Urban legends, myths and folklore

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In honor of Halloween...

What are some Urban legends/folklore from your culture or region?

I know there are many different nationalities on this site and some are very set in folklore.

Curious as to what are lengends/tales from your area.

Some from my area and region are:

The lady of lake ronkonkoma. There is an Indian princess who fell in love with a white man. Her father forbid her to marry him and so she drowned herself in the lake. Every year since she has taken a male victim.

There have been 160 something drowings. Only two were female. It is also legend to be a bottomless lake .

.The Amityville horror ...guy went crazy and killed his whole family. Said the spirits made him do it.

Regionally we have The Jersey devil, and Bigfoot as cyptids.

Share yours
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longafternoonnaps
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in a moonless night in a humble fishing village, a legendary city so bright appears for a few minutes that's so advanced in architectural design that it couldn't have been made by the technology of man.

a mysterious letter from a missing girl appears in her family's doorstep years after her disappearance, detailing how she fell in love and married the wealthiest man in this lost city.

far as i'm concerned though, this might just be human trafficking and shoddy police work.
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Posted by virgoOPPP

in a moonless night in a humble fishing village, a legendary city so bright appears for a few minutes that's so advanced in architectural design that it couldn't have been made by the technology of man.

a mysterious letter from a missing girl appears in her family's doorstep years after her disappearance, detailing how she fell in love and married the wealthiest man in this lost city.

far as i'm concerned though, this might just be human trafficking and shoddy police work.


Prob the latter, but one can dream ...
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longafternoonnaps
@virgoOPPP
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Posted by Boots1313
Posted by virgoOPPP

in a moonless night in a humble fishing village, a legendary city so bright appears for a few minutes that's so advanced in architectural design that it couldn't have been made by the technology of man.

a mysterious letter from a missing girl appears in her family's doorstep years after her disappearance, detailing how she fell in love and married the wealthiest man in this lost city.

far as i'm concerned though, this might just be human trafficking and shoddy police work.

Prob the latter, but one can dream ...
click to expand



check out hungarian folktales

they're amazing
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The Banshee

*************



Banshee means ‘Faerie woman’. A Banshee is known in Ireland as a female spirit who wails outside a home to warn of the imminent death of a family member. Often heard before she is seen, her wailing is that high-pitched that nobody would dare to willingly attempt to witness this terrifying spirit.

In Ireland, the Banshee does not bring or cause death but warns loved ones that death is near which gives the family a chance to prepare. Some believe that she acts as an escort to ensure that their loved one passes safely to the other side.

Legends of the Irish Banshee

Stories of the Banshee have been passed on through the generations for centuries. Some say that the Banshee is the ghost of a young woman who was brutally killed and died so horribly that she now watches families and loved ones warning them of impending death.

According to Legend, the Banshee can also take on many forms. However, in Ireland, she has been most commonly seen as either a beautiful, young woman with long, flowing silver/white (sometimes red) hair or as an old woman in rags with dirty grey hair, long fingernails and sharp-pointed rotten teeth. Both descriptions also give the Banshee eyes which are noticeably red from crying so much.

Here are some appearances that the Banshee is said to take:

-An old woman dressed in black with long grey hair and covering her -face with a veil.

-An old woman with long white hair, red eyes and dressed in a green dress.

-A deathly pale woman with long red hair dressed in a white dress sometimes a shroud.

-A beautiful woman wearing a shroud.

-A beautiful woman with silver-white hair wearing a long shimmering silver dress, carrying or using a silver comb.

-A headless woman naked from the waist up and carrying a bowl of blood.

As you can see there are a few variations on the description of how the Banshee actually looks. However, the fear she instils in people who have the bad luck of hearing her is always the same. What all witnesses of the Banshee agree on is most terrifying wailing.

The Banshee is famous for her long, melancholy keening, which is an Irish word which is used to describe the lament that women used to do over the body of a deceased person to ward off evil spirits.

Originally it was said that the Banshee only keened for the families; O’Grady, O’Neill, O’Brien, O’Connor and Kavanagh. However, there are stories from various other families and that she particularly favourites those with an ‘O’ or a ‘Mc’ in the surname such as O’Brien or McNeill for example.

A personal account of the Banshee

Stories have been passed down through generations of Irish families with their personal experiences and meetings with the Banshee and this family were no different.

“I remember being told as a young child of an Uncle who was walking home on a cold and blustery night. He was probably three sheets to the wind after partaking of a snifter to keep the cold out. On arriving home he told my grandmother that he had tried to comfort an old woman he had met along the way. Describing her, he said, “the old woman was dressed in black with a veil over her face, was crying and wailing outside the house.” Every time he went over to her she moved away but all the while kept pointing at the house.

My Grandmother, with all her knowledge of the old Irish legends, knew straight away what this old lady represented and hurried my Uncle to bed reassuring him that she, herself, would have a look for the old woman. Needless to say, she didn’t dare do such a thing. Then, sure enough, only three days after this strange encounter, my Grandmother’s brother died peacefully in his sleep. As children, we used to plague my uncle to recount the story of the night he tried to invite the Banshee in for tea!”

*~*~*~~*~*

👻



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Pooka

******

Pooka pronounced poo-ka is from the old Irish ‘púca’, which means ‘goblin’. There are many variations of the spelling Pooka some of which are Púca, Plica, Phuca, Pwwka, Puka or Pookha all of which are totally acceptable. It is possible that the origin of the word Pooka may come from the Scandinavian word Pook or Puke meaning ‘nature spirit’.

What is a Pooka?

A Pooka is a shapeshifter and can take any form it chooses but usually, it is seen in the form of a dog, rabbit, goat, goblin or even an old man. Traditionally a Pooka is seen as a dark, sleek horse with a long wild flowing mane and luminescent golden eyes.

An important thing to always remember about a Pooka is that they have the power of human speech and when inclined make great sport of those they talk to as they like to embellish the truth.

In Ireland, the Púca seems to be the most feared Faerie possibly because it appears only at night and enjoys creating havoc and mischief. We feel this is doing the Pooka an injustice because there are no recorded incidences of a Pooka actually causing a human any harm.
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Posted by MyStarsShine

The Banshee

*************



Banshee means ‘Faerie woman’. A Banshee is known in Ireland as a female spirit who wails outside a home to warn of the imminent death of a family member. Often heard before she is seen, her wailing is that high-pitched that nobody would dare to willingly attempt to witness this terrifying spirit.

In Ireland, the Banshee does not bring or cause death but warns loved ones that death is near which gives the family a chance to prepare. Some believe that she acts as an escort to ensure that their loved one passes safely to the other side.

Legends of the Irish Banshee

Stories of the Banshee have been passed on through the generations for centuries. Some say that the Banshee is the ghost of a young woman who was brutally killed and died so horribly that she now watches families and loved ones warning them of impending death.

According to Legend, the Banshee can also take on many forms. However, in Ireland, she has been most commonly seen as either a beautiful, young woman with long, flowing silver/white (sometimes red) hair or as an old woman in rags with dirty grey hair, long fingernails and sharp-pointed rotten teeth. Both descriptions also give the Banshee eyes which are noticeably red from crying so much.

Here are some appearances that the Banshee is said to take:

-An old woman dressed in black with long grey hair and covering her -face with a veil.

-An old woman with long white hair, red eyes and dressed in a green dress.

-A deathly pale woman with long red hair dressed in a white dress sometimes a shroud.

-A beautiful woman wearing a shroud.

-A beautiful woman with silver-white hair wearing a long shimmering silver dress, carrying or using a silver comb.

-A headless woman naked from the waist up and carrying a bowl of blood.

As you can see there are a few variations on the description of how the Banshee actually looks. However, the fear she instils in people who have the bad luck of hearing her is always the same. What all witnesses of the Banshee agree on is most terrifying wailing.

The Banshee is famous for her long, melancholy keening, which is an Irish word which is used to describe the lament that women used to do over the body of a deceased person to ward off evil spirits.

Originally it was said that the Banshee only keened for the families; O’Grady, O’Neill, O’Brien, O’Connor and Kavanagh. However, there are stories from various other families and that she particularly favourites those with an ‘O’ or a ‘Mc’ in the surname such as O’Brien or McNeill for example.

A personal account of the Banshee

Stories have been passed down through generations of Irish families with their personal experiences and meetings with the Banshee and this family were no different.

“I remember being told as a young child of an Uncle who was walking home on a cold and blustery night. He was probably three sheets to the wind after partaking of a snifter to keep the cold out. On arriving home he told my grandmother that he had tried to comfort an old woman he had met along the way. Describing her, he said, “the old woman was dressed in black with a veil over her face, was crying and wailing outside the house.” Every time he went over to her she moved away but all the while kept pointing at the house.

My Grandmother, with all her knowledge of the old Irish legends, knew straight away what this old lady represented and hurried my Uncle to bed reassuring him that she, herself, would have a look for the old woman. Needless to say, she didn’t dare do such a thing. Then, sure enough, only three days after this strange encounter, my Grandmother’s brother died peacefully in his sleep. As children, we used to plague my uncle to recount the story of the night he tried to invite the Banshee in for tea!”

*~*~*~~*~*

👻


Ooo yes chills

When I was a child my mom use to call me a banshee because I would scream my head off and run around the house 😂.

My grandmother was very superstitious.

She has a similar story she would tell me.

"If you ever head a sceech owl, it warms of death".

On several occasions she would tell me "I heard a screech owl, old man so and so has been I'll, maybe he will die tonight" and sure enough it would happen.

On the night she had a stroke that took her life, I heard a screech owl while walking home from the bar.

I'm not sure if it's coincidence , but to this day I get chills if I hear a screech owl.
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Posted by virgoOPPP
Posted by Boots1313
Posted by virgoOPPP

in a moonless night in a humble fishing village, a legendary city so bright appears for a few minutes that's so advanced in architectural design that it couldn't have been made by the technology of man.

a mysterious letter from a missing girl appears in her family's doorstep years after her disappearance, detailing how she fell in love and married the wealthiest man in this lost city.

far as i'm concerned though, this might just be human trafficking and shoddy police work.

Prob the latter, but one can dream ...

check out hungarian folktales

they're amazing
click to expand



Any specific ones you recommend?
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MyStarsShine
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Posted by Boots1313
Posted by MyStarsShine

The Banshee

*************



Banshee means ‘Faerie woman’. A Banshee is known in Ireland as a female spirit who wails outside a home to warn of the imminent death of a family member. Often heard before she is seen, her wailing is that high-pitched that nobody would dare to willingly attempt to witness this terrifying spirit.

In Ireland, the Banshee does not bring or cause death but warns loved ones that death is near which gives the family a chance to prepare. Some believe that she acts as an escort to ensure that their loved one passes safely to the other side.

Legends of the Irish Banshee

Stories of the Banshee have been passed on through the generations for centuries. Some say that the Banshee is the ghost of a young woman who was brutally killed and died so horribly that she now watches families and loved ones warning them of impending death.

According to Legend, the Banshee can also take on many forms. However, in Ireland, she has been most commonly seen as either a beautiful, young woman with long, flowing silver/white (sometimes red) hair or as an old woman in rags with dirty grey hair, long fingernails and sharp-pointed rotten teeth. Both descriptions also give the Banshee eyes which are noticeably red from crying so much.

Here are some appearances that the Banshee is said to take:

-An old woman dressed in black with long grey hair and covering her -face with a veil.

-An old woman with long white hair, red eyes and dressed in a green dress.

-A deathly pale woman with long red hair dressed in a white dress sometimes a shroud.

-A beautiful woman wearing a shroud.

-A beautiful woman with silver-white hair wearing a long shimmering silver dress, carrying or using a silver comb.

-A headless woman naked from the waist up and carrying a bowl of blood.

As you can see there are a few variations on the description of how the Banshee actually looks. However, the fear she instils in people who have the bad luck of hearing her is always the same. What all witnesses of the Banshee agree on is most terrifying wailing.

The Banshee is famous for her long, melancholy keening, which is an Irish word which is used to describe the lament that women used to do over the body of a deceased person to ward off evil spirits.

Originally it was said that the Banshee only keened for the families; O’Grady, O’Neill, O’Brien, O’Connor and Kavanagh. However, there are stories from various other families and that she particularly favourites those with an ‘O’ or a ‘Mc’ in the surname such as O’Brien or McNeill for example.

A personal account of the Banshee

Stories have been passed down through generations of Irish families with their personal experiences and meetings with the Banshee and this family were no different.

“I remember being told as a young child of an Uncle who was walking home on a cold and blustery night. He was probably three sheets to the wind after partaking of a snifter to keep the cold out. On arriving home he told my grandmother that he had tried to comfort an old woman he had met along the way. Describing her, he said, “the old woman was dressed in black with a veil over her face, was crying and wailing outside the house.” Every time he went over to her she moved away but all the while kept pointing at the house.

My Grandmother, with all her knowledge of the old Irish legends, knew straight away what this old lady represented and hurried my Uncle to bed reassuring him that she, herself, would have a look for the old woman. Needless to say, she didn’t dare do such a thing. Then, sure enough, only three days after this strange encounter, my Grandmother’s brother died peacefully in his sleep. As children, we used to plague my uncle to recount the story of the night he tried to invite the Banshee in for tea!”

*~*~*~~*~*

👻

Ooo yes chills

When I was a child my mom use to call me a banshee because I would scream my head off and run around the house 😂.

My grandmother was very superstitious.

She has a similar story she would tell me.

"If you ever head a sceech owl, it warms of death".

On several occasions she would tell me "I heard a screech owl, old man so and so has been I'll, maybe he will die tonight" and sure enough it would happen.

On the night she had a stroke that took her life, I heard a screech owl while walking home from the bar.

I'm not sure if it's coincidence , but to this day I get chills if I hear a screech owl.
click to expand



Wow....that is some story....!
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Posted by AnotherTaurusGuyReturns
Posted by Boots1313
Posted by AnotherTaurusGuyReturns

@virgoOPPP - have you gone to try to see the city?

A castle near me is supposed to be haunted by a woman who was secretly married to the Lord of the castle but some priests threw her down a well.

Yikes, getting images of the ring with that one.

Apparently the ghost rises back out of the well.
click to expand


👻
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Posted by FuckItWhatever

In the town/city I grew up in the majority of people I was close to said they’d seen some type of ghost/demon/spirit or something like that they couldn’t explain at some point in their life. There was this one old cemetery with a park next to it where lots of people including me saw dark shadow figures. Lots of people said they saw them on the canals that ran through town too. This is just small scale stuff I personally experienced though and there’s no cool urban myth that goes along with it lol

I lived in Hawaii for a few years too, and there the idea of ghosts and spirits is very ingrained in the culture and I guess seen as more ‘normal’ than it might be other places. There’s lots of that stuff in ancient Hawaiian religion and other Pacific Islander religion. And in some Asian cultures like Japanese, and a lot of Japanese people live in Hawaii.

One prominent myth there involves the spirits of Ancient Hawaiian tribal warriors, there was a lot of different battles through the years and as the islands aren’t that big, you’re never too far away from where one too place over centuries and centuries of time. They call the spirits of these warriors “Nightmarchers”

https://www.to-hawaii.com/legends/night-marchers.php

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmarchers


Oooohh I saw the nightmarchers on a t.v show once

You die if you look at then or something?

Love, how spirits are so ingrained in some cultures.
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Posted by FuckItWhatever
Posted by Boots1313
Posted by FuckItWhatever

In the town/city I grew up in the majority of people I was close to said they’d seen some type of ghost/demon/spirit or something like that they couldn’t explain at some point in their life. There was this one old cemetery with a park next to it where lots of people including me saw dark shadow figures. Lots of people said they saw them on the canals that ran through town too. This is just small scale stuff I personally experienced though and there’s no cool urban myth that goes along with it lol

I lived in Hawaii for a few years too, and there the idea of ghosts and spirits is very ingrained in the culture and I guess seen as more ‘normal’ than it might be other places. There’s lots of that stuff in ancient Hawaiian religion and other Pacific Islander religion. And in some Asian cultures like Japanese, and a lot of Japanese people live in Hawaii.

One prominent myth there involves the spirits of Ancient Hawaiian tribal warriors, there was a lot of different battles through the years and as the islands aren’t that big, you’re never too far away from where one too place over centuries and centuries of time. They call the spirits of these warriors “Nightmarchers”

https://www.to-hawaii.com/legends/night-marchers.php

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmarchers

Oooohh I saw the nightmarchers on a t.v show once

You die if you look at then or something?

Love, how spirits are so ingrained in some cultures.

Yeah they say if you look away and show them proper respect you’ll be fine, but if you look at them especially in a threatening way they’ll getcha 😟

Yeah it’s cool to learn about this kind of stuff. By now a lot of these folklore concepts have spread around the whole world because of how connected everything is, but it’s cool to learn about their roots in their countries of origin and see what influence they had in the culture
click to expand



That's why I made this thread.

I have researched a lot of folklores. But everyday there are stories I hear about that I didn't know. it's more interesting to hear from those who either have expierences or where it's a part of life, or the stories have been passed down from generation.

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Ok. Oct 12th on my way to my daughters BDay party my roofer company calling me and woman says it am so sorry about your loss...I thought my roof was blown off and away...

So I’ve asked what happened?

She says...it’s a shame you should be going trough this tragedy...

I was like SHIT! What are you talking about?

She said...about death in your family...

I said...WHAAAAT?

She goes...sooooo...nobody died in your family?

I was told my eyes were bigger than my eye glasses...I said NOoooo!!!

She started to apologize profusely and I was like whatever...but I was shaken up of course...

THEN instead of hanging up she says...I just wanted to remind you about the balance for your roof installation...

I lost it!!!

I was like...YOU CALLING TO SAY THAT AT TIME OF DEATH IN THE FAMILY—

She went...is this miss XXX

I am like NOOOOO!!!

.......and if you will call me one more time there is going to be death in YOUR family!!!

Must I tell you I’ve got drunk at that party?

...🤦‍♀️...
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Posted by shakedown

10 Minutes From My Home:

Image Not Found

"According to folklore, she was cruel when she was alive, scaring neighbors frequently and being accused of casting a spell on her husband that made him walk off a cliff. She is said to have predicted her own death, casting a spell upon her home so that shortly after her corpse was carried out, it burst into flames."

That's messed up.

Anything freaky happen in the area because of that?
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Posted by shakedown
Posted by FuckItWhatever
Posted by shakedown

I love the myth about "The Winchester House." Freaks me out.

The one in San Jose, California? If so I’ve been there lol. I was a kid when I went though so I thought it was kinda boring tbh lol...didn’t see any ghosts 👻

Yes!!! No ghosts 😔😔😔, but I would love to visit.
click to expand



House is freaky. Definitely on my bucket list.

I thought there were spirits ...isn't that why she built the house and was in constant construction? To keep the spirits of the Winchester rifel at bay?
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Posted by FuckItWhatever
Posted by Boots1313
Posted by shakedown
Posted by FuckItWhatever
Posted by shakedown

I love the myth about "The Winchester House." Freaks me out.

The one in San Jose, California? If so I’ve been there lol. I was a kid when I went though so I thought it was kinda boring tbh lol...didn’t see any ghosts 👻

Yes!!! No ghosts 😔😔😔, but I would love to visit.

House is freaky. Definitely on my bucket list.

I thought there were spirits ...isn't that why she built the house and was in constant construction? To keep the spirits of the Winchester rifel at bay?

Yea there’s different theories about the place, the main point of the myth is that the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles haunt the house. And then the actual house itself has all kinds of weird things going on. Like iirc tons of stuff in the house is related to the number 13, like a staircase with 13 steps, candleholders that hold 13 candles, stuff like that. And then there’s staircases that lead nowhere just going straight to the ceiling. She could’ve always just been a crazy lady, but ghosts are more fun lol
click to expand



What's wrong with the #13? 🙃😉

Anyway, yeah i know of the legend. Doors that lead to 10ft drops and stairways to nowhere

Just an interesting piece of architecture, with or without ghosts!