The Hollow Holiday: Christmas, A Time of Death in Appalachia.

20 Pages·2011·0.39 MB·English

DOCUMENT RESUME
CG 009 342
ED 096 596
Marriott, Cindy; Harshbarger, Dwight
AUTHOR
The Hollow Holiday: Christmas, A Time of Death in
TITLE
Appalachia.
West Virginia Univ., Morgantown. Dept. of
INSTITUTION
Psychology.
Health Services and Mental Health Administration
SPONS AGENCY
(DHEW), Rockville, Md. Bureau of Community
Environmental Management.
[73]
PUB DATE
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Behavioral Science Research; *Behavior Patterns;
DESCRIPTORS
*Death; Individual Psychology; *Psychological
Patterns; Research Projects; *Social Influences
Appalachia
ID7NTIFT2RS
ADZ:RACT
An inquiry was conducted into the question of the
influence of Christmas and Easter on the occurrence of death. The
autho:s hypothesized that dying might be postponed until after these
increased frequency
two important events resulting in a significantly
weeks
of death after these holidays. Obituaries were read for 4
beginning
before and 4 weeks after each holiday for 6 alternate years
calculated for
in 1960 and ending in 1970. Chi square analyses were
after
each week. The results indicated a significant peak two weeks
Christmas (p less than .05). The Easter data did not corroborate the
author's hypothesis. (Author)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.
EDUCATION SWILFARE
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
EDUCATION
THIS DOCUMENT HAS SEEN REPRO
DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM
THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN
*TING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS
STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE
SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY.
THE HOLLOW HOLIDAY:
Christmas, a Time of Death in Appalachia)
CINDY MARRIOTT
West Virginia University
DWIGHT HARSHBARGER
West Virginia University2
Introduction
I.
The present study was an inquiry into the question of the influence of
That is, knowing certain
psycho-social events on the occurrence of death.
Or knowing what
demographic variables, can a person's death be determined?
events a person believes are personally significant, can his death day
The authors think it is possible and have investigated this
be predicted?
Certain historical evidence has suggested
phenomenon in the present study.
For examples of the first four presidents of the United
this is the case.
Not surprisingly,
States, only one, George Washington, did not die on July 4th.
all three of these men were signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Similarly, Sigmund Freud died just after Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of
Atonement.
1
An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual
meeting cf the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans, April
The preparation of this paper was supported in part by a research
1973.
contract between the Bureau of Community Environmental Management, Department
of Health, Education and Welfare, and West Virginia University (RFPEPAR 71-
NEC -155), "A Survey and Analysis of Human Ecosystems and Human Service
O
Systems in Appalachia."
2
The authors wish to thank Dr. Donald Butcher for his assistance in
designing this study and Michael N. Cheung for his assistance in analyzing
these data.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Cindy Marriott, Psychology
Service, Galesburg State Research Hospital, Galesburg, Illinois 61401.
relianrcher who concurred with thin idea in [)avid Phillipn, (1wn,
1972) who felt that certain events were significant enough to Jews to cause
In an
death until after the occurrence of Yom Kippur.
their postponing
investigation of the occurrence of death in the Jewish populations of New
York City and Budapest, Phillips hypothesized that in the months preceding
Phillips'
Y.)m Kippur there would be a significant decrease in death of Jews.
rationale was that a Jewish population would postpone death in their
He found that in both New York
anticipation of this important holiday.
City and Budapest there was a statistically significant decrease in death
rathes in the Jewish populations ir the period of time prior to Yom Kippur.
Phillips referred to this as the "death dip" (1972).
Phillips' work strongly suggests that Jews postpone dying until after
What the autfors hoped to demonstrate,
significant events, such as Yom Kippur.
similar to Phillips, is that people postpone dying, but further they would
significant
suggest that there is an increase in death rates after culturally
events, such as religious holidays.
Design
II.
As the culturally significant dates, the authors selected Christmas and
Easter in a generally rural Appalachian region, hypothesizing that these events
dying until after
wee sufficiently significant for some people to postpone
Using the obituary section of the Clarksburg Exponent -- a daily
holiday.
tabulated by week for four
newspaper from central West Virginia -- deaths were
Christmas week
weeks prior to and four weeks after the holiday week, i.e.,
alternate years beginning in 1960 and
This was done for
and Easter week.
6
The Clarksburg Exponent was selected because it serves a
ending in 1970.
large central West Virginian population, and because it gives great detail
All accidental deaths and those labeled suicide
to its obituary notices.
The obituaries were
by the newspaper were excluded as were infant deaths.
coded according to sex, marital status, age, length of illness and decedent's
In all there wcee 2745 subjects for Christmas and 2648 for Easter.
residence.
Frequency of deaths per week was tabulated for total deaths and then
the data were subdivided into marital status, sex, length of illness, age
and decedent's residence, and then the frequency of deaths per week were
again tabulated for each of these variables, as well as for every combination
These frequencies were used to compute two cell chi
of these variables.
squares for each week for all the frequencies.
While in any research in which a large number of statistical tests are
run, a certain number are expected to be significant by chance; the patterns
of occurrence of statistical significance were closely examined in this study.
If, among 4590 chi square tests, 45 were significant at the .01 level,
11 the
according to chance, these should be randomly distributed throughout
If the hypothesiswais to be supported, however, the significant findings
weeks.
should occur during a specificable period of time, i.e., immediately following
the holiday week.
Results
III.
The results indicate that for Christmas, there was a statistically
significant increase for the entire population two weeks after the
Subdividing the data into demographic variables
significant holiday (p <:.05).
the variable found to be the best predictor was the population of decedent's
Those subjects living in towns of less than 2000 population
residence.
evidenced an increase in death rates two weeks after Christmas (p
.01;
N = 1441) while those subjects living in cities of between 10,000 and
While
80,000 population died 1 week after Christmas (p ( .01; N = 552).
age, sex, marital status and length of illness were not significant at the
.01 level of significance, they were significant at the .05 level of significance
suggesting that there is in this sample a statistical pattern of increased death
rates following Christmas.
Partitioning the data into the smallest units possible, yet rerk ,ing the
minimum of 45 subjects necessary to run the chi square tests, some 47.%eresting
Single women who lived in small towns (population of less
results were found.
than 2000) and who had been ill an unspecified length of time statistically
demonstrated a very strong tendency to die in the second week after Christmas
Single women living in large towns (population from
(p 4..0010 = 127).
10,000 to 80.000) and who had been ill less than six months had an increase
Other
92).
in death rates during the week after Christmas (p 4.01; N =
While further conclusions shovid
results for Christmas can be seen in Table 1.
be made with caution, it is both interesting and important to note the patterns
The statistical peaks are consistent with
of significance in the data.
the hypothesis.
While the Easter
Similar calculations were carried out for Easter.
data did not corroborate the hypothesis of increased frequency of dying
have
occurring after the holiday, it did suggest that this holiday might
There was a statistically significant increase
some influence on death rates.
week after
in rates of death (p < .05) during the week before Easter -- the
For complete results, see Table 2.
Palm Sunday.
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