Spookier than Halloween,
Today is Saint Mark’s Eve, when the spirits of those fated to die in the coming year can be seen.

‘Tis now, replied the village belle,
St. Mark’s mysterious eve,
And all that old traditions tell
I tremblingly believe;
How, when the midnight signal tolls,
Along the churchyard green,
A mournful train of sentenced souls
In winding-sheets are seen.
The ghosts of all whom death shall doom
Within the coming year,
In pale procession walk the gloom,
Amid the silence drear.

The poem is titled “The Vigil of St. Mark.”

Folklore tells us that the ghosts of those doomed to die in the coming year will join a “procession of the dead”.
Keep your eyes peeled if you’re out after dark..

St Mark’s Eve is the day before the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist. In liturgical Christian churches, this feast of St. Mark is observed on 25 April of each year; thus St. Mark’s Eve is 24 April.

And so with the setting sun on the 24th we have St. Mark’s Eve, set aside as one of the traditional nights for divining the future. This is especially true for matters of the heart.

At this time the veil between the worlds is thinning. Watch a church porch at midnight to see the ghosts of those destined to die within the coming year.
Or seek hidden knowledge about your future through divination.

St Mark’s Eve is the night for mystical insight.

The morning brings St. Mark’s Day, with blessings upon the newly sown crops. Summer will soon be returning (in fact, it’s right around the corner, again by traditional reckoning of time: May Day is drawing near.

People who were believed to have seen the events of St. Mark’s Eve were often hermits or undertakers, leading to local legends and gossip that they were magical in some way. What better addition to the rumors about the old lady who lived on the hill than that she could see who was going to die?
As an added layer of difficulty, some versions of the ritual required staying awake the whole night of the 24th up to three consecutive years before seeing spirits—or any number of other arbitrations to legitimize an absence of apparitions whenever somebody tried. Another method of scaring people from staying up on St. Mark’s Eve was the rumor that anyone who tried, but failed to see the dead, would die themselves!

So wait until it’s good and dark.
Then light and burn a candle bright,
And up a cloth up to the light.
In it’s threads thy shall behold,
Thy true love’s face in flames foretold.
A warning though that though must heed, bring the cloth not to near the flame
Lest the thing should catch afire,
And burn away love and desire!