This weeks urban legend is pretty popular but I figured I would check it out and see if I could get to the bottom of this grisly legend. This week I am tackling Bloody Mary. I traveled to Wikipedia my first go to place and read what they had to say.
Wikipedia had this to say:
Historically, the ritual encouraged young women to walk up a flight of stairs backwards while holding a candle and a hand mirror, in a darkened house. As they gazed into the mirror, they were supposed to be able to catch a view of their future husband's face. There was, however, a chance that they would see a skull (or the face of the Grim Reaper) instead, indicating that they were destined to die before they would have the chance to marry.
In the ritual of today, Bloody Mary allegedly appears to individuals or groups who ritualistically invoke her name in an act of catoptromancy. This is done by repeatedly chanting her name in a mirror placed in a dimly-lit or candle-lit room. The Bloody Mary apparition allegedly appears as a corpse, a witch or ghost; can be friendly or evil; and is sometimes "seen" covered in blood. The lore surrounding the ritual states that participants may endure the apparition screaming at them, cursing them, strangling them, stealing their soul, drinking their blood or scratching their eyes out. The modern legend of Hanako-san in Japan strongly parallels the Bloody Mary mythology.
A modern addition of taunting Bloody Mary regarding her baby indicates the legendary figure's conflation with the historic figure, Queen Mary I, also known as "Bloody Mary", whose life was marked by a number of miscarriages or false pregnancies and is remembered for her violent religious reforms.
Ultimately they said that Bloody Mary was just a hallucination. So investigated further. Bloody Mary is also known as Mary Worth, Mary Worthington, Mary Jane, Mary Whales, Mary White, and even Hell Mary. Just how many variations of the Bloody Mary legend are there? Apparently a lot of them.
Then I came across Scaryforkids.com and they had this to say about the Bloody Mary legend:
"The history of the chanting game is based on mixed up legends and history that have become the main basis for the story surrounding the urban legend.
The most common story told is that Mary Worth was a witch that lived over 100 years ago who dabbled in the black arts. She was found out and executed. However this does not tie in with a child or baby which is often mentioned in the ritual of summoning her.
The other story accompanying the ritual is a local woman was involved in a fatal car accident nearby, her face horribly mutilated. She reappears in the mirror when summoned with that same horrific face.
It is largely believed that the origins of the names "Mary Worth" and "Bloody Mary" came from a slight mix up of characters from history. There is a lot of speculation as to the names being taken from Mary I, Queen of England who reigned during the Tudor period. Mary Tudor was also commonly known as "Bloody Mary".
Her nickname of "Bloody Mary" became attached to her when she violently executed and burnt Mary Tudor people at the stake for heresy throughout her reign of a little over 5 years.
She also was unable to bear children and suffered two phantom pregnancies, this is where it is speculated that the Bloody Mary game involving chanting "I stole your baby" or "I killed your baby" became tangled up with the now known Bloody Mary game.
There is another suggestion that the name "Mary Worth" was derived from a victim of the Salem Witch trials. There was no person involved in these trials by the name of Mary Worth.
Other surrounding additions to the "Bloody Mary" game are derived from the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, who it was rumored bathed in blood and took part in other atrocities to save her youthful beauty, of course her name was not Mary but somehow the stories of this cruel woman have been inserted into the Bloody Mary game.
However this game came about and whenever this game was first invented the one thing we do know for sure is that the ritual of spinning and chanting has evolved from quite a long time ago, when young girls participated regularly in rituals such as this to find who they would marry and when they would marry. There is also the addition of mirrors which were known as being portals to another world, especially during Victorian times. Add in a little more of the olde time spiritual beliefs including covering mirrors while in the presence of a dead person or at a funeral, some spooky ghost stories told at bedtime, and it seems to have all somehow combined over the years to form the now famous game of Bloody Mary.
So Bloody Mary came about due to Queen Mary I of England? That can't be it. So I furthered my investigation and after exploring a plethora of sites they all come to the same conclusion that Bloody Mary was spawned from Queen Mary I of England and possibly Elizabeth Bathory.
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