h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I actually heard a different story about Bloody Mary. I actually forget the details, because I heard it when I was in elementary school, but she was a grown woman, and I think she had children, and she lived near a lake. My friends and I tried that thing with the mirror, and I was in charge of turning the lights on in case she showed up, because supposedly she could come out of the mirror and kill you. I chickened out, though. What can I say? I was a wimp when I was 8.

Most Urban Legends exist in more than one form, because they're passed on orally, for the most part. I'd always suspected that Bloody Mary was more widely known than my little town. At my elementary school, the tale was adapted to the tree just outside the school grounds because of its appearance. I don't know the name of the species, but it's a tree with white-ish bark, and the bark peels off easily, revealing a rust colored, veined appearance. It almost looks like rivulets of blood running down the trunk. needless to say, it's a proper location for the story. I never tried the ritual myself, but I can recall one little girl in particular who came to school one morning who very earnestly told everyone that she had seen the vision.

I remember there was a girl who rode my bus who claimed she had called Mary through the mirror, and Mary chased her all the way to the next town. As she was several years my senior, and I was quite the gullible one, I believed every word.

I was talking to one of my friends today about this, and she heard that it originated in England. She thought it was a queen who killed herself or her daughter or something. I know it's terrible, but I know about nothing about history, and I have no clue if there was a Queen Mary who did that. Does anyone know?

The name "Bloody Mary" does come from an English monarch, but that's about the only connection to the legend. Mary Tudor succeeded Henry VIII to the throne, after his sickly son Philip died after a brief reign. She was his first child, and the daughter of Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. When Henry wanted to divorce Catherine (thinking she was to blame for the lack of male heirs, when it was in fact his syphillis that caused them all to die young... only Philip made it to 19 or so), he abandoned the Catholic faith (which had named him "Defender of the Faith" just a few years before) and created the Anglican Church.The Catholic Church would not allow divorce, but as the head of his own church, he could instantly dissolve the marriage.

Of course, this greatly disturbed Mary, who grew up close to her mother, and Spain was more Catholic than the pope in those days. So when she ascended the throne, she hated Anglicanism, and converted the country to Catholicism through violent coercion. Hence the name Bloody Mary. She didn't reign too long, either, and when her half-sister Elizabeth I succeeded her, and promoted Anglicanism as the state religion, but tolerance for others, it is quite easy to see why she was one of the most beloved rulers in English history.

Nice history lesson, but what does that have to do with the legend? Not much, which is pretty much my point, even though I took the long way to get there.

This story is even more widespread than you think: it made its way to Australia. At the primary school I went to - which was built on a graveyard - the story was that if you went into the toilet and looked into the mirror, and said "Bloody Mary" three times, then Mary's ghost would appear. Some kids tried this and got very freaked out. I don't know if they actually saw the ghost, but all the kids in the school avoided the toilets for a long, long time afterwards. The teachers eventually had to hold a meeting and tell all the kids that it was only a scary story.

We had a book in the library called "Tales for the Midnight Hour", and that's where the story came from. It was always a race to see who got the book every week. Eventually we got into it so much that we talked about it all the time, and the school confiscated the book.

Of course... heaven forbid you find something that actually gives you an interest in reading!!

In the version practiced in these parts (WI, USA) you are supposed to stand in front of a mirror with a butcher knife, in the dark of course, and say her name seven times and she will come out of the mirror and kill you. And because people are so stupid girls have actually been hurt because they get drunk and do this and end up stabbing themseleves. So much fun! I never heard any of the stuff about the tree and all that tho. Incidentally, I have never tried it myself, too scared after hearing stories from my girlfriends.