NEA Responds to Sign Cautioning Others About “Ghosts” in a Cemetery

A rather amusing sign by National Environment Agency (NEA) was found warning people against safety hazards such as trees/branches falling, venomous animals like snakes, slipping on uneven ground and… ghosts.

Yes, you read that correctly. This caught the public eye after a post was made on Singapore Wildlife Sightings Facebook page on 18 February 2024.

The ghost icon, showcasing three ghosts, was depicted between the icon of the tree and a person slipping.

This sign is supposed to be at Bukit Brown Cemetery, a site closed for burials since 1973.

Given the cemetery’s history, the inclusion of ghosts on the warning sign seemed oddly fitting to me.

NEA Clarifies the Sign was Tampered With

NEA has clarified that the sign was the result of a prank, not an official warning from the agency. The original sign, intended to caution visitors about the risk of slipping, was vandalized.

Upon inspection following reports of the altered sign, NEA discovered multiple signs at the cemetery had been defaced with the same ghost sticker.

While NEA did not specifically confirm the incidents occurred at Bukit Brown Cemetery, they have since removed the stickers from the affected signs.

A Similar Prank Occurred in the Past

Remarkably, this is not the first instance of NEA signs being targeted with ghostly imagery.

In 2020, a sign was defaced with a sticker of a Pontianak, a mythical vampire ghost in Malay folklore, at another closed cemetery. Could the same vandals be responsible for the latest ghost stickers?

NEA took to Facebook to inform the public that the sign was tampered with and compared it with its actual sign.

They also reminded the public to look out for tangible and non-supernatural hazards such as tree branches, insects and snakes when walking at the cemetery.

If you believe in the supernatural or wish to respect cemetery etiquette, here are some additional rules you can follow according to National Park Service:

• Follow the cemetery rules
• Avoid visiting the cemetery at night
• Avoiding walking over the graves
• Follow the road and do not drive on the grass
• Be respectful and keep your volume down
• Do not litter
• Do not touch monuments or gravestones

No, there’s nothing about ghosts.