Bloody Mary , an origin story

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Here are some links to the articles i researched
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bloody-mary-story/

https://people.howstuffworks.com/bloody-mary-legend.htm

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Mary_(folklore)

https://allthatsinteresting.com/bloody-mary

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troxler's_fading

http://mythical-and-paranormal-blog.blogspot.com/2012/05/mary-worth-and-origin-of-bloody-mary.html?m=1

https://youtu.be/K7bgUPh4sHo Android

Bloody Mary (not the drink ) is possible one of the better known urban legends out there , but if your not familiar with the spooky game , let me give you a bit of insight .
Its a game, that if played correctly can summon a evil terrifying ghost of a woman who will haunt your dreams forever or worse.
To play the creepy game you are required to stand in a dark room , your only source of light coming from a singly lit candle, and then you gaze into a mirror , and begin to say aloud, her name ,three times ,
'Bloody Mary , Bloody Mary , Bloody Mary
Then as you peer into the mirror the ghost of Mary is supposed to appear behind you , some times appearing as a corpse , a witch, or completely covered in blood. Some times holding a dead baby
She will then either strike you down dead , or let out a soul chilling scream from the other side of the mirror, curse at you,or even lunge out of the mirror to claw away at your eyes , strangle you and drink all of your blood , or be dragged into the mirror where you will spend the rest of your days living on the other side of the glass.
The story is pretty much universal , but there are some differences from different regions
For example in some regions it is said that Mary's name has to be spoken not 3 times but 13.
Also the chant is said have different versions such as
"I BELIEVE IN MARY WORTH"
"KATHY COME OUT "
"BLOODY MARY I STOLE YOUR BABY"
"BLOODY MARY I KILLED YOUR BABY"

Mary has also been known to have many more different names , according to snopes.com
Here are a few

•Bloody bones
•Mary Worthington
•Mary whales
•Mary Johnson
•Mary Lou
•Mary Jane
•Sally
•Kathy
•Agnes
•Black Agnes
•Aggie
•Svarte madame






As terrifying as this game sounds, it is still a popular game to play especially in teenage circles, you get the impression its with girls mainly ,but of course boys do play as well .
And especially at this time of year , which is Halloween when i wrote this article .
I was having a look at some popular urban legends , and this one seems to first on the list most of the time.
And it got me thinking , everything has an origin , which also got me wondering , what is the origin of Bloody Mary ,
And if the ghost of this malevolent entity can be explained by science and the working of the brain , or is there some supernatural force at play .
So lets dive right in and find out some of the possible origin stories that created this urban legend , this disturbing game , or possibly a real being .and look at some reasons it all could be baloney .
In early versions of the game , the whole reason behind playing was for young girls to get a peek into there future and be given a glimpse of their future husband.
In this version of the game you were suppose to play in a dark house , like the modern version you would light a candle and peer into a mirror , but this time it would have to be a hand mirror , because this version required you to be looking into the mirror whilst walking up the stairs backwards.
If all went well the player would see the face of there future husband in the glass.
But there was also a chance of seeing a screaming skull or the Grim reaper , which indicated death before you had the chance to meet your husband to be .

So where does the Bloody Mary legend come from , is she based on one particular person ,
Well actually there are a few possibilities starting with a witch called Mary worth.
Now you remember that alternative chant i mentioned earlier?
"i Believe in Mary worth"
Well it would seem that a Mary Worth was the name of a witch who lived on the old wagon road ,in Chicago , Illionois during the civil war .
The story goes that Mary would kidnap runaway slaves and keep them in her barn and practice her satanic rituals on them which always ended in death ,
When the locals eventually learned what Mary was doing they took the law into there own hands , which resulted in the witch being dragged from her farm house and burned at the stake , on her own property ,and the corpse was left there for the birds to pick away at what ever was left.
Some time later the the witches farm land was purchased by a farmer and his wife , it is said that the couple built there new home where the witches barn used to be .
One day the the farmer came across a stone when digging out a field , he thought the stone would make a great stepping stone and relocated it else where on his property which seemed to cause absolute mayhem
They started to experience strange happenings such as getting locked in the house or barn , items being thrown around there home,
Realising that they probably removed a grave stone of the witch , the farmer decided to replace the stone , only problem was , he couldn't remember where he had gotten it from in the first place , so the paranormal activity continued until the house was burned to the ground in 1986 due to arson.
Many believe that Mary worth is the origin of bloody Mary.
But there are a few other theories.
Another woman believed to be Mary is
Queen Mary the 1st .
Who reined over England in 1953 until her death in 1958.
It was in this time that Mary ruthlessly ,had several hundred Protestants murdered, in an attempt to restore Christianity in England.
It was because of this she was given the name Bloody Mary by the public , especially the protestants .
Also its worth mentioning that queen Mary never had children and suffered many false pregnancies up until the day she died.
Maybe this is the reason some use the chant
"Mary i have your baby "
Or
"Mary i killed your baby "
Whilst staring into the mirror .
Because of her ruthless ways and cruel intent Queen Mary is often thought of when they think of the urban legend .
Another theory is that the the Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory who was born in 1560 and murdered at least 650 young women between 1585 and 1609.
Guinness world records, actually says that she is the most prolific female murderer ever .
Many of the her victims where young servant girls and peasants girls who were lured to there doom with a promise of payment , or just abducted .
the girls were mainly , 10 to 14 years old.
When the countess was eventually brought to court for her crimes , grim detail emerged as to what happened to the hundreds of young girls who were brutally slaughtered .
An incredible 300 witnesses came forward, and gave some shocking details .
Bathoroy was said to have carried out the following cruelties on the young girls .
Beatings, burning of there flesh , mutilation of the hands , she liked to bite chunks of flesh from there face , arms and legs and other places , she liked submerse them in freezing cold water and pur honey all over them followed by biting ants.
It was also said the the countess was known to bathe in the blood of virgins in a attempt to keep her youth , although the tales of the bathing in blood came long after the trial and there is no evidence of this in the actual court files .
However the bathing in blood might explain the link with the Bloody Mary legend and the spirit appearing covered in blood,
Bathoroy was placed in solitary confinement and kept in a set of rooms which where bricked up inside cachtice castle ,with only small slits for ventilation and food . fours years later she died in that bricked up room ,

Another theory is that the origin of the bloody Mary game may not have started centuries ago , but in more modern times,
But this is more of a Urban legend in its self .
This tale begins when a young woman named Mary worth was involved in a awful car crash , leaving her face horribly mutilated.
Before the crash it is said the young woman was very beautiful and would stare into her reflection every day.
But after the crash, looking in the mirror became a painful experience for Mary and she eventually started to loose her mind , and one day decided to walk into the mirror and terrorize her victims from the other side .
Its probably safe to say this didn't happen , did it ?