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One of the most recurrent and universal themes in folklore related to death is that of the apparitions, the spirits of the departed that appear in this life, with their same body or in a different form, and recount their suffering<ref>The universality of the motifs included in the stories of apparitions compiled in the Basque Country reveals the coincidence of many aspects of our tales with this in compilations of folklore motifs. We will use the text of Stith THOMPSON. ''Motif-lndex of FolkLiterature''. Bloomington & London: 1966, 2nd ed. throughout our study.</ref>.
References to apparitions have been found in the Basque Country since ancient times. José Miguel de Barandiarán considered that the belief in the dead remained even after an animist view of the world had traditionally been accepted. Leaving on one side the etiological narratives explaining the imps of the stars, the earth, meteors and other natural phenomena, there are also popular devotions and contemporary beliefs, such as those that consider different images of the Virgin Mary as sisters. The ancient beliefs constructed around stones or funerary steles are often explained by legends related to the dead<ref>José Miguel de BARANDIARAN. ''Estelas funerarias del País Vasco''. San Sebastián: 1970, p. 63.</ref>. Barandiarán also indicated that certain characters of the apparitions (in the form of shadows or ghost, etc.) seem to reveal an influence of the beliefs in Ancient Rome regarding the souls.
The family home and the surrounding areas is precisely where most of the apparitions are said to occur. That is particularly the case of the homestead’s rooms, such as the kitchen, granary, bedrooms or the inside staircase.
As Barandiarán noted there are many overlaps between the ghost stories and the accounts of nocturnal visitors to the family home, often harmless imps (''saindi-maindiak'', ''etxajaunak'', etc.), ''who express their disgust if the embers go out in the fire or if the dinner dishes have not been washed up or put away. Many of the rituals of piling up the ashes and embers of the dying fire or of cleaning up the kitchen are topically related to the dead’s return to the household. Furthermore, they usually come into the house down the chimney.
Other important settings are the locations that, along with the house, are considered the resting place of the dead. Both churches and cemeteries are therefore also frequent places of apparitions or supranatural actions.