Bloody Mary – ghost story origins

Nationality: White
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: California
Performance Date: 03/28/2023
Primary Language: English

Text:

“This is the Bloody Mary legend that I learned when I was a kid. So, she was a woman who lived in this big beautiful Victorian house. A man was planning on marrying her and she was very very beautiful, and she always wore this ribbon around her neck. On the night of the wedding, he goes ‘can I take the ribbon off your neck?’ and she says ‘no.’ Every night she says no and then one night while she is sleeping, he pulls the ribbon off her neck and her head falls off. And because she was Bloody Mary, if you stand in the mirror and you spin around three times and say ‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, come and haunt me’ she’ll come and cut your head off.”

Context:

B is an informant from Southern California. This is a story she learned when she was a child from her friends. She never performed the described ritual because she was always too scared that it might actually happen. I gathered this story from her while we collected ghost stories from each other.

Analysis:

Bloody Mary is a very interesting ghost story because the name always stays the same, but almost every single time I have heard the reason or story behind the name, it is different. Some are more involved, like this one, and sometimes the there is no story just the ritual on how to summon her. The legend of Bloody Mary is often utilized as a kind of dare amongst children to see who is brave enough to complete the ritual. However different the stories tend to be, many aspects are similar across the different versions, such as saying the name three times, standing in front of a mirror, and the fact that Bloody Mary will harm you in some way if you summon her. She is never perceived to be a nice spirit, so these reoccurring aspects likely appear in the original legend of the Bloody Mary ghost. This ghost story is considered a legend because of its wide proliferation, the potential truth factor, and its real world setting. Although many brush it off as a just silly game for children, many do believe in it. Some might claim to not believe in it, but still will not preform the ritual “just in case” or out of fear.

Baba Yaga – Russian tale

Nationality: White (Russian)
Age: 83
Occupation: retired
Residence: California
Performance Date: 04/01/23
Primary Language: Tagalog

Text:

“My grandmother told me this legend when I was a little girl. I don’t remember all of it super well but this is pretty much what she told me. Baba Yaga is a woman-like creature who I think had chicken legs and she lives in the woods. She is very cruel and really quite ugly. She would scare children and eat them if the went near her home. I was always really quite scared that would happen to me when I was little. She really is very witch-like. But, she also was very knowledgeable, so if you needed something and you came to her with the right gifts she would help you. But you had to be careful because she would play tricks on people, so you had to think everything she said or did for you because you never know if she is playing a trick or not. I remember asking my grandmother one time what you had to bring to her to receive help and she wouldn’t tell me. I think she was scared I would go looking for her and get lost [laughs].”

Context:

I was told this story from L, my grandmother, over the phone. I knew she could tell me this story because she had told it to me also when I was very little. Her grandmother (my great-great grandmother) was the one who originally told it to L. L was born and raised in California, but her grandmother was born in Russia.

Analysis:

Although L categorized this story as a legend, it fits more succinctly as a tale. This is a relatively well known tale in Slavic countries. It teaches you to be wary of strangers and careful when receiving something from someone because their motives for helping you are not always clear. It is also used to teach and scare children away from wondering into the woods alone. L who never even lived near the woods, feared Baba Yaga when she was a child. Adults are not usually scared of Baba Yaga the way children are. It is shares similar qualities of other stories from the tale type index, such as the character Baba Yaga, who like many other tales, is a witch who lives in the woods. It is also interesting to note in the version L shared with me, there are no other characters, nor does it center around a plot. The whole tale is who Baba Yaga is and what she does, yet it is not told through the perspective of other characters, such specific children. Other versions might have more details, which might give a deeper look into the lessons behind the tale.

Girl Scout Camp ghost story

Nationality: White
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: California
Performance Date: 04/04/23
Primary Language: English

Text:

“So this is a ghost story that I heard when I was probably ten years old at girl scout summer camp. Basically, there was a little girl who went to the girl scout summer camp, and one night while she was sleeping, she heard a loud bang outside and it woke her up. Then she heard it again, and when nobody else woke up she took her flashlight and went outside to see what the noise was. Now, what she didn’t know was that there was an ax murder who had escaped from jail and had wandered into the same woods the camp was located. While she was wandering around outside, he found her and cut her up and threw her body parts in the lake. Ever since, she’s been stuck here and will try to lure girls out of their cabins at night so the ax murderer can cut them up too. I know it’s kind of dumb, but imagine hearing this when you’re like ten and staying in supposedly the exact cabin the dead girl stayed in. It scared me so bad I refused to go anywhere alone the rest of the week.”

Context:

E is a nineteen year old from Southern California. She, as mentioned above, heard this ghost story while at a weeklong summer camp designed for girl scouts. It was told to her while her bunkmates were telling ghosts stories before going to bed. She retold the story to me over the phone.

Analysis:

This ghost story was specifically generated to scare the audience. It is also important to note that the audience is essential in this narrative. It is a story about a girl scout told to other girl scouts. It would not hold nearly the same impact if it was told in a different location or to a different group of people, especially considering the role those elements play in the story. It is also important to note that no one claims to have seen the ghost, but just that she exists. She is also designed to be the same age and type of girl (a girl scout) as the audience. The performance of the story was strong enough to convince these girl scouts that the ghost was real. This piece of folklore is very contingent on the culture it was created in and is not as impactful outside of that culture. The narrative is also designed specifically to scare the teller’s peers, so it has a hoax-like element to it, told to scare than as a fact or honest belief in ghosts.

Put some “Backer” on it

Background:

The informant, JB, is my father who is 49 years old. My family lives in the same small town I grew up in, Huntsville, TN. I was under the impression that this home remedy was universal until I mentioned it to my college friends, and I was met with bizarre and confused faces. This remedy is not exclusive to my family and is widely known and used in my town.

Main Piece:

Interviewer- Hey dad when I was little, or even now, if one of us got stung by a wasper (wasp).

JB- (Laughs) Yeah, I know it sounds gross, but it works. When you’d get stung, I would get backer (tobacco) outta my lip and hold it on there until it was numb.

Interviewer- Ew, I can still picture it, but it did help. So how did you know to do that, like who taught you?

JB- I don’t remember ever specifically taught. My dad would do it to us as kids and like you said it works so.

Analysis:

To my surprise, the common fix-all that was chew tobacco was not universal, but actually a form of folk medicine. The origin is unclear, but when I searched it on the internet, quite a few websites cited nicotine as a home remedy for stings and noted it strong numbing power. Perhaps I am biased, but this folk medicine screams Southern roots. Chewing tobacco has always been a staple in every Southern man’s daily routine, along with the skoal ring marks in the back pockets of their Levi’s. So, it makes sense that a long time ago a kid was crying over a bee sting and a nearby dad or grandpa thought to apply some “backer” from his lip. This demonstrates the closeness of Southern families, and fathers in blue-collar culture, mine included. Not every type of dad would get the dip-spit out of his mouth and put it on his kid’s sting instead of grabbing something out of the cabinet. However, in the South, specifically blue-collar communities, there is powerful “do it yourself” mentality. This mixed with the extreme closeness and perhaps cultural tolerance for things perceived as “gross”, results in folk-medicine. It is much harder to imagine businessmen fathers having the same first instinct as my father, and all family men in my town.

Easter in Corfu

Context:

The informant, PL, is my boyfriend’s father who is 57 years old. He is from Greece and visits his home island, Corfu, often. He currently lives in the valley of Los Angeles and still holds his Greek heritage true to him. When I asked him if there were any Greek festivals or holiday traditions that were his favorite, he immediately named the Greek Easter tradition that is unique to the island of Corfu.

Main Piece:

Interviewer- So tell me about the Easter tradition of Corfu.

PL- Well, every year for Easter we would head down from the village to the main city center known as “Old town” (since the main is also called Corfu as well). At the edge of the city, where it meets the water, my family and I would set up and watch the yearly parade from Spianada Square. At the end of the parade, we would try to get in close to the building that faces the water to see the “finale” of the parade/celebration and watch the people from the apartment balconies toss hundreds of clay vases into the street. It was definitely a sight to see!

Interviewer- Do you know how this tradition started?

PL- I’m not sure why or how it started but it’s been going on for a very long time.

Interviewer- Do you know why they drop the pots or what it meant to represent?

PL- My mom always told me that the pots breaking was supposed to represent evil spirits and misfortune being destroyed and protection from them. The celebration represented Christ rising and new life and hope in general.

Analysis:

The Corfu festival for Easter is a unique example of regional folk tradition incorporated into a global holiday. Upon an internet search, I found that the informant’s interpretation of the tradition was the same as other Corfu citizens. It is also significant that the pots are almost always some shades of red, since the color is a function of symbolism in many cultures, including the Greek. For example, before Easter they dye boiled eggs red, like the blood of Christ. The pots being red also represents the blood of Christ and is likely why the tradition is viewed as a form of protection against evil.