We’ve brought you reports for years on the Poe Toaster, the mysterious person who visits Edgar Allan Poe’s grave on his birthday with roses a toast of cognac. Or at least we did until 2009, when he made his last visit. Poe’s is far from the only gravesite in which people carry on strange traditions. Take, for example, the grave of Victor Noir, a French author who was shot by Napoleon’s great-nephew.
Poor Victor Noir's grave at Père Lachaise is home to one of the more lascivious cemetery traditions. Noir was a journalist who died in an 1870 duel, and later became a hero to Napoleon III's opponents. But his life story seemingly has little to do with the tradition invented by a tour guide in the 1970s, who said that rubbing the lump in the trousers on Noir's memorial would bring luck in love. Tourists were also told to kiss Noir's lips, and leave flowers in his hat. Decades of tourists have done the same, even though in 2004, the city briefly erected a fence around the statue and a sign prohibiting "indecent rubbing."
That barrier was removed by popular demand. Read about nine other gravesites and the odd traditions for those who visit, at mental_floss.
(Image credit: Gaël Chardon)