Dr. James T. Callow publications
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The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
Your search for CEMETERY returned 20 results.
RELIGIOUS CUSTOM
THE JEWISH PEOPLE LEAVE A GLASS OF WATER OUTSIDE WHEN GOING TO A
FUNERAL. THEY WASH THEIR HANDS WITH IT WHEN THEY RETURN FROM THE
CEMETARY.
Where learned: PENNSYLVANIA ; SCRANTON
James Callow Keyword(s): CEMETERY ; PURIFICATION
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Date learned: 00-00-1950
IF A SINGLE GIRL DOESN'T HOLD HER BREATH WHEN PASSING A
CEMETARY, HER BOYFRIEND WILL DIE BEFORE THEY MARRY.
Where learned: KANSAS ; WICHITA
James Callow Keyword(s): CEMETERY
Date learned: 02-02-1970
THE DEAD SHOULD BE BURIED FACING THE EAST AND RISING SUN SO
THAT THEY WILL MEET THE SAVIOR ON RESURRECTION DAY.
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE
James Callow Keyword(s): CEMETERY POSITION DIRECTION
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
PEOPLE IN DANVILLA, ILLINOIS BELIEVE THAT SWANS ARE KEPT
IN THE POND AT THE LOCAL CEMETARY BECAUSE SWANS REPRESENT
IMMORTALITY.
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE
James Callow Keyword(s): CEMETERY ; SYMBOL
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal |
Date learned: 06-18-1972
A CUSTOM IN THE ITALIAN COMMUNITY:
AFTER A FUNERAL ON THE WAY TO THE CEMETARY YOU ALWAYS PASS
BY THE DECEASED'S HOME.
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; SPRINGFIELD
James Callow Keyword(s): CEMETERY
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial BELIEF -- Ghost Spirit Phantom Specter |
Date learned: 09-20-1977
HOLD YOUR BREATH WHEN YOU GO PAST A CEMETARY OR YOU'LL
HAVE BAD LUCK.
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE
James Callow Keyword(s): CEMETERY
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank P533.575 |
Date learned: 00-00-1972
CURSE: BAD LUCK
HOLD YOUR BREATH WHEN YOU PASS A CEMETERY OR YOU WILL HAVE BAD
LUCK.
Submitter comment: TOLD TO HIM BY HIS PARENTS WHEN THEY TRAVELLED.
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE
James Callow Keyword(s): BREATH ; CEMETERY
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank BELIEF -- Bad luck BELIEF -- Conversions |
Date learned: 03-07-1969
TOMBSTONE IN CEMETERY
THIS IS THE ONLY ONE I CAN REMEMBER CHRIS TELLING ME
BECAUSE I HAD ORIGINALLY COME TO HER HOME TO TALK
WITH HER MOTHER ABOUT FOLKLORE AND EVERY SO OFTEN
CHRIS WOULD THROW SOMETHING INTO THE CONVERSATION.
MANY OF THE THINGS I WAS TOLD THAT EVENING WOULD
SUDDENLY COME OUT OF THIN AIR, WHILE WORKING ON AN
ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SUBJECT.
THIS IS TOLD OF A TOMBSTONE IN MT. OLIVE CEMETERY IN
DETROIT {MICHIGAN}, AT OUTER DRIVE AND SIX MILE.
UP UNTIL A FEW YEARS AGO, ONE PARTICULAR TOMBSTONE
WOULD ALWAYS GLOW AN EERIE RED ALL NIGHT LONG, BUT
DURING THE DAY IT LOOKED LIKE ANY ORDINARY TOMB-
STONE. MOST PEOPLE SEEM TO BE A BIT CAREFUL WHEN TALKING
ABOUT IT, I GUESS IT WAS REAL. THE STONE, FROM WHAT
CHRIS SAID, HASN'T GLOWED SINCE A MAUSELEUM WAS BUILT
VERY CLOSE TO IT. EVERYONE OLD ENOUGH REMEMBERS SEEING
THE GLOWING TOMBSTONE. CHRIS'S HOME IS APPROXIMATELY
200 FEET FROM THE CEMETERY.
Data entry tech comment: THIS IS CONFUSING: PERHAPS MRS. MARSHAL'S DAUGHTER
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): GHOSTLY LIGHTS
James Callow Keyword(s): MAUSOLEUM MT. OLIVET CEMETERY
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Product or activity of man or animal |
Date learned: 11-00-1968
TOMBSTONE IN CEMETERY
THIS IS THE ONLY ONE I CAN REMEMBER CHRIS TELLING ME
BECAUSE I HAD ORIGINALLY COME TO HER HOME TO TALK
WITH HER MOTHER ABOUT FOLKLORE AND EVERY SO OFTEN
CHRIS WOULD THROW SOMETHING INTO THE CONVERSATION.
MANY OF THE THINGS I WAS TOLD THAT EVENING WOULD
SUDDENLY COME OUT OF THIN AIR, WHILE WORKING ON AN
ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SUBJECT.
THIS IS TOLD OF A TOMBSTONE IN MT. OLIVE CEMETERY IN
DETROIT {MICHIGAN}, AT OUTER DRIVE AND SIX MILE.
UP UNTIL A FEW YEARS AGO, ONE PARTICULAR TOMBSTONE
WOULD ALWAYS GLOW AN EERIE RED ALL NIGHT LONG, BUT
DURING THE DAY IT LOOKED LIKE ANY ORDINARY TOMB-
STONE. MOST PEOPLE SEEM TO BE A BIT CAREFUL WHEN TALKING
ABOUT IT, I GUESS IT WAS REAL. THE STONE, FROM WHAT
CHRIS SAID, HASN'T GLOWED SINCE A MAUSELEUM WAS BUILT
VERY CLOSE TO IT. EVERYONE OLD ENOUGH REMEMBERS SEEING
THE GLOWING TOMBSTONE. CHRIS'S HOME IS APPROXIMATELY
200 FEET FROM THE CEMETERY.
Data entry tech comment: THIS IS CONFUSING: PERHAPS MRS. MARSHAL'S DAUGHTER
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): GHOSTLY LIGHTS
James Callow Keyword(s): MAUSOLEUM MT. OLIVET CEMETERY
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Product or activity of man or animal |
Date learned: 11-00-1968
JOKE
"DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE IN THERE (CEMETERY)
ARE DEAD?"
-- ALL OF THEM.
Submitter comment: TOLD WHILE PASSING A CEMETERY
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT ; TOLD AT INFORMANTS CAR
Keyword(s): DEAD DEATH CEMETERY
| Subject headings: | RIDDLE -- Riddle Question |
Belief
When driving past a cemetery place on efinger on the roof of the car and put another finger on your mouth and say "shhhh". This is so you will not wake up the dead.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): AUTOMOBILE ; BELIEF ; CEMETERY ; GESTURE ; GRAVEYARD ; SUPERSTITION
| Subject headings: | SPEECH -- Gesture |
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 |
YOU MUST WHEN RIDING IN A CAR, HOLD YOUR BREATH WHILE
PASSING A CEMETERY, OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE HAUNTED BY
THE DEAD.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: OHIO ; TROTWOOD
Keyword(s): BREATH ; CEMETERY ; GRAVEYARD ; HAUNTED ; SUPERSTITION
| Subject headings: | Prediction / Divination |
Date learned: 04-00-1972
CEMETERY STATUE
THERE IS A CEMETERY IN WILMERDING, PENNSYLVANIA WITH A SIX
FOOT STATUE OF A GIRL, DRESSED IN A FLOWING ROBE, CARRYING AN ARMFUL
OF SCHOOL BOOKS, PENCIL CASE, ETC.
THE HISTORY OF THE FIGURE IS AS FOLLOWS:
THE GIRL WAS COMING HOME FROM SCHOOL
ONE DAY WHEN SHE WAS ATTACKED, RAPED, AND KILLED BY TWO HOODLUMS,
ON THE DAY OF HER BIRTHDAY. HER PARENTS HAD A
STATUE MADE IN HER LIKENESS AT THE TIME SHE WAS KILLED, AND PLACED ON
HER GRAVE, WHICH IS ON A HILL OVERLOOKING
A LARGE PART OF THE CEMETERY.
BECAUSE SHE WAS A VIRGIN AT THE TIME OF DEATH, IT IS BELIEVED THAT
ANYONE GOING INTO THE CEMETERY AT THE DEAD OF NIGHT
AND WHO DARES TO WALK THE
LONELY WALK UP TO THE STATUE, AND TOUCH IT WILL DISCOVER WHETHER OR
NOT THEY ARE A VIRGIN. A VIRGIN WILL
RECEIVE NO HARM FROM THE STATUE,
BUT A NON-VIRGIN WILL RECEIVE A SMALL
CUT AND CONSEQUENTLY BLEED FROM TOUCHING THE GARMENT OF THE
STATUE. IN ADDITION, ON THE EVE OF HER BIRTHDAY, THE
STATUE IS BELIEVED TO COME ALIVE AND WALK THE CEMETERY LOOKING
FOR HER MURDERERS.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; MELVINDALE
Keyword(s): CEMETERY ; GHOST ; Legend ; SUPERSTITION ; Urban Legend ; Virgin
| Subject headings: | Favorites BELIEF -- Ghost Spirit Phantom Specter |
Date learned: 10-15-1965
MAGIC OF SPEECH
TO KEEP SPOOKS AWAY WHEN WALKING PAST A CEMETERY, YOU MUST
WHISTLE.
Submitter comment:
INFORMANT LIVES NEXT TO A CEMETERY, AND DID THIS WHEN I WAS WITH
HER.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
James Callow comment:
WHISTLING WILL SUMMON A GHOST--F. M. PAULSEN
Where learned: NEW YORK ; FRANKLIN
Keyword(s): CEMETERY ; GHOST ; GRAVEYARD ; Haunt ; Haunt ; Spook ; SUPERSTITION ; Whistle
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Ghost Spirit Phantom Specter BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal |
Date learned: 07-00-1967
CEMETERY BELIEF
IT WAS BELIEVED THAT AFTER EIGHT 'O CLOCK AT NIGHT THE DEAD
WOULD WALK
AROUND MT. ELIOT CEMETERY IN DETROIT.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Dead ; Detroit ; GHOST ; Legend ; Lore ; Mt. Eliot Cemetery ; SUPERNATURAL
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal |
Date learned: 11-12-1968
CEMETERY BELIEF
IF YOU ARE OUT IN THE EARLY EVENING AT MT. ELIOT CEMETERY
AT 6 MILE ROAD, AND YOU FACE THE WEST SIDE OF IT, YOU WILL SEE
A GLOWING RED TOMBSTONE, WHY THIS PARTICULAR TOMBSTONE GLOWS,
NO ONE KNOWS.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: NOT RECORDED
Keyword(s): CEMETERY ; Detroit ; Glow ; HAUNTED ; Haunting ; Legend ; Mt. Eliot Cemetery ; Tombstone
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal |
Date learned: NOT GIVEN
SUPERSTITION
WHEN GOING BY A CEMETERY, YOU SHOULD PUT YOUR HANDS
ON THE TOP OF THE CAR, OR YOU WILL NEVER MARRY.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Car ; CEMETERY ; Grave ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): DIRECTION ; POSITION
Date learned: 03-26-1971
JEWISH NARRATIVE: CEMETERY
FOUR MEN WERE BOASTING ABOUT THEIR BRAVERY. THEY FINALLY DECIDED
THAT A FAIR TEST WOULD BE A SOLO TRIP THROUGH THE CEMETERY. TO
PROVE THAT THEY HAD TRAVERSED THE ENTIRE ROUTE THEY WERE TO POUND
STAKES INTO THE GROUND PERIODICALLY. THREE OF THE MEN ENTERED THE
CEMETERY AND MET ON THE OTHER SIDE PROUND OF THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENT.
THE FOURTH NEVER RETURNED.
THE NEXT DAY THE THREE WENT IN SEARCH OF HIM AND FOUND HIM DEAD OF
A HEART ATTACK. HE HAD POUNDED A STAKE INTO THE GROUND AND HAD
INADVERTANTLY PINNED THE TAIL OF HIS COAT TO THE GROUND.
APPARENTLY AS HE GOT UP TO COMPLETE HIS JOURNEY, HE WAS
IMMOBILIZED FROM BEHIND BY THE STAKE AND HE SUFFERED A HEART
ATTACK FROM HIS PANIC.
Submitter comment:
THE INFORMANT RELATED THIS STORY AS ONE THAT EVERY JEWISH BOY
LEARNS ABOUT FALSE BRAVERY AND RESPECT FOR THE DEAD.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; ANN ARBOR
Keyword(s): Aphorism ; CEMETERY ; Fable ; Jewish ; Tale
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Human Being BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
When I was a little girl our family used to sit
together on Friday nights and tell stories. One of
these stories was told in my family to at least 3 or
4 generations. It was a true story. My great, great
grandparents lived in a house that was moved from a
cemetery to its current spot. Unexplained noises and
voices could be heard coming from the attic and
therefore no one would go up to the attic because it
was strongly believed that there were ghosts up there.
Submitter comment:
Informant still believes that this is a true story.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): CEMETERY ; HAUNTED ; House
| Subject headings: | Favorites PROSE NARRATIVE -- Ghost Spirit Phantom Specter PROSE NARRATIVE -- Product or activity of man or animal |
Date learned: 00001940S