me off guard, but it didn’t feel random. It felt like something had shifted the second she was gone.

A year later, on her birthday, I went to visit her. She’s in a mausoleum—completely enclosed, no wind, nothing that could disturb anything placed there. I brought another rose and set it carefully on her tombstone. I stood there for a while, talking to her quietly, like I used to when she was here.

Then I said our phrase, the one we always shared: “I love you more.”

Right after I said it, the rose twitched.

I froze. I remember staring at it, trying to make sense of what I had just seen. There was no breeze, no movement around me—nothing that should’ve made it move. It was small, but it was real.

So I said it again, a little more sure this time. “I love you more.”

And that’s when the rose fell. Completely, unmistakably, off the tombstone.

I didn’t feel scared. If anything, I felt this overwhelming sense of calm, like something familiar had just reached back toward me. In that moment, it didn’t feel like coincidence. It felt like her. Like she heard me, like she answered in the only way she could.

I know I can’t prove it. I know how it sounds. But I also know what I felt standing there—that same quiet certainty, like the moment she passed. To me, that was her way of saying hi, of reminding me that the love we shared didn’t just disappear.

And ever since then, I’ve held onto that. Not as something I need to explain, but as something I experienced—something that felt real in a way that doesn’t need proof.

Context: This story was told to me during a topic of religion. It was me, my roommate, her, and her friend. She stated that she does not believe explicitly in god, but instead believes in spirits. She then elaborated, telling this story.

Analysis: She thinks that it was her grandma. I think it was just a coincidence. It resembles the flame motif and ancestral ghosts. One attribute that could represent why she believed more was that she was younger, and she was very close to her grandma. Her emotional state could have been less stable, making her easier to persuade. I also believe that in her family, ghost stories were accepted more, making her easier to sway.

Nachito’s Tomb and the Fear of Darkness

Age: 19

Age: 19

Context:

This story was told to me by a friend during a conversation about cultural ghost stories and urban legends. It is a well-known legend from Guadalajara, Mexico, and is commonly associated with the Panteón de Belén cemetery. Stories like this are often shared within families or communities and are sometimes retold during visits to the cemetery or in discussions about local folklore.

Text:

TC: “There’s this really famous ghost story from Guadalajara about a little boy named Nachito. He lived in the 1800s, and apparently, he had an extreme fear of the dark. Like, he couldn’t sleep unless there was light around him.

TC: When he died, his family buried him in the cemetery like normal, but people started saying that strange things were happening around his grave. Some versions of the story say that his coffin would move or shift overnight, like something was trying to get out.

TC: Because of this, his mother believed that he was still afraid of the darkness even after death. So she had his coffin taken out of the ground and placed above it, where it could be exposed to light.

TC: People say she would keep candles or torches around it so he wouldn’t be left in the dark. Over time, it became a known spot in the cemetery, and visitors started leaving toys for him.

TC: Even today, people still bring toys to Nachito’s tomb because they believe his spirit is still there. Some say that if you don’t bring him something, his ghost might cause bad luck or tragedies.”

Informant’s Thoughts:

TC: “I don’t really think of this story as super scary; it’s more sad to me. Like, it’s about a little kid who was just really afraid of the dark, and that fear didn’t even go away after he died. I think that’s why people feel bad for him and leave toys, because it’s more about comforting him than being scared of him.”

TC: “But at the same time, it’s still kind of creepy that people say something bad could happen if you don’t bring him something. It’s like a mix of feeling bad for him and also not wanting to risk anything.”

Analysis:

This story reflects common themes found in Latin American folklore, particularly the idea that spirits remain connected to their emotions or fears even after death. In this case, Nachito’s fear of the dark continues beyond his lifetime, influencing the actions of the living, especially his mother, who tries to comfort him by keeping his coffin above ground and surrounded by light. The tradition of leaving toys at his grave also shows how communities physically interact with folklore. These offerings function both as a sign of care and as a way to avoid possible misfortune, which is a pattern seen in many ghost stories. Additionally, this legend blends tragedy with innocence. Nachito is not portrayed as a threatening or evil spirit, but rather as a frightened child. However, there is still an underlying sense of caution, since failing to acknowledge him could lead to bad luck. This balance between sympathy and fear is what makes the story both memorable and culturally meaningful.

Haunted House

Age: 18

In an interview with my close friend and roommate, I asked if she had any ghost stories that she would be willing to share. For some short background information, she grew up in East Los Angeles in a Latino religious family. Her story is as follows:

In the back of my Aunts home, there’s a room there, which is often used as a guest room. And a lot of the time, family members would go when they visit to sleep over there, and that room was known to, like, have some kind of ghost or spirit in there. So, it’s happened a lot of times where people who go and stay there, they wake up and see a lady in a white gown, and they just see her there. A lot of people don’t know who it is. And people have experienced dreaming with family members in that room for some reason. I don’t really think there’s like a spirit in there. And even for many years, there’s a man who lived there that was renting out the room, and he would even talk about things that he would experience, like the lights would turn off randomly, or just random coincidences that would happen, that weren’t just coincidences. And I’m not sure, but they feel like it might have something to do with across the street, there was a an abandoned hospital, and for some reason that abandoned hospital, there was a lot of like, weird stuff that happened there, so they kind of feel like maybe it has something to do with that.

I then asked if she believed the story to be true or an odd coincidence. She replied:

I feel like I wouldn’t believe that it was a coincidence if it would have only happened to one person, I wouldn’t have put this much thought into it. But I think because so many people have experienced this and like, they go in and feel something there, I don’t know, I can’t say, because I haven’t experienced it myself. But I think just because it’s been more than like, one person who has experienced the same thing, I think it is true. 

I continued by asking if the story had a lasting impact on them, since they seemed to truly believe what was happening had supernatural reasoning. She replied:

Yeah, I think it did have a long lasting impact. I think it’s something that they still talk about a lot, but I think they don’t put too much attention to it. Because I feel like, when it comes to ghosts and stuff like that, at least in my opinion, I feel like when you pay attention to those things, it kind of feeds off of that. Yeah, so I think the more thought you put to it, the more you attract that energy.

Finally, I asked if she believed religion to play a role in their belief of ghosts. She replied:

Speaking for myself, I think because I’m a believer in God, I try not to put my energy into that. Yeah, I do think they exist, but I think I feel like there’s a greater power that protects me, that’s my God. So, like, I don’t fear it. And I feel like if I were to fear it, then that’s when I give it my energy. Because I don’t give my energy, I haven’t experienced that and they go to my family. I don’t know where their faith is, so I don’t know how that plays a role in their experiences, but I can only speak for myself. 

Since I am not a firm believer in ghosts, I feel as though it could have been coincidental noises combined with their preconceived notions about the hospital that was across the house that made them believe they were having an interaction with ghosts.

The Knock on the Window

One day, a girl named AM moved into a new hometown called Wasco, CA, with her family. It was the early months of 2016, and AM was about 9 years old at the time they moved. Her family did not have any previous connection to this town, so they were unaware of the stories that were talked about among the residents. This house was slightly small for this family, making AM and some of her siblings share a room. The first night in this house, AM and her siblings heard some knocking on the window. They believed it was just the house making noise, ignoring the knocking as it continued. This knocking then continued for months, making it a normal occurrence to hear in the house. One night, AM stayed alone in her room due to her siblings staying the night at a family member’s house. This night, as every other night, she heard the knocking noise on the window. Finally, after being annoyed by the noise for the night, AM went to check her window. As she opened the window up, AM saw a figure almost jump out from the window and run away. This sight filled AM with fear, and eventually caused her to tell her family. In response, the family called a priest to enter the house and preform an exorcism on the house. The following nights, AM never heard the knocking on her window again.

AM truly believes she came into contact with a spirit. Although she was slightly younger when she encountered this spirit, she holds strong on the idea that it was real. AM also believes that the spirit wasn’t necessarily an evil spirit since there was no indication it wanted to harm her. She felt more irritated by the presence than fearful.

This spirit did not seem like it was harmful in any type of way. This spirit looked as if it was maybe just trapped inside the residence and wanted a way out. Personally, I believe the story could be true, but since AM was very young, there is much skepticism. Also, AM was alone at the time, but the priest being a part of the story changes the narrative extremely. Since the knocking stopped after the priest performed the exorcism, there is an extremely large chance there may have been a spirit within the residence.