Hold your breath
Hold your breath when passing a graveyard or a hearse, so the spirit of the dead cannot enter you.
Ceremony superstition
Funeral superstitions
Funeral superstitions: cover mirrors, stop the clocks, never carry the body head-first. First recorded: Antiquity; mirror covering documented from the 1800s. That makes it more than 1,500 years old — joint 2nd oldest of the 45 superstitions we have dated.
- Earliest record
- Antiquity see the history below
When it actually starts
How old is this one
First recorded
Antiquity; mirror covering documented from the 1800s
That makes it
more than 1,500 years old
Rank by age
Joint 2nd oldest of 45 dated here
Category
Ceremony
Covering mirrors, stopping clocks and carrying the coffin feet-first all address the same fear: that the dead might not leave, or might take someone with them. The mirror rule connects to the older belief that a reflection holds part of the soul.
1 of the dated superstitions here were written down earlier and 32 later, while 11 share its date.
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The versions people follow
What exactly is believed
Stopping the clocks
Clocks are stopped at the moment of death and mirrors covered until after the funeral.
Feet first
The body leaves the house feet first so the dead cannot look back and call others to follow.
Rain at a funeral
Rain at a burial means the soul has gone to heaven; thunder was taken as a sign of welcome.
How the bad luck is traditionally undone
Mourners in several traditions wash their hands or throw salt before re-entering their homes after a funeral.
Where it lives today
Stopped clocks, covered mirrors and not looking back from the grave all survive in family customs, often without anyone knowing the reason.
What people say
Cover mirrors, stop the clocks, never carry the body head-first.What is going on
These rules do real work for the living — they give people something to do in the hours when there is nothing to be done.Where it applies. Jewish, Irish, Slavic and Southern US traditions share the mirror rule independently.
Other ceremony superstitions
Nearest in age
Funeral superstitions are joint 2nd oldest of the 45 dated superstitions here. Of those, 3 date from 1900 or later and 14 predate the common era.
First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Funeral Superstitions: Origin, Meaning and When It Began.” Accessed October 28, 2026. https://astrohot.com/superstitions/funeral-superstitions/
For Wikipedia
{{cite web |title=Funeral Superstitions: Origin, Meaning and When It Began |url=https://astrohot.com/superstitions/funeral-superstitions/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-28}}