Superstitious (Islam)

"Pocong"

For the next entry in superstitious I will be talked about Pocong or as known as 'Hantu Bungkus." This ghost or supernatural thing had been called as pocong because the way it’s showed itself. Besides, it had been said, it is basically a ghost of the soul of the dead person that trapped in its own shroud. Known as “kain kafan” among the Muslim, the shroud can be describes as length of the cloth used in Muslim burials to wrap the body of the dead person.  According to the traditional belief, the soul of the dead person will stay at the earth around 40 days after the death and it is because of the ties under the feet, the ghost can’t walk. This causes the ghost to hop. The scariest part of this ghost is when it’s hopping from one place to another place. It is because you don’t know where it will be when he hops on, whether besides you or in front of you. Many cases of hysteria that had happen in school especially had been said that they see the appearances of this ghost. The victims had said before the hysteria they believe that they had saw a wrapped body in shroud (pocong) comes to them with pale and sad face and because of the terrific situation they feel so afraid and consequently unconscious and lead to the situation. Actually this situation only happen to the Muslim because the other religions usually used buried the dead body with burnt it or just lay the corpse in the box that had been called as keranda and they didn’t wrap the body. So this kind of superstitious becomes a part of Muslim people especially Malay belief. So, are you one of the believers?