By: Hannah Barnette
Remember that childhood game we all used to play? The one that always had you breathless with terror and excitement? You’d lock yourself in a bathroom, trembling, with your friends giggling outside the door, hoping you would see something but also hoping nothing terrible would happen to you. Then you’d shut off the lights, place yourself in front of the mirror and spin around solemnly, repeating “Bloody Mary” three times. Then you would force your eyes open and look for Bloody Mary’s reflection in your mirror.
Apparently, we’ve all been doing it wrong.
According to popular folklore from the early twentieth century, Bloody Mary was a spirit or ghost conjured in a mirror to show the future. Young women were encouraged to walk backwards up a flight of stairs in a darkened house, holding a candle. As they gazed into the mirror they were supposedly able to catch a glimpse of their future husband, but there was a catch: if a skull or “grim” appeared, it meant the woman would die before marriage.
The original Bloody Mary had nothing to do with either of these traditions. Historically, two women earned that moniker. The first was Queen Mary I, daughter of King Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. She was called “Bloody Mary” for two reasons. The first was personal: she suffered multiple miscarriages and two false or “phantom” pregnancies. The second reason was more significant: an ardent Catholic, she executed over 300 English Protestants for heresy during her reign.
The other woman was Mary Worth, who according to local legend lived on the Old Wagon Road in Chicago during the Civil War. She was an accused witch executed for dealing in the black arts.
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