Dr. James T. Callow publications
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The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
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THE DEATH SIGN OF THE MAFIA IS MADE BY SNAPPING YOUR
THUMBNAIL ON YOUR TWO UPPER FRONT TEETH.
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial SPEECH -- Derision Scorn |
Date learned: 11-02-1967
Custom
The family of the deceased attends mass for six consecutive weeks. Each week the family brings fruit, candy, or fruit for the entire parish. At the end of the six week period an entire mass is said in memory of the deceased . The family brings wine, three large raisin breads, fruit, and boiled wheat for the parish. This is done to celebrate the first stage of the deceased's ascention into Heaven. The ritual is repeated at six months to celebrate the second stage. After a person has been dead for a period of one year, the ritual is repeated for the last time. This stage signifies that the deceased has ascended into Heaven.
Submitter comment:
Despite revisions in the Orthodox mass, this custom has been preserved. It is considered an important and beautiful ritual. This custom is so old that no one knows how it exactly originated.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: HOME ; MICHIGAN ; DETROIT ; Self
Keyword(s): BURIAL ; CUSTOM ; DEATH ; FOOD ; Funeral ; RELIGION ; SYMBOLISM
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
After a funeral the best friend of the deceased is given a bowl of boiled wheat, a glass, and silverware. This little ceremony transfers the worldly goods of the deceased to the living.
Submitter comment:
Informant noted that this custom is not as popular as it used to be but it is still practiced.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD.
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): DEATH ; Deceased ; FRIENDSHIP ; GLASS ; RELIGION ; RELIGIOUS ; RITUAL ; Silverware ; SYMBOL ; Symbolic ; SYMBOLISM ; UTENSILS ; Wheat
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Ethnic: Moravian
Burial Custom: Moravian:
Every Easter, headstones are brought to uniform whitenes and flowers bedeck virtually every grave of deceased Moravian members at Old Salem, North Carolina. At sunrise, approximately half a dozen bands march into the graveyard to celebrate the risen lord.
Submitter comment:
Read in National Geographic Magazine, Dec. 1970
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: Myself ; Magazine
Keyword(s): BURIAL ; CUSTOM ; Easter ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Moravian
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Ethnic: Native American
Lakota Burial Custom:
The Lakota Indians place the deceased bodies of their tribe not in the ground but upon poles until the corpses are either disintegrated or eaten.
Submitter comment:
The informant supposes that the practice places the body close to the Great Spirit, prevents other tribes from taking over Lakota Territory, and expresses the belief that the Lakotas - if they wandered away - would eventually return to this special area.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): AMERICAN INDIAN ; BURIAL ; CUSTOM ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Lakota ; Native American
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Ethnic: Korean
Korean Death Custom:
In Korea, a male will straighten the tongue of the person who just died while female members of the family would have to leave the room.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BURIAL ; CUSTOM ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Korean
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Ethnic: Moravian
Moravian Burial Custom:
Moravian cemetary headstones are kept flat to show humility; their uniform size reflects the democracy of death. Burial is not by families but by choirs - grouping by age, sex, and marital status.
Submitter comment:
Read in National Geographic Magazine, Dec. 1970
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: Myself
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; BURIAL ; CUSTOM ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Moravian
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Ethnic: Native American
Indian Burial Custom:
Informant noted a ritualistic use of pipe smoking in Indian Burial practices which - he bleived - is a co-mixture of Indian and Catholic beliefs.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): AMERICAN INDIAN ; BURIAL ; CATHOLICISM ; CUSTOMS ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Native American ; RELIGION ; RELIGIOUS
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Ethnic: Korean
Korean Burial Custom:
In Korea, burial sites are usually found on the sides of mountains with boundaries marked by two pillars. Once a year, (exact time not revealed by informant) food for deceased is borught and placed upon a platform.
Submitter comment:
Informant believes that these particular examples reflect a Buddhist belief in afterlife and ancestor worship.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; BURIAL ; CUSTOM ; ETHNIC ; FOOD ; Funeral ; Korean ; RITUAL
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Ethnic: Korean
Korean Death Custom:
In Korea, there is a three year mourning period for a parent since each child spent three years in the bosom before birth.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): Ancestors ; Beliefs ; BURIAL ; CUSTOMS ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Korean
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Custom
Cemetery Practices:
When the informant was a child, he said that one made a day out of a trip to the cemetary. People carried their own sprinkling cans, their own shears for cutting the grass around the gravesite, their own garden tools to plant their own flowers. Most of the time you would take a lunch with you and eat it under the trees at the cemetery.
Submitter comment:
Grammatical corrections made to typed submission.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): Ancestors ; BURIAL ; CEMETERY ; DEATH ; FOOD ; Funeral ; GARDEN ; Lunch ; Maintenance ; RESPECT
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Custom: Death
Photographs of Corpse:
Informant showed collector several snapshots of his grandfather, who had passed away some 15 years previous, laid out in his coffin in the funeral home.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: HOME ; MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): Coffin ; Corpse ; Dead ; Funeral ; Mourning ; Photograph ; Soul
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Custom: Death
Funeral:
During a funeral, at the Mass at the Offertory, any of the people who wished to show their respects and show everyone else present of their sympathy, would walk down the aisle around the casket, leave a token and leave. Many people would leave the ceremonies immediately afterward to return to their businesses. But everyone had known that he had take time to pay his respects to the deceased.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [S600] crossed out and replaced with current classification
Written in bottom left corner: [Belgian?]
Where learned: PENNSYLVANIA ; PITTSBURGH
Keyword(s): BURIAL ; Casket ; DEATH ; Funeral ; Offering ; RESPECT
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Ethnic: Belium
Funeral:
In Belgium, during funeral processions, the children would carry boquets or wreaths of flowers which they had picked.
Submitter comment:
Recorded on tape
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: PENNSYLVANIA ; PITTSBURGH
Keyword(s): Belgium ; BURIAL ; CHILDREN ; CUSTOM ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; FLOWERS ; Funeral ; RESPECT
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Ethnic: Ukranian
If an unmarried girl dies, she is buried dressed as a bride, according to Ukranian tradition.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; WARREN
Keyword(s): BURIAL ; Chastity ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Female ; Funeral ; Maiden ; UKRAINIAN ; Unmarried ; YOUTH
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Ethnic: Belgium
Funeral Custom:
When a dead person is laid out, a photographer takes a picture of the corpse. The family keeps this picture.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: BELGIUM
Keyword(s): CUSTOM ; DEATH ; FAMILY ; Funeral ; Photograph ; Picture ; Soul
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
BUTTON BELIEF
YOU SHOULD NOT SEW A BUTTON ON YOUR OWN GARMENTS (ON YOUR BODY)
UNLESS YOU ARE CHEWING SOMETHING.
Submitter comment:
THE REASON IS THAT YOU SEW THINGS ON DEAD PEOPLE. A JEWISH
CUSTOM.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Button ; CUSTOM ; Dead ; Deceased ; Jewish ; Mend ; Sew ; Sew ; SUPERSTITION
| Subject headings: | Custom CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal |
Date learned: 04-00-1968
PRE-NATAL SUPERSTITION
NOTHING SHOULD EVER BE BOUGHT FOR A BABY BEFORE IT IS BORN.
THIS CAN CAUSE THE CHILD TO BE BORN EITHER DEAD OR BADLY DEFORMED.
Data entry tech comment:
Informant and collector share same surname.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT ; informant's home
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial BELIEF -- Birth BELIEF -- Number Emptiness, nothingness, zero BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 11-02-1969
BIRTH BELIEF
IF AN EXPECTANT MOTHER GOES TO A FUNERAL AND LOOKS IN THE
COFFIN THE CHILD SHE BEARS WILL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.
Data entry tech comment:
Informant and collector share the same residence.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT ; informant's home
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial Food Drink -- Food BELIEF -- Birth |
Date learned: NOT GIVEN
Bury dead on hills in mounds.
Higher up the hill, the better the man was.
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |