La Llorona (the crying woman) has terrified Hispanics across the United States and Latin America for over five hundred years. Below is a historical timeline detailing her ascension as a living legend.
1502-In the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, the goddess Cihuacoatl takes the form of a beautiful lady draped in white garments. Throughout the night she cries out in misery, “Oh hijos mios…ya ha llegado vuestra destruccion. Donde os llevare?” (Oh my children…your destruction has arrived. Where can I take you?) Many believe that Cihuacoalt was speaking of the future conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards.
1505-A girl child named La Malinche is born in the Aztec province of Coatzacoalcos of a noble Aztec family...
Although we are in the twenty-first century a fabulous mythical stories continue to emerge, and one of them is the chupacabras, a supposed magical been who feeds on barnyard animals, a monster that stalks the cattle and that he suck the blood of cows, sheep and pigs. Initially started as a rumor the history of la chupacabra became increasingly famous in a few years and news from around the world began to do specials about this, reporting on the strange events in Mexico and the United States, including some in Puerto Rico and Argentina. And thousands of people claim to have it seen this creature...
Is a Salvadoran legend or myth that tells about an apparition in the form of a woman with her face covered by thick, gray-black hair, white arms with fine, ivory-like, long and thin fingered hand and shiny, pointed nails. The legend says that La Siguanaba or Siguamonta (Indian Pipil word that means beautiful woman) only appears at night in trails to single men or men that live out of marriage with a woman, to boys and old men, when they are not wearing blessed medals, crosses or religious insignias. To avoid the appearance of the spirit, the advice is to carry in your left pocket a piece of red colored cloth, place on the hat a cross made from pins or say to the apparition: "Mary, take your hen's leg" or "Comadre (godmother of my child), here is your little cigar"...
Navajo witches differ greatly from the European variety and can't be recognized with the same methods. Unlike main stream European black-witchcraft there are no warning signs for the presence of a witch at work if they are in human form [i.e. blue flame, spoiled milk, etc., a la Warlock]. It would behoove you to know the behavior of a Navajo witch in order to spot and stay clear of this maleficent being.
All Navajo witchcraft categories, with one exception (see notes below bibliography), are associated with the dead and death. A couple of generations back this association was the easiest way to identify a witch. With the proliferation of weirdness in the Navajo youth population a witch can no longer be spotted by a person's romance with the ghastly things in life. If black clothing decorated with skulls were enough to designate witchcraft then a large chunk of the Navajo population, the writer of this paper included, would be labeled as a witch...
Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is an alleged ape-like creature purportedly inhabiting forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid.
The scientific community considers Bigfoot to be a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoaxes, rather than a real creature.[2] In general, mainstream scientific consensus does not support the posited existence of megafauna cryptids such as Bigfoot, because of the improbably large numbers necessary to maintain a breeding population[3] and because climate and food supply issues would make such purported creatures' survival in reported habitats unlikely.[4] Despite these facts, Bigfoot is one of the more famous examples of a cryptid within cryptozoology.
The Charing Green Man has vines issuing from his mouth, an obvious symbol of fertility. His hair resembles a field of corn, the tuft in the middle is like a sheaf. His ears are like the embryonic shapes in the paisley pattern, which are the ears of corn. Moreover, the Charing Green man is half cat. The importance to fertility rites of the cat can be found in Frazer's Golden Bough, that encyclopedia of ancient religious practices.
The cat was taken to be the Corn Spirit. Why is not quite clear and other animals are sometimes taken as such, but perhaps because every farmyard has a cat to defend the grain from vermin and the cat is always associated with magic. Frazer describes how, at harvest, a cat is decorated with leaves and ribbons and let loose into the field. However, he also describes how sometimes the cat is sacrificed - in order to insure a future good harvest, blood must be spilt on the land. Such primitive behaviour was quite common and the sacrifice was not always animal. Human sacrifice is known to have occurred and there are legends, even in the British Isles, which allude to this. The half man, half cat fertility figure is perhaps some echo of this....
Perhaps the most frequently told ghost story in Georgetown County is that of the Grey Man.
According to numerous documented accounts, he appears on the beach at Pawleys Island prior to hurricanes. Everyone who has seen the Grey Man says that he warns them to leave the island.
Residents who are wise enough to heed the Grey Man's warning always find their homes undamaged after the storm. Encounters with the Grey Man have taken place before every major hurricane that has struck the island for more than a hundred years.
The Grey Man is unquestionably a permanent resident of Pawleys Island, but what causes this kind spirit to warn unsuspecting residents of approaching danger? The answer may lie in one of three different accounts that exist about the origin of the Grey Man.
WHETHER the worshippers of Juggernaut are to be reckoned among the followers of Vishnu or Siva, our authorities differ. The temple stands near the shore, about three hundred miles south-west of Calcutta. The idol is a carved block of wood, with a hideous face, painted black, and a distended blood-red mouth. On festival days the throne of the image is placed on a tower sixty feet high, moving on wheels. Six long ropes are attached to the tower, by which the people draw it along. The priests and their attendants stand round the throne on the tower, and occasionally turn to the worshippers with songs and gestures...
The Valkyries had often inspired poets as women-warriors. Their name means, "Chooser of the Slain", and were often called battle-maidens, shield-maidens, swan-maidens, wish-maidens and mead-maidens. As these names suggest, they had various functions.
Their main duty was to select the slain warriors, who had fallen in battle or other combat, such as quest or killing dragon, etc. These slain warriors were known as the Einherjar (Einheriar), and were chosen to fight alongside with the Aesir gods at Ragnarok. The Einherjar waited for Ragnarok, in Odin's hall, called Valhalla.
They were sometimes called "Swan-maiden", because they wore garments made of swan feathers that allowed them to fly, carrying off the slain warriors to the hall called Valhalla. Their other duties included serving mead or ales in drinking-horns or mugs to the Einherjar in Valhalla...
Guanina was a Taino Indian princess in love with Don Cristobal de Sotomayor, a Spanish officer who had come to Borinquen to conquer and colonize. Her brother, Guaybana, was the principal chief of the Tainos who hated the Spaniards because of the way they had mistreated and betrayed the Tainos. He swore revenge against the Spaniards. Juan Gonzalez, Sotomayor’s aide, found out about the plan to kill his captain and tried to warn him. Sotomayor would not hear of the planned uprising. He sent for Guaybana and for some of his men to carry his baggage, since he was going to Caparra, the capital.
Guanina begged him not to go because she knew that he was going to die and that it would be her own brother who would kill him. Sotomayor did not change his plans, and the next morning set out with Guaybana and his men to the city. On the way, he and five other Spaniards were attacked by the Tainos, and Sotomayor was killed. When Guanina was given the news of her lover’s death, she tried to bring him back to life through her kisses and caresses.
The Taino elders considered Guanina a traitor, and decided to offer her as a sacrifice to the gods as a sign of their gratitude in succeeding in their attack. When they went to get Guanina, they found her dead with her head resting on Sotomayor’s bloody chest. The two were buried together near a giant ceiba tree and on their tomb red hibiscus and white lilies appeared as if by magic. These flowers represent the true and passionate love these two souls felt for each other. The legend has it that on occasion, the huge ceiba tree casts a shadow over the land, a soft breeze gently moves the leaves and whispering sounds are heard, then Guanina and Sotomayor come out of the tomb to look at the evening star and kiss each other under the light of the moon...
The Basuto tell the legend as follows.
Once upon a time there appeared in our country a huge, shapeless thing called Khodumodumo (but some people call it Kammapa). It swallowed every living creature that came in its way. At last it came through a pass in the mountains into a valley where there were several villages; it went to one after another, and swallowed the people, the cattle, the goats, the dogs, and the fowls. In the last village was a woman who had just happened to sit down on the ash-heap. She saw the monster coming, smeared herself all over with ashes, and ran into the calves' pen, where she crouched on the ground. Khodumodumo, having finished all the people and animals, came and looked into the place, but could see nothing moving, for, the woman being smeared with ashes and keeping quite still, it took her for a stone. It then turned and went away, but when it reached the narrow pass (or nek) at the entrance to the valley it had swelled to such a size that it could not get through, and was forced to stay where it was...
Also known as Magpie Festival, Qi Xi Festival it always falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese Calendar [this year, it's Wednesday, August 26, 2009]. It is sometimes called Chinese Valentine's Day in recent years.
Young girls traditionally demonstrate their domestic arts, especially melon carving, on this day and make wishes for a good husband. Another tradition is for young girls to throw a sewing needle into a bowl full of water on the night of Qi Xi as a test of embroidery skills. If the needle floats on top of the water instead of sinking, it is believed to be an indication of the girl's being a skilled embroiderer.
Thousands of years ago, there lived a young cowherd. He was an orphan who had taken shelter with his elder brother, until the latter married a shrew, who hounded her brother-in-law out of the house and into the cow-tending business...
The discovery of fire not only completely altered man's way of life, but set him apart from the rest of creation as nothing else could have done. A number of myths tell of its origin. Sometimes fire was given by a sky-dweller; often it was left by a lightning flash, or it was brought by a small bird after a long journey to a burning volcano.
A South Australian myth relates how a man, Kondole, hid his fire stick, rather than bring it with him to provide light for an evening's ceremony. When Kondole became a whale, another man, Tudrun, set out to find the precious fire stick. He had not searched for long when he saw a grass tree glowing with a strange light. This was Kondole's fire, which, escaping from its secret hiding place, had set alight the dry flower stem of the grass tree.
Ever since, when the aborigines need fire, they take a flower stem of the grass tree and rub it vigorously with a piece of harder wood. The friction causes Kondole's hidden fire to ignite the powdered wood-dust, and the aborigines have fire; fire to cook their food, fire to keep them warm, and fire to protect them from the dangerous spirits of the night...
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