Tag Archives: legend

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.

El Cucuy

“There’s like a monster called El Cucuy, kinda like the boogeyman, it’s meant to scare children. Basically if you misbehaved El Cucuy would like to come and get you.”

Background: The informant’s parents never used it to scare her as a child, she would sometimes hear it from family members at parties or at dinners. She says it was used more in a joking manner in her family, rather than as a tactic to keep the kids in line.

Analysis: The El Cucuy is mainly viewed as a Spanish myth or legend but it can also be viewed as a superstition as it is able to mysteriously hide under the beds of misbehaving children. El Cucuy is often equated with the Western idea of the boogeyman and has many different variations such as Coco, Coca, Cuca, or Cucuí. Many cultures often have a boogeyman in order to prevent children from misbehaving, though most families don’t take it seriously in today’s society, often using it in a joking manner so as to not completely terrify children.

水滴石穿Water drops and penetrates the stone.

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 11

Text: “水滴石穿”. Water drops and penetrates the stone.

Once upon a time, there was an honest Mayer who caught a corrupt manager who took coins from the budget. The manager said, “It’s just a copper coin!” The Mayer said: “One coin per day, a thousand coins on the thousand days. The rope can saw the wood, and drops of water can penetrate the stone.”

Context: The informant heard this story when she was young. She did not want to do her homework because there were so many of them, and she didn’t know how to do it. Her parents used the four-character word to continue working, but she did not know the meaning of the word. Thus, her parents told her the story. Although the story did not convince her, she memorized it.

Analysis: All of the Chinese four-character words came from historical texts. Ancient history books included stories summarized into four-character words that teach a moral. This story also came from a four-character word, which means that small things build up; If people see wood with a rope every day, the wood will break; If water drops on a stone every day, the rocks will also be worn through. The idea that small things will build up and be impactful is present in many Chinese stories. Taoism has a similar saying, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.” This reflects Chinese people’s belief that a small effort will make a big change.

The Legend of the Golem

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Actor
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: English

Context :

JH is 23 years old and from San Francisco, CA. They are a USC graduate I met a few months ago. They are a practicing Jew and heard a lot of Jewish legends growing up from their family.

Text :

“There is a pretty Jewish legend that I was always told. The legend of the Golem, which I’m probably going to butcher and my rabbi will be mad about it. It’s basically that this person made this man out of clay in order to protect his town… I think it was the rabbi who made the man out of clay. He wrote a word onto his head, I forget the word. But he was this six or seven foot tall man made of clay that was supposed to protect the town but ended up terrorizing it. He’s still in the attic of the actual place he was made, the clay man.”

Analysis :

Legends are interesting to analyze because they balance between the lines of real vs not real, and they can possibly be true. With the story of the golem, it remains a legend because although the clay man is still supposedly in the attic, it can’t necessarily be proven. People come from all over the world to see the attic, the way people would go out searching for bigfoot or the lochness monster. Originally, the golem was created to protect his people, but ended up terrorizing them. This bares similarity to the story of Frankenstein, which isn’t necessarily a legend. I’m unsure what the message of the golem is or if there even is a message since my informant didn’t fully remember the legend. Like bigfoot and the lochness monster, the golem is a legend about a large creature who ends up terrorizing humanity, leading to the humane fear of the “other”.

El Cucuy-The monster: Legend

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 3/23/23
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Text: 

Me: “Within your Mexican culture, did you grow up hearing any scary stories?”

EC: “um yeah, it’s pretty crazy how affected we were by it actually. My parents always used to tell us about El Cucuy. My parents used to use it to scare me and my siblings from going to unsupervised places. It’s supposed to be a monster that scares kids”.

Me: “Ok, so was it like a generalized monster? Like did it have a name?”

EC: “yeah, it’s super generalized, El Cucuy literally translates to monster so it didn’t have a name. My parents would just say “don’t go over there! The Cucuy will get you!”

Translation: “The monster”

Context (informant’s relationship to the piece, where they heard it, how they interpret it):

-EC’s relationship to this piece stems from her Mexican culture within her childhood home considering this legend is said primarily in Mexico, Spain, and other Latin American countries. EC would hear this legend at home, at family gatherings, from her aunts, or from a random person that was attempting to warn her from going anywhere she wasn’t supposed to. EC interprets this legend as a scaring tactic that parents use to control the ways in which their kids behave. Not to mention, EC interprets this legend as a light-hearted joke that tells kids to ultimately listen to their parents. 

Analysis (what kind of personal, cultural, or historical values might be expressed) YOUR interpretation:

-The overall cultural value within this legend stems from the various origin stories that can be told considering it is a popular phenomenon among Mexico, Spain, and other Latin American households. Not to mention, the cultural value can be seen within how these Latin American cultures raise their kids within their similar lifestyle values. Not to mention, the personal values that can be expressed within this legend is the way parents raise their kids regarding their own personal beliefs and customs. I see this legend as an overall motive to control bad behavior in children and to scare them into following the commands of their parents. I interpret this legend as an idea of obedience as scary methods can be made considering this legend showcases a parent’s overall motive to scare their children from going anywhere alone. Considering that I have heard about this legend myself and grew up with it, I ultimately interpret El Cucuy as an embedded concept that is directed towards children in order for them to be scared of the unknown. Given the fact that this entity is nameless, leads me to think that this scary tactic allows children to interpret this monster in any way they choose which can determine how scary they make it seem in their own perceptual minds. One similar legend that has similar qualities to El Cucuy is the legend of La Chupacabra considering that they are creatures that are intended for behavioral motives. However, the main difference between El Cucuy and La Chupacabra is that there have been actual sighting reports on La Chupacabra while there hasn’t for El Cucuy. This leads El Cucuy to be represented as an imaginative creature in kids minds. The overall idea of El Cucuy can fall under the concept of an ostension considering actual kidnappers can be placed as the given ‘monster’ that can take you if you go wander around places unattended.