Tag: Superstitions

The 13th Floor Doesn’t Exist

A Superstition is by Definition an Excessively Credulous Belief In and For Supernatural Beings. Over the Thousands of Years as Humanity and Society Evolved into what We know Today People Developed a Particular Set of Superstitions. Some of those Token Superstitions include Don’t Let a Black Cat Cross Your Path, If You Break a Mirror You’ll have 7 Years Bad Luck, Don’t walk Under a Ladder, and Don’t Open an Umbrella Inside. One of the Best know Classic Superstition is Triskaidekaphobia, the Most Wide Spread Example of Triskaidekaphobia (or Arguable Any Superstition) is found in Buildings with Fifteen or More Floors.

This is one of those Oddities in One’s Life that though You have more than likely ridden in Your fair share of Elevators have probably Never even been Consciously were Aware of. All You have to do is the Next time You find Yourself in a Building consisting of 15 or More Floors watch the Numbers as the Elevator. You’ll see quite Simply that as the Numbers go up they Skip from the 12th Floor to the 14th Floor. The Point is Obviously that the Owner or Architect is Claiming that Allegedly the Building in fact Does Not have a Thirteenth Floor.

While this of Course is an Totally Outrageous and Physically Impossible Statement, BUT the Basic Psychiatry is There in the Out of Sight Out of Mind Principle. I for one feel that ts more of a Pavlov’s Dog type Deal. A Building Literally can Not Exist with a Missing Floor No matter the fucking Number. Its Not as if the Building Ascends to the 12th Floor and theres a Space Equivalent to an Entire Floor Missing, and The 14th Floor (and those above it) are Floating Inexplicable over the First 12. Thats what Sci Fi is for Completely Crazy and Absolutely Unrealistic Concepts Proving Life can be Stranger than Fiction.

Thanks for Reading,

  By Les Sober

Life and Death in Architectural History

For the most part most of people today are well aware that during the Victorian Era (June 20, 1837 – January 22, 1901) Society and People in Large were absolutely OBSESSED with Death. This led to a variety of practices that can seem by todays standards to be outrageous, Bizarre, Morbid, and just plain Sick.

Some of these unusual practices pertaining to Death in the Victorian Era were as follows. Postmortem Portraits meaning ( Note: prior to 1839 all Portraits were PAINTED by hand) the relatives of the Dead would dress the Deceased and stage them in in Life Like poses for a Photograph, Especially Infants and Children.

There was also the practice of Wearing the Hair of the Dead. The hair could be put in a locket or more commonly made into a piece of Jewelry such as Brooches, Bracelets, Rings or Chains.

Another was the practice of Covering Mirrors. Once the family member died all mirrors in the House were immediately covered. This was done because if a mirror in the House fell and broke it was a sign someone else in the Household would die soon as well. Also to avoid bad luck the clock(s) in the house of the Deceased would be stopped at the exact time of their passing. Lastly when the body was removed from the premises it had to be carried out Head First so that it wouldn’t beckon other members of the Living to Follow.

Now if SEVERAL family members of the same family died EVERYONE and EVERYTHING that entered the Family Home would be wearing a Black Ribbon to PREVENT THE DEATHS FROM SPREADING FURTHER.

For my last example I will use the practice of taking all Family photos and turning them face down. This was to prevent the Deceased’s Spirit form POSSESSING Relatives and Friends alike.

Back in the Victorian Era Funeral Homes had very little to do with Death other than selling Coffins, and possibly providing the Grave Digging Service too. So when it came to such things as a Viewing/Wake it fell solely on the Families shoulder’s.

Based on what we have seen by the first example (Death Portraits) you better believe a Viewing/Wake was deemed absolutely necessary, BUT the question was “Where the hell do we Keep and Display The Dead?!” Without the services of Today’s Funeral Homes Families would hold the Viewing/Wake (which could last several days) in their house.

Since you couldn’t display a body in the kitchen, Houses when they were built had a Parlor Room. This room specific and really only purpose was to display Dead Family for the Viewing/Wake. And yes the name Parlor was a shortened version of Funeral Parlor.

Over time of course Funeral Homes realized their was a shit ton of cash they were missing out in in the Death Service Field. Slowly Funeral Homes came to resemble those of today offering a SLEW of Funeral options, but most importantly They had their own Viewing areas for Wakes. Thus Parlor’s found themselves unemployed and thrown out on their collective ass.

The issue that confronted POST Victorian Era Architects (and Society as a whole) was the lingering stigma of The Parlor. As we all can image as long as houses were built with Parlor’s the vision of Dead relatives on display would haunt the room’s reputation until the end of Time.

What comes next is NOT AN EXACT nor ANYWHERE CLOSE HISTORICALLY ACCURATE retelling of how The Parlor problem was Fixed.

One day on January 1, 1901 the American Architecture Society met for a special conference that was being held for the sole reason of coming up with a viable solution for the Prevalent Parlor Problem. The conference was held in a small town of Mortuary located on the outskirts of Death Valley in Sunny California. They unanimously agreed at the time that the Town name and Location were quite appropriate, and if your going to have a convention dealing with Death best to have it in a beautiful Sunny State full of Bleach Blonde Surfers?!!

Any who the morning was a complete wash, no one could see to come up with even a half decent answer to the Parlor Problem. By Noon everyone’s blood sugar was in their ankles so the Mediator called 60 minutes for Lunch hoping after a good meal the Men’s mental faculties might actually yield a solution.

As the Conference was breaking for Lunch a young attendy (an Architectural Student from Erroneous University in Pluskin the East end of South Dakota) by the name of Eger Herberts over heard two fellow attendees conversation on the said subject of Lunch. One Man had asked the other where exactly should they go for Lunch today. The 2nd Man replied he thought Lunch at The Lively Leprechaun Kitchen and Bar would be a good idea. To that the First Man said “Ah Food and Drink under one roof now thats Living!”

Right then Eger had his Epiphany and immediately ran over a pushed the conferences Emergency Stop Button. Once The Emergency Stop Button was pushed all in Attendance had to Stop dead in their tracks, and await instruction. Once everyone was motionless and silent Eger announced his answer.

“What’s the OPPOSITE of Death? Life! LIVING! We rename it a LIVING ROOM, Thats POSITIVE as all get out Right?!”

After the Shock and Awe wore off it was put to a vote right there on the spot and as a result the (Funeral) Parlor was REBRANDED as what we know of today as yes a Living Room.

Thanks for Reading,

Les Sober 

Gullah Supernatural Tradition

If your ever in Charleston South Carolina do yourself a favor and as you travel around the city, look at the porch (top and bottom) and you will see a pattern quickly emerging. Predominately the underside of the porch ceilings are painted a light blue reminiscent  of the sky on a clear summers morning, BUT WHY???

Charleston was influenced greatly by the Gullah culture brought to the city through the slavery trade. In Gullah culture there is a superstition/belief that at under the dark cloak of night when man is most vulnerable as he sleeps vile and villainous spirits (christian minded people would call them demons, while others might see the spirits as ghosts) lurk luridly looking for human victims. Now the Gullah people devised a extremely simple and effective approach to warding off these nightly terrors, they just painted the undersides of all porches of the house with light sky blue paint.

The reason was a simple as the remedy, see with the porch ceilings being sky blue any evil entity who set foot on said porch would look up and see the sky blue paint. The paint was intended to fool the malevolent monsters into thinking it was day time and thusly they couldn’t harm the occupants of the house as during the day the spiteful spirits must remain trapped in the after life.