Something Walked Over Your Grave

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Hi there, this is James from Temecula, California.

Hi, James.

When I was younger, I used to say whenever I got a chill or when someone else got a chill, like either it was cold or just one of those random spasms, I would say, did someone walk in your grave? Or I guess someone walked in my grave, which got a lot of, you know, different reactions to it until one person said to me before I could even say that, oh, did a goose walk in your grave?

No.

And that kind of floored me, but then I heard from her, like, I thought that’s how it was always said. I didn’t realize that you can say a person walked in your grave. So that’s just been kind of sitting in the back of my head. I kind of wanted to know which one came first and, I guess, what’s the origin of them?

Which came first, the person or the goose?

Yeah, exactly.

Boy, those phrases have been around for hundreds of years. They go way back. Did you pick yours up in Temecula?

Yeah, I think so. This is where I grew up. So I imagine I either heard from family or from a friend or something.

Yeah, these phrases go way, way back, hundreds of years back to the time when the boundary between life and death was not really what we think about it today. And the folk belief that literally that’s what was happening. If you got a chill, then someplace, wherever your final resting place is going to be, someone or something is going across it.

And that has also been used when there’s a sudden lull in the conversation. People will also say that, you know, like you’re at a party and everybody’s talking. Then there’s that one moment where the noise just dies down completely. Somebody might say, oh, a goose walked over my grave or a person walked over your grave.

The earliest, I think, written citation we have for this, if I’m not mistaken, is a piece by Jonathan Swift in the 18th century. As to which went first, a person or a goose, I’m not sure because it’s so very old.

Yeah, the superstition predates modern history. All of these variety of superstitions connected to your final resting place.

Oh, wow. So 18th century is really late for the superstition. I’m surprised it didn’t show up in print before then.

I’m surprised. That’s a puzzle, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. But I don’t, I’ve also heard a rabbit just went over your grave, hopped over your grave or something like that. But I don’t know of any other animals. Do you, Grant?

No. The goose one is interesting. I have seen some suggestions that the goose in particular suggests a certain kind of disrespect for your final resting place, possibly because of the excrement they leave behind.

And they’re kind of mean, too.

They are mean. It looked like speculation to me more than anything concrete. It looked like something many years after the fact rather than the origin of it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I’ve heard that people make a reference to goosebumps whenever I brought it up. It had something to do with getting goosebumps, but nobody really could connect it besides saying that they both contain the word goose.

Right.

Right.

I’m not sure there’s a connection there, but you’re using it correctly, that’s for sure.

Yeah, I didn’t realize you could use it for a lull in conversation. That’s pretty morbid.

Yeah, well, it’s better than blurting something, which I did recently at a party. It was like something I didn’t want everybody to hear, but the conversation all around me just stopped, and I just blurted this thing out that was only for this other person to hear.

So what I should have said is, oh, goose walked over my grave, but I failed to do that.

James, thank you for your call.

Thanks for your time.

All right, take care.

Bye, James. Thanks.

Bye.

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