Burials of frogs in miniature coffins were discovered in churches in eastern Finland around the turn of the twentieth century, and were briefly recorded by U. T. Sirelius [fi], who explained them as placed objects with a magical purpose of the stealing the luck of more successful fishermen.
[9] There is extensive recorded folklore concerning the placement of frogs in coffins in eastern Finland, including central Finland, Savo, Karelia, North Ostrobothnia, Kainuu, and as far north as south Lapland – these areas are mostly Lutheran in modern religion, except Karelia which is Orthodox.
The majority of recorded lore is about counter-magic – intended to reflect evil intentions back to those sending them.
[11] In these rituals frogs are the commonest animal (about 70%) though others may be used including squirrels, pike, or even a human foetus.
[11] In recorded folklore accounts it was thought that such a practise was powerful magic, and could kill an intended victim.
[13] For example, in a ritual to dispel the problem of cows not returning home at night, recorded from the cunning man Mikko Koljonen (born 1812) of Viitasaari: This trouble is removed thus that a frog-coffin is made.
Then some hairs are pulled off each cow three times and put in a rag which is closed with red thread; then the frog-coffin, cow-hair-pouch, and three sharp tools with unknown makers are carried while circling the cowshed twice clockwise and once counter-clockwise while reciting a spell...[14]A ritual against epilepsy also use a 'frog coffin' – it gives one ritual by which such coffins might end deposited in churches : Epilepsy was healed in the Kuopio region such that the healer first took the patient with him/her to sit naked on the threshold of a house that had been moved three times.
The frog was put like a corpse in shrouds made of a piece of the patient's undergarments inside the coffin.
In some cases miniature coffin rituals included elements of Christian practice, such as reciting parts of the Lord's Prayer, but not performed by a priest.
[18] The Zhuang people of China idolize the frog – on the first day of the Lunar Year a societal ritual ("Yaogui") takes place including a hunt for hibernating frogs ("Gui"), and their sacrifice and placing in a coffin (of a Bamboo section).