see also Devil's Chair (disambiguation)

Devil's Chair (disambiguation)

Devil's Chair can refer to:* The Devil's Chair, a 2006 British film* a geologic formation in the Stiperstones, Shropshire, England* a geologic formation, Silla del Diablo, within the Cueva del Milodón Natural Monument in Patagonian Chile...

The term devil’s chair (or "haunted chair") in folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 is frequently attached to a class of funerary or memorial sculpture common in the United States during the nineteenth century and often associated with legend tripping

Legend tripping

Legend tripping, also known as ostension, is a name recently bestowed by folklorists and anthropologists on an adolescent practice in which a usually furtive nocturnal pilgrimage is made to a site which is alleged to have been the scene of some tragic, horrific, and possibly supernatural event or...

. Nineteenth century graveyards sometimes included carved chairs for the comfort of visitors. In this function, the object was known as a "mourning chair," and cemeteries have since provided, benches for similar purposes, most often movable units of the type used in parks, but also specimens in the tradition of the carved chairs.

Some carved chairs were probably not intended for use as anything but monuments, while the "monubench" is still commercially available. Paradoxically, once the custom of proper use of these chairs fell into disuse, superstitions developed in association with the act of sitting in them. In a typical example, local young people dare one another to visit the site, most often after dark, at midnight, or on some specified night such as Hallowe’en or New Year’s Eve. Variously, the stories suggest the person brave enough to sit in the chair at such a time may be punished for impudence or rewarded for courage.

Ulverston, Cumbria, England

The Devil's Chair or Devil's Armchair in Ulverston is an ambiguous chair that appears to have been carved in to a small rocky terrain, which is used for climbing, near the monument Hoad in Ulverston. Sometimes the rock 'wall' itself is referred to as the Devil's Armchair but that is because at the top there is a chair large enough for four adults to sit in which is carved into the rock surface. Naturally or not, no-one knows.

Florida

The Devil's Chair in Cassadaga, Florida

Cassadaga, Florida

Cassadaga is a small unincorporated community located in Volusia County, Florida, just north of Deltona...

 is a graveside bench in the cemetery that borders Cassadaga and Lake Helen

Lake Helen, Florida

For the high-altitude lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park, see Lake Helen Lake Helen is a city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. The population was 2,743 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S...

. According to one local legend, an unopened can of beer left on the chair will be empty by morning. In some accounts, the can is opened, and in others, the beer is simply gone, through the unopened top. The Devil is sometimes said to appear to anyone so bold as to sit in the chair.

Iowa

The Devil's Chair in Guthrie Center, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, is a cement-cast chair located in Union Cemetery, situated between two graves and unmarked as belonging to either. Local legend claims that bad luck will follow anyone who sits in it. While the cemetery itself was established as a private burial ground in 1885, the legend of the chair is only documented for approximately thirty years.

Missouri

The Devil's Chair in the Highland Park Cemetery of Kirksville, Missouri

Kirksville, Missouri

Kirksville is the county seat of Adair County, Missouri, United States. It is located in Benton Township. The population was 17,505 at the 2010 census. Kirksville also anchors a micropolitan area that comprises Adair and Schuyler counties. The city is perhaps best known as the location of Truman...

 is the work of a marble cutter, John C. Baird, and is involved in "numerous legends of a type widely replicated across the U.S., especially in rural and small-town communities, and beloved of young people.... Some versions say that something dreadful will happen to the person so bold as to be seated in it at midnight (or on a particular evening, such as Halloween) -- a hand will emerge from the grave and drag the impious one down to the underworld. Other versions suggest the intrepid one will be rewarded."

New York

Oakswood Cemetery in Syracuse, NY contains a child-sized specimen.

Ohio

The Duncan monument in the Fletcher Cemetery, Fletcher, OH appears to be a carved headstone rather than a mourning chair intended for use by cemetery visitors.

Vermont

"The Empty Chair" in Hope Cemetery, Barre, VT is actually a sculpted gravestone rather than being intended as a seat. However, the usual legends have grown up around it.

Italy

The lore may not be exclusive to the United States. In Torcello

Torcello

Torcello is a quiet and sparsely populated island at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon. It is considered the oldest continuously populated region of Venice, and once held the largest population of the Republic of Venice.-History:...

, the "throne of Attila" was probably in fact a magistrate's seat; local legend claims that a girl who sits in it will be married within a year.