Tag Archives: ghost

The Story of Mulian

Background: My informant, CL, grew up in Taiwan, and speaks Mandarin, Hakka, English, Japanese, and Cantonese. Interview conducted in English over FaceTime.

Me: Do you know why Taiwan celebrates Ghost Month?

CL: “There’s a famous story in China regarding ghost month. The story of Mulian. He sees that his mom did a lot of bad things when she was still alive. So after she died she became a starving ghost. Mulian tried to use his powers because he’s a Buddhist, just tries to bring food to his mom because she’s a starving ghost. But whatever he served to her became burning…ashes right away. There was no way for his mom to eat it. He cries out, sees that his mom is tortured, and asks for a blessing from the Buddha. Buddha told him that because his mom did bad things, she has to suffer. Buddha told him that to reduce his mom’s suffering, the only way is to do good things, which is why they started Ghost Month: to worship ghosts, pray, and hopefully they can go to heaven. And finally the mom got released from the devil because Mulian did a lot of good things.

Me: So is Ghost Month just a thing for Buddhists then?

CL: No. Most people in Taiwan are Buddhist, but the Mulian story is famous–when I was a kid, a lot of TV shows talk about it because we didn’t know why we had Ghost Month. It’s about doing good things so your ancestors won’t be punished. In the old times less people could read, most people were farmers. So using drama or live shows let people in the countryside understand the purpose of the story: to do good things so your ancestors won’t be punished.

Me: Are ancestors just for Buddhists?

CL: No, we all have ancestors. Buddhists go to the temple to pray for them, but we still respect ancestors.

Analysis: Although the Mulian story is seemingly grounded in a more institutional presence like Buddhism, from my knowledge Ghost Month is widely celebrated throughout Taiwan regardless of its religious implications, much like Christmas in the US. Ancestor worship goes back to Confucian and perhaps Daoist ideology as well, so there’s a convergence of beliefs and practices at play here. Its structure is very much the classic cautionary tale, that shapes an idea of what “good” behavior would look like, particularly conveyed in an oral retelling to illiterate villagers. It’s clear to see why the story has stuck around, because its narrative progression is logical and points to a fairly universal moral message–respect your elders and ancestors, or else face karmic retribution.

Alley of the Kiss/El Callejón del Beso

Informant Information – SI

  • Nationality: American
  • Age: 20
  • Occupation: Student
  • Residence: Los Angeles, California
  • Date of Performance/Collection: April 20, 2022
  • Primary Language: English

The informant grew up in Mexico and learned about this legend on a family trip to Guanajuato. They were first told the story by their father and shared this information with me in an in-person interview. 

In this piece of folklore, a legend is set in an alley in Guanajuato, Mexico. In this alley, the space between houses is extremely narrow, with the balconies of houses across the street from one another nearly touching. 

According to my informant, a young woman and her parents moved into a house in this alley just after it was built. She had recently become interested in a suitor, but her father didn’t approve. She couldn’t imagine her life without him, so they began secretly dating. After the suitor learned that the house across from her family’s home was empty, he purchased it so that he could sneak into her bedroom and visit her at night. 

One night, the woman’s father caught the suitor in his daughter’s bedroom. In a fit of rage, he chased the suitor, who attempted to escape back into his house by jumping from her balcony to his. The father grabbed the suitor’s legs just as he tried to jump, causing him to fall off the balcony and break his neck. 

Horrified by her father’s violence and grief-stricken by the loss of her beloved, the young woman refused to ever move away or marry, and she lived in that house until her death as an elderly woman. 

Now, the alley is a popular tourist attraction, and couples that kiss under the balconies are said to be blessed by the spirit of the deceased suitor. 

Analysis:

This legend contains a tragic description of prohibitive familial expectations that result in a forbidden love affair. However, since it focuses on the gruesome nature of the murder and the father’s horror upon realizing what he has done rather than the reason that the lover was said to be an unfit suitor, this story seems to be more of a warning against prejudice and violence than against pursuing a forbidden suitor. 

It’s interesting that both the legend and associated magic ritual celebrate love instead of focusing on the tragedy that occurred. In this version, even the ghost of the deceased lover is a benevolent spirit that blesses couples that kiss in the alley where he was killed. 

For another version of this legend, see the version published in a tourist guide of Guanajuato: “Alley of Kiss Guanajuato.” Guanajuato Mexico City Guide, GuanajuatoMexicoCity.com, http://guanajuatomexicocity.com/Guanajuato-guide/Alley-of-Kiss-Guanajuato.html. 

The Ballerina/La Bailarina

Informant Information – SI

  • Nationality: American
  • Age: 20
  • Occupation: Student
  • Residence: Los Angeles, California
  • Date of Performance/Collection: April 20, 2022
  • Primary Language: English

The informant learned about this legend while attending an elementary school in Mexico. They first played the game in fourth or fifth grade, but the legend was well-known by students of all ages at their school. They shared this information with me in an in-person interview. 

Informant: 

So in my elementary school when I was younger, we had this story and game called The Ballerina that was kind of a myth about how our school was built I guess you could say. 

According to the story, before the school was built, there used to be train tracks, like for a passenger train that would go through the city where the school was eventually built. And this is actually not very believable now that I think of it, but according to the story, there was this little girl that was a dancer, a ballerina. And one day, she was dancing on her way home from her dance lessons near the train tracks. Apparently, she was either dancing on the tracks or just near them and fell onto the tracks, but basically, she was on the train tracks and got run over by the train. It was very sad.

So then, after her death, they closed the train tracks and my elementary school was built but the land was always haunted by the ballerina, who would apparently still dance in the halls at night. 

At school, we had a game based on this story that we called The Ballerina, well actually we said La Bailarina because we spoke Spanish. You would go in the bathroom alone and turn off the lights. Then you would look in the mirror and say “Ballerina” three times to summon her. You were supposed to hear music and see her face in the mirror with yours. 

Analysis:

In this piece of folklore, the Ballerina is very similar to Bloody Mary. However, rather than a witch, the Ballerina is the ghost of a child that was killed by an accident. This legend also lacks a religious association that I have seen in some versions of Bloody Mary. 

The informant noted that the premise of this legend is quite strange due to the rarity of passenger trains in Mexico. It seems that this legend could either have emerged as an explanation for the lack of trains or as the result of the disinclination for trains that makes them so uncommon. 

Roaming Soldier

Content: 

Y: Okay. So, um, I grew up in New Jersey. The town was, like, very colonial. Very like, it was like from the colonial times and like that’s when people started moving there. And just- so we had a tavern and they always find oysters and whatnot around it. But anyway, so this redcoat was staying in the tavern’s hotel room, like in one of the rooms and then he, he was murdered, they offed him. And so <laugh>, um, legend has it. They’re like still haunted and I forget what the name of the class was called, but in fifth grade we had the owner of the house come talk to us about her experience living there. And so she says like, “oh yeah, no, it’s, haunted it like homeboy comes up and down the stairs.” 

Me: So was she like a descendant or was she a whole other person? 

Y: No, just a whole other person. Okay. She just lives in the, I think they bought it like 20 something years ago, but it’s like, it’s like a historical registered, like, and so, yeah, legend has it that this murdered soldier goes around the halls and it was like right next to my elementary school. 

Me: Do you know what experiences they’ve had? 

Y: There’s like, um, she’s talked about homeboy, like on the stairs, like she’ll hear them creaking randomly, and then something with the shutters too, like closing the shutters. 

Me: Does she hear it or do the shutters actually close? 

Y: Hears it.

Me: So it’s all auditory? 

Y: Yeah. 

Background: Y is a 20 year old who was born and raised in New Jersey. She now resides in Los Angeles, California. 

Context: This story was told to me at a hangout among friends.Analysis: I liked this story because of its universality. The tavern that Y speaks of doesn’t have a specific name that sticks in the memory of the teller. She wasn’t even sure what city/town the tavern was in. Instead, the part of the story that stuck in her mind for all of these years was that a man was murdered in the building and now haunts it. The story, as it was passed around and as time moved on, was distilled into its most basic form.

Ghost wake-up call

Content:

LS:  It’s really kind of short, but I mean like, so of course I grew up hearing about this ghost in my grandmother’s house. But what’s weird to me looking back now is like that wasn’t scary as a kid, like, you know, like I’d go visit their house, but I wasn’t like, I’d heard all these stories that I was not scared. And so like, my family like always would talk about those ghosts, but they would just laugh about it. And um, he wasn’t like as active, I guess by the time that I was, you know, there. Um, but I remember them talking about it and I remember my mom kind of like every now and then like just kind of saying to the ghost, like, “okay, get out here.” Like, you know, like talking to him I guess, but um, we stayed there and it was all four of us there, my parents, my sister, and I for like a long weekend or something, something was happening, I guess. I don’t remember. Um, but um, the back bedroom at the end of the hall had a big like king sized bed, I guess in it. And she stored a lot of things or whatever in there. And that’s where my sister and I would sleep when we were visiting. And I remember, one of my grandparents had been given like a walking cane with, um, like a squeaking horn, um, as like a gag gift when one of them turned 40. And so I, you know, I’d always noticed it because it had this big, like red horn on it. Um, and I remember I was asleep and I was just woken up out of the middle of the dead sleep. And it was like, it was like that moment of like what, it just woke me up. Like, you know, because you know, you didn’t like wake up and be like, oh, I have to pee or something. Like, it was just like, why am I awake? And it was because I had heard that horn go off. And so I’m like sitting there and there’s nothing between me and it. And so I was like, there is no way, like I didn’t touch that. Like nobody else in the house is awake. And so I was like, that must have been the ghost, like, you know? Right. And so then I don’t even remember if I mentioned it to them the next day or what, but it was just kind of later, like I, yeah, the ghost, like when, you know, it was like very clear like, oh, that happened. It wasn’t like I was dreaming it. 

Background: LS is the daughter of D in the linked story. This story takes place in the 1990s. 

Context: This story was told to me over a phone call. Analysis: In ghost lore, a ghost that can interact with the physical world like L describes is often known as a poltergeist. However, the connotation of a poltergeist tends to be more malicious than a ghost, particularly in pop culture like the movie Poltergeist. However, they do often haunt a specific person, while this one appeared to attach to any young people in the house.