Bloody Mary: The Mystery of Ritual and Myth

The legend of Bloody Mary is among the most well-known urban legends in the United States. Bloody Mary’s story is an integral part of ghost story hour around campfires or at childhood sleepover parties. Games of Truth or Dare often lead to one member of the party alone in the bathroom chanting “Bloody Mary” into the mirror with either arrogant skepticism or absolute terror. This legend appears in countless forms of popular culture including television shows, movies, even in comic books. Many people’s cousin’s friend’s older brother’s ex-girlfriends have come face to face with this apparition. Because she is so widely recognized, it seemed like any look into her or her story would be redundant, because everyone already knows about the poor girl who died a tragic death and has found herself trapped in the mirror. As it turns out, there is a great deal more to her story than what we’re usually told when we’re children, and her origins are more interesting than the modern re-tellings suggest.

What Came First: The Ritual or the Legend?

The story of Bloody Mary has been tied into the legends of the Vanishing Hitchhiker and La Llorona, the weeping woman. Scholars of folklore have found many connections between all of the stories involving mysterious female specters, and it is speculated that many of them have evolved from…