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Since Miss Stacy grew up across the road from the town cemetery, her thoughts might differ a bit from those of others. She has never feared to march to a different drummer. Formative years of childhood are most important, so they say.
The full heat and humidity of a mid-Atlantic summer arrive in June. Sitting under a shady tree, sipping from a tall glass of iced tea, and thinking of a favorite cool place from her childhood are ways Miss Stacy copes with the heat.
Additions coming during month; topics to date:
[ Death & Burial Customs ]
Death & Burial
1 June 2014
It's been said that humankind's greatest fear is the fear of death. There is a greater fear – the fear of not being dead. Before modern embalming techniques became widely available, there were rare instances of a "dead" person's reviving. Rare, but rare cases are enough to fill the imagination with anxiety. The following folk story, related in Richard M. Dorson's Regional Folklore in the United States, is typical of those Miss Stacy heard during her apprenticeship for becoming an Old Wife:
Before the time that embalming of the dead was practiced, many people were pronounced dead, only to come alive again. This story has to do with a middle-aged woman who had been ill for two weeks and then died. After a wake had been held, as was the custom, she was buried.It happened the night of the day of her burial that a group of grave-robbers visited the cemetery and noticed the new grave and decided to rob it. The chief object of these robbers was not to steal the bodies, but rather any jewelry that might have been buried with them.
When the lid of the coffin was raised, they were glad to see a ruby ring as well as a plain gold ring on the victim's second finger of the left hand. They we disappointed when they found that it was impossible to remove the rings over the first joint. At last, as they hated to leave these two valuable rings, they decided to cut the finger.
As the knife pierced the flesh, the robbers were startled by a slight movement of the hand. At about the same time the corpse sat up in the coffin – the robbers took to their heels.
The woman climbed out of her coffin and went home, where she explained that she had been conscious of the fact that she had been pronounced dead but was unable to move or speak to prevent being buried.
And there you have a story to tell next Halloween or when sitting at a compfire!
Communities developed customs in an attempt to forestall such occurrences. In the area where Miss Stacy grew up, many of these practices were still followed although embalming was the norm.
Burial took place three days after death (which would have given time to regain consciousness or for decomposition to become obvious), and neighbors kept a watch over the body throughout this time (in case there was any movement). At age fourteen Miss Stacy began taking turns sitting overnight with a corpse. She didn't find this practice in any way unsettling. There always were two sitters to help each other stay awake, and she was always paired with an older person from whom she was able to elicit much information to add to her Old Wife Lore.
This "sitting up" always took place in the "sitting room" to which the body of the late beloved was taken while awaiting burial. This association was rather sad for families, and these rooms came to be called "living rooms".
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When to Plant; Weather Signs; Hummingbirds; Herbal Teas; Catnip.
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Apples, Word & Phrase Origins, Companion Plants; Yarrow.
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Snake Lore: Rattlesnakes, Copperheads, Cottonmouths, Coral, Garter Snake.
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In process - topics so far this month: Death & Burial Customs
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