Bloody Mary (folklore)
A mirror-conjured spirit whose appearance may be friendly or deadly.
Bloody Mary is a figure from folklore, described as a ghost, phantom, witch, or spirit that can be conjured to reveal the future. She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted repeatedly, and the apparition may be benevolent or malevolent depending on the version of the legend. Appearances are most often witnessed during group participation play.
Quick Facts
- Alternative names
- Hell Mary, Mary Worth
- Related figure
- Hanako-san (Japan)
Facts from the source article.
Ritual
Historically, the divination ritual involved young women walking up a flight of stairs backward while holding a candle and a hand mirror in a darkened house. Gazing into the mirror, they hoped to see their future husband's face, but might instead see a skull or the face of the Grim Reaper, indicating they would die before marrying. In the modern ritual that began to coalesce in the late 1960s, Bloody Mary allegedly appears to individuals or groups who invoke her name in an act of catoptromancy, repeatedly chanting her name into a mirror placed in a dim or candle-lit room. More modern versions are played in a restroom, with the name uttered three times or some other specified number; some stories say it must be chanted 47 times. The apparition appears as a corpse, witch, or ghost that can be friendly, evil, or demonic, sometimes covered in blood. Participants may endure screaming, cursing, strangling, soul theft, blood drinking, or eye scratching. Variations call her "Hell Mary" or "Mary Worth." The modern legend of Hanako-san in Japan strongly parallels this mythology.
Identification
There is debate over whether Bloody Mary is based on a real woman. Candidates include Mary I of England, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, who had around 300 Protestant dissenters burned at the stake, earning the nickname "Bloody Mary" from her Protestant opponents. Another candidate is Mary Worth, identified as either a woman who killed slaves escaping via the Underground Railroad or a woman burned at the stake during the early modern witch trials.
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