So I’ve been reading about the finnish folk religion, and apparently in finnish culture, there used to be a time period in which it is considered acceptable to stil linger in your home after your death. That period is 6 weeks, and after that, it’s considered haunting, which is simply just rude.
There are also acceptable and unacceptable reasons to go around haunting people. Those who committed grave crimes, sins or witchcraft would appear to try and either confess or fix the ills they had done. Those who were buried improperly would come back to complain about it.
There was a tale of a woman who was buried unwashed (a corpse must always be washed, I don’t know if this is a thing in other cultures but it is here), and for weeks and months the people of her household were frightened to get up and go take a piss at night, knowing that she had yet again appeared naked, squatting in the wash basin, moaning, “why didn’t y’all wash me?”
And I would like to specify: The dead did not necessarily come as incorporeal figures and ghosts, but occasionally possessing their own old corpses, leaving dirt on your floors and a rotten stench in your house.
There was a man who - the tale says - simply refused to remain in his grave because it was boring, so he went around frightening people and pulling horrible pranks. When his corpse was dug up, it was discovered his socks had been worn to holes. They buried him face down, stating that if he won’t stay down by Christ, he’d better stay down by Satan. That, apparently, worked.
In nursing school, we were taught how to handle the dead body of a patient. I asked my teacher why our instructions specified that the feet of the deceased should be tied together. She said she did not know.
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