BLOODY MARY

Have you ever heard the story of Bloody Mary? I’ll never forget it. I was in 3rd Grade at that little Catholic school my parents took me to and the older girls said “If you go into the bathroom and look into the mirror and then say ‘Bloody Mary’ while turning three times, a woman will come to you at night and scratch your face up/off.” They said that the spirit of Mary Worth, child killer, comes when summoned to perform evil deeds at night.

The story was further embellished by the teller who claimed that she knew a girl who had said it and her mirror had turned red with blood.

Of course I could not resist flirting with danger. “I don’t believe in Mary Worth!” I said and went right on to do the forbidden deed no other young child dared to do. At night I could not sleep and was indeed terrified that the avenging spirit would come to me. The next day my mother took me to school and got the older girls to confess it was a prank.

So imagine my surprise when I found out that “Bloody Mary” is one of those urban rituals that have been around since forever with various variations.

The research into Bloody Mary goes back to 1978 when folklorist Janet Langlois published her essay on the legend. Mary is said to be a witch who was executed a hundred years ago for plying the black arts or a woman of more modern times who died in a local car accident in which her face was hideously mutilated. Some confuse the mirror witch with Mary I of England, whom history remembers as “Bloody Mary” as she was a murdering British queen who killed young girls so she could bathe in their blood to preserve her youthful appearance.

So many years have passed and young ones are still initiated into the terrifying childhood ritual...