I’m talking the urban legend here, not the queen or the cocktail. She’s one popular lady. Doing a Google search will get you over three million hits. Of course not all of those relate to the urban legend.

There are various versions of the legend but in the end they’re all pretty much the same. Mary is a ghost or a witch and you summon her by chanting Bloody Mary a specified number of times while looking into a mirror. Some versions say three times. Some say thirteen times. Some say a hundred times. In some you have to say “I believe in Mary Worth” while looking in the mirror. Almost always you chant the words in the bathroom. And you always chant in a darkened room. This will summon Mary. Most versions of the legend say Mary will kill the person who summoned her. One version states that if you summon her by chanting her name thirteen times at midnight you will be able to speak to a dead person. At 11:08 am Mary and the dead person will vanish.

Wikipedia has a listing of the Bloody Mary folklore. Some interesting stuff there that I’d never heard when it came to the legend. For instance the being able to speak to a dead person. There is speculation on where the legend originated. In most of the versions I’ve seen the woman’s full name is Mary Worth and she was a child murderer. In others Mary was the victim of a violent crime and punishes others when she is summoned. One book I have on urban legends says the myth dates back to seventeenth century Massachusetts. In that version Mary was horribly disfigured and eventually accused of being in league with the Devil and was hanged. Children chanted her name 99 times. She appeared in the mirror, her hands claws, and she reached out to the children. They ran shrieking from the room.

Hollywood loves the Bloody Mary legend. A number of movies have been made based on the urban legend. There have been TV shows with episodes dedicated to Mary as well. My favourite of course being the Supernatural episode, Bloody Mary, from season one.

If I thought I could do a retelling of the Bloody Mary legend that was fresh, with a new twist I would write a script about it. For now I might just stick with little known urban legends instead. Some of those will be appearing in later installments of Freaky Friday.

Now, I’m off to get some work done. I’m working from home today so the commute is much better.

Until next time…

Cindy