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Post by Cindy on Sept 20, 2016 10:37:40 GMT -5
I'm reading Acts and one of my commentaries showed some interesting examples of the many superstitions surrounding death. I thought you all might enjoy hearing some of them.
Equally untenable is the idea that, when death sets in, the soul still hovers near the body. This is the old superstition that is back of so many superstitious practices connected with dying and with funerals. One practice was to move everything in the house and in the barns in order to make the place look strange, so that the soul would not linger to haunt the place. Even the cattle were changed about in the stalls, the beehives moved, etc. Some people still stop all the clocks in the house, turn pictures and mirrors to the wall, or at least throw a sheet over the latter. This explains the Irish wake and its remnant today of sitting up with the dead body. The soul, still present, must be amused, and the greater the hilarity, the better. After the funeral everybody returns to the house for a feast, the soul also returning; in some places a vacant chair was placed at the table, a towel was thrown over its back, and the feast was prolonged. We have remnants of these superstitious practices today although people no longer know just why they do such peculiar things. This is the real basis for the idea that at death the soul hovers near the body for a time.
Lenski, R. C. H. (1961). The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles
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