With Halloween right around the corner, the world seems to be a bit spookier. Myths, cryptids, ghosts, and demons are flooding the television. Baking shows are now competitions about who can create the spookiest treat, children’s shows are having their Halloween countdown, and many teens and adults are huddled up on their couches, watching horror movies that make their skin crawl. Others are reading their favorite chilling stories. Decorations are fillings streets, autumn leaves are painting the ground in an array of colors, and Jack-o’-Lanterns are lighting up the nights. In celebration of this time, we’re going to dive into three of the most popular, well-known legends in America.
Bloody Mary
Those who are brave enough to chance the ghost must follow the ritual to a T. Legend says that you must “hold a lit candle in a darkened room with a mirror”, though the bathroom is the room most often used, and say, “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary” while staring into the mirror. It’s said that once you’ve completed saying her name three times, you’ll be met with the sight of Mary’s reflection in the mirror, her figure standing right behind you. However, in other tales, it’s said that once you finish saying repeating her name, you better “hope you won’t be found dead with your eyes scratched out” or “with claw marks all over your body” or “trapped behind the glass of the mirror for all eternity”.
Who is the person behind the legend of Bloody Mary? There are mixed answers. Historians say that some “believe that the Bloody Mary legend is directly tied to the queen who bore the same nickname”—Queen Mary I of England. Others say that it could have been Mary Worth. It is said that Mary Worth was believed to have been a witch, “simply because she lived in the forest, in an extremely small cabin, and was known around the local village for selling tinctures and herbal remedies”. The locals didn’t want to get close to her, fearful that she was a witch and would curse them. But things took a turn for the worst when little girls began to go missing. It is said that the villagers looked everywhere for the missing children but they couldn’t be found. Eventually some of the villagers decided to visit Mary Worth’s cabin and, though Mary claimed not know where they went, the villagers were suspicious. Mary’s “usually elderly and haggard appearance had drastically changed and she was starting to appear more feminine and youthful”, which led the villagers to believe that Mary Worth had taken the children and sacrificed them for the sake of youth. Yet no one truly knows if Mary Worth really existed. Another legend says that Bloody Mary was once a young woman who was having an affair with a married man. After announcing her pregnancy to him, he murdered her. Some say that she attacks those that look like her past lover—or those who have done wrong to another.
The origins of Bloody Mary are blurred and uncertain. From being related to Queen Mary I of England, to being a murdered young woman, to being a witch named Mary Worth, the legend continues to shift depending on where you live.
But give it a try!
One night, holding a candle, stand in front of a mirror and say, ‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary’.
Who knows what you’ll see.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Written by Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow tells the tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. However, Irving’s story is not the original—in fact, it’s a retelling of a folktale.
The folktale states that on a cold winter night, a “Dutchman left the tavern in Tarrytown and started walking to his home in the hollow nearby. His path led next to the old Sleepy Hollow cemetery where a headless Hessian soldier was buried”. With only a lantern to guide him in the darkness, the Dutchman began to feel nervous as he passed the graveyard, “remembering the rumors of a galloping ghost” and began to hum to himself. Suddenly, he noticed a light rising from the ground. Heart pounding with fear, he could only watch as “a white mist burst forth from an unmarked grave and formed into a large horse carrying a headless rider”. With a scream, the Dutchman ran, the horse galloping after him. Heading for the bridge that he knew ghosts and evil spirits could not cross, because of the running water beneath it, he “stumbled suddenly and fell, rolling off the road into a melting patch of snow. The headless rider thundered past him, and the man got a second look at the headless ghost. It was wearing a Hessian commander’s uniform”. Upon returning home, the Dutchman told his wife about what occurred that night, and that was how the tale of the headless Horseman began.
Irving’s story, however, takes place in the village of Sleepy Hollow, in Westchester County. Irving tells the tale of the new schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, and the young heiress, Katrina van Tassel, who is being pursued by another man known as Dutchman Brom Bones. After Crane is “rebuffed by Katrina at a party at the van Tassel farm where ghost stories are shared, Ichabod is chased by a headless horseman (who may or may not be his rival) who hurls a pumpkin at the man, throwing Ichabod from his horse”. It is written that after that night, the schoolmaster is never heard from again.
While there is uncertainty regarding this being an actual event, the folktale is influenced by facts. During the American Revolutionary War, Britain hired Hessians (German soldiers) to help fight against the American troops. Folklore and truth begin to merge and collide when it was said that “the soldier’s head was lost during the war, and his headless corpse was buried in an old church in Sleepy Hollow”.
Still, if you’re interested and feeling especially brave, you can visit Sleepy Hollow and, please, if you see the Headless Horseman, let us know!
The Jersey Devil
In the New Jersey Pine Barrens in 1775, a horrible storm erupted. Amid the howling winds and crashing thunder, “a woman by the name of Mrs. Leeds cried as the storm raged, giving birth to her 13th child”. Distraught and frustrated by this being her thirteenth pregnancy, she cursed the child: “Oh, let this one be the devil!”
And so it was born.
With a horrifying screech, the creature unfolded its wings and flew up the chimney, disappearing into the storm and creating the legend of the Jersey Devil.
According to this legend, “for more than 250 years this mysterious creature is said to prowl through the marshes of Southern New Jersey” and has been blamed for everything from “raiding chicken coops and farms” to “destroying crops and killing animals”. The threat of this legend is very real to some–it haunts their homes, causes fear, and brings many paranormal investigators searching for the creature. According to the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, “the Jersey Devil is described as ‘a kangaroo-like creature with the face of a horse, the head of a dog, bat-like wings, horns and a tail’”.
The origins of this cryptid are varied. Some say that it was Mrs. Leeds who gave birth to it, others say that it was a young girl “who had fallen in love with a British soldier” and was cursed for her act of treason. It’s been said that the creature was born of a young woman who refused to give a begging gypsy food and was cursed. Another famous version states that in October 1830, Mr. John Vliet, a resident of Vienna, New Jersey, was “entertaining his children with a mask he made. A mask of a monstrous face”—a mask that later became tradition among local townsmen and their children that was repeated in late “October as parents and children alike put on scary faces and costumes”.
Of the three legends reviewed, this one has the most evidence behind it. There are “reliable people, including police, government officials, businessmen and many others who so integrity is beyond question, have witnessed the Devil’s activities”. A recent story was reported by David Black in 2015. Black “alleged he saw the Jersey Devil on Route 9 in Egg Harbor Township, near a golf course”, even capturing a photo as proof.
The Jersey Devil appears randomly. If looking for a little Halloween fright, why not go and see if you can find it? I expect it will be out on Halloween night.
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