What is the story behind turning off clocks when someone dies?

Question

What is the story behind turning off clocks when someone dies?

Answer 1

Stopping the clock when someone dies

In Victorian times, when someone died in the house and there was a clock in the room, you had to stop the clock at the death hour or the family of the household would have bad luck.

Its origin seems to emanate from Germany and Great Britain. They believed that when a person died time stood still for them and a new period of existence started without time. To permit time to continue was to invite the spirit of the deceased to remain and haunt unendingly. Stopping time was a way to allow the deceased to move on.

Bells were rung at a funeral and bells are the forerunner of clocks. The word clock coming from the word bell, and this would signify a new time period beginning for the deceased.

Answer 2

This is a good question. This is a European tradition. There are several origins to this tradition. Mostly it is homage to the deceased. He/she was in the esteem of enough people/family/peers, etc. that it was worthy enough to stop all you were doing to mark the passage of the deceased individual. So that we least forget, we will, for a while leave our clock stopped on the hour of the person's death. It also marked his accent to heaven and eternity that is timeless.

Answer 3

No it is not a European tradition.. People did that in Victorian times.. the upper class people did that.. and cover the curtains.. and put up black ribbon.. nowadays they might have done this when Elvis Presley died or when a member of the Royal family in any country dies.. stop the clocks but no ordinary family will do this.. this goes back to Victorian England..  the upper classes did that and probably might still do it when a person of great importance to the public dies.. such as if the Queen died. they might or might not stop the clocks... but this is nowadays all seen as superstition..

Some examples besides the most common such as the black cat, the broken mirror, the underneath the ladder, Friday the 13th are: don’t open your umbrella inside the house; stop the clocks and cover your mirrors when someone dies, don’t leave your shoes upside down on the floor; don’t eat meat on Fridays; don’t dream, and God forbid, talk about, your dreams or you will jinx then, and so on.