Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Superman Turned Off the Lights

Nationality: African American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC - on campus housing
Performance Date: 04/28/2013
Primary Language: English

When I was in elementary school, for some reason, the power went out, like quite a few times at my elementary school. So basically, I don’t know why, I guess I was in first grade, so I didn’t get the whole story, but basically they said it was like the “Superman Curse,” like Superman turned off all the lights.

 

And this was a known thing at your school?

Yeah. Like I’m pretty sure I didn’t come up with, like somebody said like, “oh, it’s superman.” And I was like, “what”? And some kid was like, he heard it last year in kindergarten. And this was my first year at that school, so I was really confused. So every time, I guess it’s cause I lived in Baghdad for elementary school. And so every time the power would go off at my elementary school, oh would be like, “oh, it was superman thing,” or whatever. I don’t know why it’s called superman. I just remember that Superman turned the lights off.

 

Did other kids say it?

 Yeah. That’s how I picked it up.

 

Was it a bad thing or more like a fact?

I think it was more like a fact, I don’t think it was like a bad thing, it was just like, “oh the power went off, it must be superman.”

 

My Reaction:

I found it interesting that the person I interviewed for this lived in Baghdad at the time he heard about the “Superman Curse”. This makes me wonder if it was something that was common in other school’s in Baghdad. Otherwise, it’s just something that someone came up with at his school that just stuck and spread. This does seem like a very childish thing to do. Kids don’t just think the power goes out, there’s always a reason for it, so it makes sense that they would want to attribute it to something to give cause the the things that happened.

Bloody Mary

Nationality: Italian
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 04/29/2013
Primary Language: English

There’s always the myth that around midnight – at least it’s that way with my brother and friends – that at midnight if you go to a mirror and turn off all the lights and say “Bloody Mary.” three times that she’ll show up and that she’ll throw a rose at you that will turn you inside out, like your guts come out and everything. And the rule is, as she throws the rose just before she hits you say “Candyman. Candyman. Candyman” and the Candyman comes out from the movies and he protects it.

 

From the movies?

Yeah. Well, he doesn’t come out from the movies, but like you know, the candyman. Yeah. And then you have 2 monsters that you have to deal with. And uh, I guess my brother made up that you have to say “Chuckie. Chuckie. Chuckie.”  And then Chuckie comes out. And you just keep building monsters.

 

And they just fight each other?

Yeah.

Did you ever try this?

No, we were too scared to.

 

Where did you guys hear this from?

Like my brother would just make it up. It was him.

 

But you heard the “Bloody Mary” thing from someone?

Yeah. No, that was like everyone like always shared that story.

 

And your brother decided to add the rest of it?

Yeah.

 

Just because?

Just because, I don’t know why. I think cause it didn’t seem like it had closure to it. So that’s why it’s like, oh she shows up and then she throws a rose at you, that turns you inside out, but if you do this, this and that, like you know?

 

So where did you hear about the rose and the inside out part of the story? I’d never heard of that before.

My brother.

 

He’s a creative fellow?

He’s a jackass.

 

Did you tell anyone about this particular variation?

Yeah. I told everyone.

 

And no one ever did it?

No. They were too scared.

 

The “at midnight” part, did your brother make that up too? Or was that always part of it?

I remember it being explained like that.

 

By other kids?

Yeah.

 

Have you still not tried it to this day?

No. I’m too scared.

 

My Reaction:

Who hasn’t heard of the “Bloody Mary” thing before? Everyone I know has heard of some variation of this. I had never heard of it having to take place at midnight, so it was interesting when Mike told me that for him, midnight was part of the process. I guess that would only amplify the scariness of it. Because when you’re young, late night is scary. It’s quiet and dark and not as many people are awake, and this makes you feel more vulnerable. But regardless of the time of day, I still, to this day, have never tried to do the “Bloody Mary” thing. I honestly don’t believe that anything would happen, but there’s still that part of you this is nervous that maybe something could happen. As for Mike’s crazy variation on the “Bloody Mary” thing, I wonder if other kids ever added to it because I’ve never heard of something like that before.

Sister Margrets Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April
Primary Language: French
Language: English, Spanish, Fang, etc

My twenty-two year old undergraduate informant from Massachusetts revealed that several ghosts were believed to haunt the dormitories of a college she once attended.

“Over at Anna Maria College in Paxton, MA, there are a few known spirits
haunting various buildings. However, the very first one is said to have
come from Esther House, a building found on the farthest side of the
campus. The Esther House Ghost is rumored to be the spirit of a Nun from
the Sisters of St. Anne named Sister Margaret. She was the House Mom for
all the female students in the first year of the college’s founding in
1946. She passed away in the 1960s and now she looks after all the students
and professions that live and work in that building while she still has fun
with all of them.

Also, Sister Margaret doesn’t seem to like it when students are not being
celibate because when I was a freshman living in that building, I ended up
encountering her at 10 at night when I came back from the restrooms. I
witnessed the “throwing” of my neighbor’s whiteboard, which was stuck on
her door securely. It ended up in the middle of the hallway without any
kind of seen force pulling it off. It made such a loud noise that it got
the attention of that neighbor.”

My informant revealed that she learned of legend from her upperclassman dorm mates. Massachusetts is notorious for the supernatural, hence Salem witch trials. This ghost story serves as entertainment aiding into the appeal of the state. It may attract not just tourist but students. Additionally it is form keeping the supernatural history alive. My informant revealed that she learned of the ghost story from peers after moving on campus

La Llorona

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student (Fine Arts Major)
Residence: Burbank, CA
Performance Date: April 22, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese, Japanese, Spanish

“I don’t remember the details, but it’s this mother, in the myth, and her children drowned… or something like that, and then she died somehow. Anyway, this woman ended up dead and her children were drowned, so there was this link between La Llorona and the water… um… so the myth, the myth was that children were warned not to go out at night near pools of water because La Llorona would come to them and drown them and the key was that if you heard this woman crying and you were like, ‘ah, where are my children?’ or something spooky like that… if you heard it really close, that meant she was far away, but if you heard it really far away, that meant she was close, or something…

“My teacher told me the story that her grandfather told her, that one day, he decided to run away from home, or something like that, and it was nighttime, and he was somewhere in which this myth applied, and um… I guess he was… I always imagined he was by one of those pools, those, um… not inflatable pools, but like those gigantic ones that would stand and you would put water in them and they were really popular in, like, the 90s. I always imagined it like that, but it seemed to be some sort of water tower, some public means of storing water, and he was by it because he was thirsty and whatever, and he heard this crying, and he was by water, and he was a child, and he heard this crying, but it sounded far away, and he kind of… I don’t remember if he saw it, but he just, I think he looked into the water and he kind of saw over his—oh I think her eyes bled or something, something spooky, I think her eyes were bleeding—anyway, he looked into the water and he went, like, ‘AHHH! Jesus!’ and then he ran away, and he’s still here obviously because my teacher is still here.”

 

The informant was told this version of La Llorona in her 7th grade, Spanish class, which was dedicated to the study of Mexican culture on Fridays. La Llorona means the crier or the one who cries. After the recounting of the story about her teacher’s grandfather, she was asked by her teacher to illustrate the La Llorona tale.

The informant said the stories that stick with her most are ghost stories, which might be related to how her cousins told her that you can only see ghosts if you believe in them. She believed ghosts seemed like a neat proposal because it would mean that it’s possible to have life after death, but she also worried that it would be the a sort of half-life in which you would be stuck forever (where people would see you, but not come to know or understand you). She liked hearing these types of stories because she liked to draw frightening images as a child even though the stories themselves scared her. She also mentioned she was glad she did not live where the story applied, which is an interesting proposal because it implies that certain folklore only affect certain people from which it (supposedly) originated from.

What is most interesting about this telling of La Llorona is not the story itself (which is even incomplete), but the personal narrative that follows , which functions as a friend-of-a-friend legend. That part, tacked onto the first, more well known, part in a way, validates the original tale. The combination of the popular and the personal brings a big tale back to a human level and keeps it spreading.

 

For another telling of La Llorona, see:

http://www.literacynet.org/lp/hperspectives/llorona.html

Nightmarchers – Hawaii

Nationality: Japanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Aiea, HI
Performance Date: April 12, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese (spotty)

One of the most widespread ghost stories in Hawaii is the story of the Nightmarchers.  The story goes that all around the Islands of Hawaii, ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors still occupy the land.  They are most common around sacred places or old battle grounds, but no one really knows why they still march those lands.  If you were to ever be in the presence of the nightmarchers, you would hear loud beating drums, and they most often come out right before dawn.  You are never supposed to look at the nightmarchers, but instead either look away quickly, or get as far away from them as possible.  Because if they catch you looking at them or you interrupt their march, it could be deadly for you or loved ones.

 I was also told never to sleep with your feet facing the opening of a tent, or any door really, because ghosts and spirits can come and drag you out from where you are sleeping.  So still to this day I try not to sleep with my feet facing any openings, because that is apparently how ghosts take people from their rooms when they’re sleeping.

Tasia knows quite a few Hawaiian legends, but she said that her sister is much more tied to the land than she is.  They aren’t native Hawaiians, but living in Hawaii immerses you fairly wholly into Hawaiian culture (regardless of if you are a native).  I used to stay at the Royal Hawaiian when I was younger as an annual Thanksgiving vacation, and I remember always hearing that part of the hotel was haunted.  I can’t remember who exactly told me, but I just remember being told that there was a part of the hotel where customers claimed they saw and heard soldiers marching through the hotel.  I was never informed of the Nightmarcher tale, but now hearing this story I’m assuming the Nightwatchers were the source of the problem.