They tell you to be careful of urban legends, like BigFoot or the Loch Ness
monster, in which naive children gather around a campfire and hear about creatures
beyond their imagination. Suddenly, the group becomes quiet and suspenseful, until the
storyteller suddenly makes the whole group gasp and shout by screaming out the fate of
the protagonist. Such stories are designed to make the listener anticipate your next
words even more, so why not introduce them to these stories from around the world
that might keep them up at night during the spooky season.
La llorona (The Weeping Woman) – Mexican folklore
“¡Te va a robar la llorona!” is something my uncles whispered to me before I left
my house during a quiet and weary night, and I am certain that most of the
Hispanic/Latinx can relate to it.
Region: Latin America, Mexico, American Southwest
Origin: Some say that she resembles the Aztec goddess Coatilicue, who was heard
weeping right before Spanish conquest over her children. Others claim that she must be
the ghost of a beggar from Ciudad Juarez, Maria, who neglected and disposed of her
children in the Rio Grande to attract a wealthy man.
Tale: Encounters with her are deadly, and usually occur near rivers and with children,
where she wails for her dead children and takes those that she finds.
Jiang-Shi (The Hopping Vampires) – Chinese folklore
Region: China, East Asia
Origin: During the Qing dynasty, Chinese workers who died far away from their home
needed to be returned to their place of birth to prevent spirits from being homesick.
“Corpse drivers” transported these workers and their coffins were attached to bamboo
poles that rested on other’s shoulders, and it looked like the dead were bouncing on
their own!
Tale: Sometimes, they’re spotted with officer uniforms, and their arms seem to be
outstretched due to rigor mortis. They hop on about, hence the name and bring bad
luck to the living and steal the qi, or life force, from them.
Ghuls (Ghouls) – Arabic folklore
Region: Middle East
Origin: The word “gallu” may have been the name of an Akkadian demon in
Mesopotamian mythology. With tales from different cultures about the same creature,
scholars compiled the tales into “The Thousand and One Nights”, or as we know it, the
Arabian Nights, which detailed the clever and savage flesh eaters who lured men as
beautiful women, and associated with digging up graves and consuming what is inside.
