buried images

[Allen W Thrasher]

I don't know if it's pertinent, but there is a custom in the US, among people having difficulty sellling a house, of burying a statue of St. Joseph upside down in the yard until it's sold.  This is not confined to Catholics.  A lot of Catholic goods stores have stopped selling statues of him, instead offering pictures only, on the grounds it's superstitious and irreverent.  I'm waiting for a fresh rash of articles on it with the current real estate crisis.

One is, of course, supposed to dig the statue up when the house is sold.

I have not come across any references to this before this generation.  Nor has Snopes.com been able to find any: < http://www.snopes.com/luck/stjoseph.asp >.


Allen





Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D., Senior Reference Librarian
South Asia Team, Asian Division
Library of Congress, Jefferson Building 150
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20540-4810
tel. 202-707-3732; fax 202-707-1724; athr at loc.gov
The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress.