Mari Lwyd

The Mari Lwyd tradition was once carried out in South Wales. Groups of men would go around door-to-door with a horse prop, made of a horse skull on a stick, asking for entry to the house in a song. The homeowners would deny entrance through a song, and it would go back and forth until someone eventually gave up. If the homeowner gave up first, the group of men would be granted access to their home and would be allowed food and drink and to basically cause chaos in the house.

Source: emgn.com

Kallikantzaros

A malevolent goblin in Southeastern folklore, Kallikantzaros lives underground but comes out between Christmas and Epiphany to play pranks on people and scare them. So he’s pretty much the grinch of mythology.

Source: emgn.com

Consoda

In Portugal, it is tradition for people to wake up early on Christmas morning and have a big feast. The feast is knows as Consoda. It honors dead relatives and celebrates ancestors. Families set out extra plates and sometimes even leave crumbs on the plate.

Source: emgn.com

Père Fouettard

Similar to Knecht Ruprecht, Père Fouettard would accompany Saint Nicholas. Originating in France and southern Belgium, the story of Père Fouettard is a pretty sinister one. Père Fouettard was a butcher who came across three wealthy boys on their way to boarding school, captured them and robbed them. Later he killed them, chopped up their bodies and kept them in a barrel. After Saint Nicholas found out, Père Fouettard was punished and spent the rest of his days following Saint Nicholas.

Source: emgn.com

Knecht Ruprecht

Similar to Belsnickel, Knecht Ruprecht would carry around a switch. He was said to be a helper to Saint Nicholas, going door-to-door to ask parents about their children’s behaviour. If they’d been naughty, he’d punish them with the switch.

Source: emgn.com

Krampus

Krampus is one of the most common Christmas myths. It’s slowly growing in popularity in America and has made several TV appearances on American Dad!, Grimm, and Krampus, an upcoming horror comedy. The German tale goes way back and tells the story of a large horned creature that works opposite Santa Claus, abducting and killing naughty children.

Source: emgn.com

Frau Perchta

This scary lady would roam the countryside during winter and enter homes between Christmas and Epiphany, according to Bavarian and Austrian folklore. If kids and servants had been nice, she’d leave them with a silver coin. If they hadn’t been, she would cut open their abdomen, take out their organs and replace them with straw.

Source: emgn.com

Belsnickel

This creepy fella originates from the middle-ages in Europe. He was one of the first to separate the good kids from the naughty. However, he did allow kids to redeem themselves if they had been bad all year. Throughout the year, the masked Belsnickel would leave candy in nice kids’ houses, and leave the naughty kids with a switch. 

Although he never actually used the switch on kids, the stories vary. In some stories, he would leave the bad kids with nothing, in other stories he would either abduct them and never let them go home or take them to the forrest to punish them for their bad behaviour.

Source: emgn.com

Jólakötturinn

This Icelandic Christmas cat dates back to the 19th century. According to the legend, Jólakötturinn is a huge cat that roams the streets around Christmas time, praying on those who don’t wear new clothes. Those unable to buy new clothes for the holidays, the Yule cat eats. Some say the story was created to make people work harder around the holiday period.

Source: emgn.com

Yule lads

In another Icelandic legend, the Yule lads range from being bloodthirsty murderers to mischievous pranksters. Originally there were 13 Yule lads that would travel from the mountains where they live with their mother, Grýla, to the villages to scare unsuspecting victims. They take turns visiting kids 13 days before Christmas. Each Yule lad leaves a small gift for nice kids or a rotten potato for naughty kids.

Source: emgn.com

Grýla

Probably the creepiest of Christmas myths, Grýla is a mountain giantess/troll. According to Icelandic folklore, she travels from the mountains in search of naughty children. When she finds them, she abducts them and eats them. Is it any surprise children are rarely naughty in Iceland?

Source: emgn.com

La Befana

La Befana is an Italian Christmas witch. Not terrifying in any way, but a very strange legend. She is pictured as an old woman who flies on a broomstick and carries a large bag. According to the old folklore tale, she visits children on Epiphany Eve to determine if they have been naughty or nice. Very much like Santa, if the kids have been nice, she rewards them with gifts and candy. If they’ve been naughty she leaves them a dark lump of coal.

Source: emgn.com

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Scariest Mythological Creatures in the Philippines

Read more about Mythological Creatures in the Philippines: https://bit.ly/2DLFnTE

My Dead Aunt

This story happened a few years back as 2010 and has been told by my other tita, which is my dad's first cousin.

We are residing in Bacolod City, the City of Smiles. This city is being heralded as the most liveable city by experts in the Philippines due to its affordable lifestyle and rising infrastructure.

My Dad's cousin, Diday, is known to have a third eye. She can see dead people even if the person had died several years ago. One day, our other aunt in Manila, Tita Reri, passed away due to illness. It was around 2000 or so, I'm not so sure I'm not good at dates, unfortunately.

 

Aunt Reri lived with our other aunt, Tita Fally, together with her family before she went to Manila to stay with our other aunt, Tita Kashmir. They're all siblings, they're around 9 of them but the 2 siblings died when they were young. Our Aunt Diday is staying at our Tita Fally's house.

One night, when they were all asleep, Tita Diday heard a voice of a woman, like talking to herself. She sounded like she's angry or something and Tita Diday paused a bit to locate where was this voice came from. Tita Fally's house is a two-story house, all of their bedrooms are upstairs with a living room at the center on the second floor. Then, there's a cabinet owned by Tita Reri which is locked with all of her personal belongings inside.

The sound that Tita Diday heard was from the second-floor living room and the woman sounded like she's looking for something inside the cabinet. Tita Diday stood and checked by opening the door from their bedroom and found a woman dressed like our beloved Tita Reri. Tita Diday froze a few seconds when she saw the woman and quickly went back to bed, covers herself with a blanket and prayed until the voice was gone.

This story always sends a shiver down my spine when I remember it. Actually, I felt goosebumps while I'm writing this.

Source: www.yourghoststories.com

Michael Jackson's ghost seen on live TV!

Michael Jackson's Neverland "Ghost" Mystery Solved By CNN. Watch until the end for the explanation of the ghostly dark figure.

My Father's Hometown

We also lived in my father's hometown at San Carlos City, Pangasinan from 1998-2000. The first house that we move in was demolished in 1998 because the government of Marikina have a project to make a road connecting Marcos Highway and C-5 road. They will build the highway on the riverside and have to remove the houses near the river because of the project. So my parents decided to stay in province shortly.

It was an old modern 2-storeys Spanish style house. Old modern because that was the style of the house after World War 2. Two floors which the first floor was made of stone/cemented and the second floor was made of wood. Spanish style because of the type of window at the second floor which was two sliding window that made of capiz. It was also creepy because of the oldness and the history of the house.

The house was facing east. On front was a vacant lot which also our garage with a big Jackfruit tree. After the vacant lot was the road and the river. The both side of the house were our neighbors' houses. At the back was a vacant lot with lot of trees such as Star fruit tree, Guava tree, a young Santol (cottonfruit) tree, Kamansi (breadnut) tree, Sugar Apple tree, Mango tree, Annatto tree, Plum/jocote tree, and my father and I also planted Banana tree.

The door was placed in the middle so upon entering the door, on your left was the staircase going up and on your right was the living and receiving area. Under the stair was our altar and next to it was a room which my aunt told us that our grandfather had died in that room. That room has no wall to separate the living room and we used curtain as a divider. That room was under the terrace. Near that room was a door connecting to the dining and kitchen. At your left was an old glass shelf used to put our plates and glasses. The right part was the round dining table and next to the shelf was a door connecting outside. Next was the sink with a jar of water then the stove which composed of gas stove on the right and charcoal stove on the left.

La Mala Hora

La Mala Hora is an evil spirit that wanders along quiet roads waiting to pounce on unsuspecting travelers.

La Mala Hora takes pleasure in driving humans insane. As if that wasn’t enough, this dark spirit also hypnotizes and paralyzes people and then attacks them while they are in that weakened state. After suffocating them, La Mala Hora leaves them next to the road. Citizens of New Mexico refuse to talk about it, simply referring to it as an evil thing. They believe that if you encounter the spirit in female human form, it is an omen of death. If you happen to see her at a crossroads, it is very likely that you or someone close to you will be dead soon.

In an apparent run-in with La Mala Hora, a woman was driving down a deserted highway just after midnight when a black shadow appeared at the crossroads ahead. When she hit the brakes, the shadow disappeared, and in its place was an old lady with red eyes and sharp teeth. The old lady proceeded to try and claw her way into the car. The woman sped off down the highway, only to find the freaky old lady was keeping up with her, running next to the car. She eventually outran the specter and saw in the rearview mirror that the evil old lady had grown to the size of a large tree. The woman returned to her house the next morning and found police officers waiting for her. Turns out her husband had been murdered just after midnight the night before.

Source: listverse.com

Woke Up To A Ghost Of A Soldier Sleeping Next To Me

I was living in Okinawa, and already aware of it's rich history, and hauntings. I lived off base in the top level of a two story house near the ocean. There are a few little things that occurred, and I still don't know what to make of them, but what I'm about to tell you is still a mystery to me. I can't shake the experience I had, and not even sure if what I experienced, actually happened.

One night I woke up for no reason at all to a white man dressed in military garb lying right in between my husband and me. I'm not sure if he was wearing a U.S. WWII, or a Vietnam era military uniform. I think it was WWII.

When I awoke, I looked right at him, like I was simply supposed to. He was lying comfortably snug between us, with his feet crossed, and hands drapped across his stomach in a very relaxed manner. He was half sitting up, and slumped back against the headboard.

10 Philippine Urban Legends that Still Haunt Us Today

Filipinos are full of superstitions. We often say there’s nothing to lose if we believe (“walang mawawala kapag maniwala”), and so we often combine scientific medication with superstition such as quack doctors, faith healers, and miraculous people or items. We also try resonating folktales and myths as if they were the truth behind things we can’t explain or are curious about. The following are some of the most popular urban legends that many Pinoys continue to believe.

Source: www.topten.ph

Governor Van Noodt And The Lady In Grey

Spooky castles aren’t only found in Europe. In Cape Town, South Africa, stands the infamous Castle of Good Hope, the oldest existing colonial building in the country. The castle has a dark history of slavery and torture, making it the inevitable setting for urban legends of all kinds. One of these tales includes the fate of Governor Pieter Gysbert van Noodt. The governor was a cruel man, and among other atrocities, he decided to sentence a group of soldiers to death by hanging in the 1720s. Van Noodt didn’t deem it necessary to show his face at the execution of these soldiers, and during his absence, he was cursed by the last soldier just before the man died.

When the governor’s officers went to inform him that the soldiers had been hanged, they found van Noodt dead in his chair. There was a look of horror on his face. The story goes further to say that the governor roams the corridors of the castle to this day, unable to shake the curse.

Furthermore, there was also a crying female ghost, dubbed the Lady in Grey, that haunted the castle. However, since the skeleton of a female was discovered during excavation, sightings of the Lady have dramatically decreased.

Source: listverse.com

Stick Indians

Native Americans have a slew of creepy legends. One of the more disturbing ones is the story of the Tsiatko, more commonly known as the Stick Indians. These creatures are said to be tall and slim and have the ability to run very fast. They also have ventriloquist abilities to the extent where they whistle to communicate, striking fear into the hearts of humans who hear the sound. Some believe they are a sort of “Bigfoot” creature. 

 Stick Indians wander through the woods at night, seeking out victims to throw their special powder at. This powder is made from the remains of the dead and is said to cause people to go into a deep sleep. While they sleep, the Stick Indians play pranks and even steal children and teenagers from villages to force them to become slaves. Brave men who think they can defeat the Tsiatko should rather stay away, as these creatures will start hating them and hunt them down with a bow and arrow.

Read more at
listverse.com

Doors And Mirrors

The story I will be telling you are the experiences we had in our house. Our house was built about 30yrs ago.

Four years ago, my parents did a bit of remodeling in the house and also rearranged some furnitures. Since then, we experienced a lot of strange things in the house but the most common are the white shadows. You know, those things that you see in your peripheral vision.

I had a few experiences of these white shadows. Since I only saw a glimpse of them or they just remained at my peripheral vision, I ignore them most of the time. There's no point scaring myself especially if I'm the only one in the room or in the house but I'll tell you the experiences I can never forget.

I was brushing my hair in front of our full body mirror when I saw through the reflection in the mirror a boy in white enter the door behind me and passed by, going to the bathroom. I thought he was one of my brothers (I have 4 brothers), so I ignored him and continued brushing my unruly hair. A few seconds later, my brother came in the door behind me... The same brother who I thought came in a while ago! Turning around, I asked him, "Didn't you just enter a while ago? I thought you came in and went to the CR."

"No," he replied. Apparently, he was outside when he saw someone in white come in and he just followed him inside. I stared at him for a few seconds before I felt goosebumps all over my body.

The next experience was when my brother (the same brother above) and I were watching TV. Our TV is on a table beside the door adjacent the full body mirror. I was sitting on a chair in front of the TV while my brother is sitting on another chair on my left, our open front door behind him. I saw a child in white enter the house through the front door running then went through the other door beside the TV. I looked at my brother and asked, "Who was it? Was it V?" (Let's just call our youngest brother as 'V'.)

"I'm not sure," my brother replied. "I saw two of them. One went to the CR while the other one went upstairs."

The Hookman

This urban legend has countless variations, but they all start with a couple making out in a car on a deserted road. Then the radio crackles, and a news report interrupts the romance to tell listeners that an escaped killer with a hook for a hand is on the loose.
What happens next varies widely, but you get the picture. As much as this sounds like the script of a B movie, it actually happened in the USA, in Texarkana, TX.
In 1946, a series of murders known as the Texarkana Moonlight Murders took place in the city. The "Phantom Killer" attacked eight people, killing five, all of whom were in cars on what is known as "lovers' lane." The murders were never solved.

Source: msn.com

After The New Year

This is the first time I've ever written a story. So pardon me if I'm not creative enough for your expectations.
I'm not really sure if this is scary or spooky or creepy for you. This is based on my cousin's recount on what happened while we were having a night out in our vacation home. Let's just call her LA.
Our cousin's house is a two-storey house. On the first floor, just upon entering the door is the living room. Then straight ahead is the kitchen. Separating the two rooms is the stairs which is facing the living room door. On the second floor are two bedrooms, the first one is the computer room which is directly above the living room, and the second one is where my cousins and aunt sleep which is directly above the kitchen. Both rooms have wood flooring so you will really hear when someone's walking above.

It was the night after New Year and we decided to sleep over to one of our cousin's house (let's call him KA). However, he was out with his friends that night. The only people left in the house was our Aunt and the youngest sister, which were already asleep in the second bedroom upstairs. So we set-up a made up bed in the living room and wait for KA to come home. However, I was so groggy at the time because of lack of sleep due to the celebration of the New Year in our house the night before. So I told LA that I will take a nap and just wake me up once KA arrives. My nap turned to sleep and it was so deep that LA had a hard time waking me up.

The Bunny Man

The legend of the Bunny Man that haunts Virginia, USA, and the surrounding area says that, in 1904, a bus transporting patients from a mental institution crashed, killing everyone but 10 patients. A search party found all but one of them.

The babysitter and the man upstairs

The tale of the babysitter who receives an eerie phone call only to discover the call was placed from inside the home has been popular since the mid-20th century.
The story has yielded several films, including 'When a Stranger Calls' (1979) and its spin-offs.
The story is based on a real-life crime that took place in 1950 in Missouri, USA. A 13-year-old named Janett Christman was babysitting a three-year-old boy at his home when she was brutally raped and murdered by an intruder. Her case remains unsolved.




Source: msn.com

The Puebla Tunnels

For hundreds of years, the residents of Puebla, Mexico, told folk stories about a mysterious network of tunnels hidden underneath the cities.
But that network of tunnels simply didn't exist. Or did it?
In 2015, a crew of construction workers found a mysterious tunnel. Since then, about six miles of mysterious tunnels, believed to have been built between 16th and 19th centuries, have been discovered snaking under the city.

Source: msn.com

The Legend Of Cropsey

A boogeyman-like creature in Staten Island, USA, named Cropsey was said to be an ax-wielding murderer who escaped from a mental institution and lurks in the tunnels below the old Willowbrook State School—a former facility for children with intellectual disabilities that was shuttered after allegations of horrific torture and mistreatment were exposed.

The story says Cropsey comes out at night to snatch children, bring them back into the abandoned Willowbrook, and kill them. The legend, however, is more real than it sounds.

Andre Rand, a suspected murderer who was convicted of kidnapping two children in the 1970s, as it turns out, worked as a janitor at Willowbrook in the mid-1960s.

Source: msn.com

The Alice Murders

A more recent tale has been circulating in Japan, which deals with a supposed five slayings between 1999 and 2005. In each case, the killer wrote the word "Alice" nearby.

After killing and mutilating the victims, the killer also left a playing card. But these murders never actually happened—at least not in Japan.

A convicted murderer terrorized Madrid, Spain, in the early 2000s following a similar method. Alfredo Galán shot and killed six people, leaving a playing card on the body before fleeing the scene.

Source: msn.com

The Night Doctors

Also known as Night Riders and Ku Klux Doctors, they represent a sort of boogeyman in African American folklore. The tale says that doctors looking for victims to experiment on would lurk in the dark, waiting for the opportunity to kidnap them. The rumors were spread by whites who were trying to prevent the former slaves from moving to the north. Unfortunately, the boogeyman has some factual basis.

There is some evidence that 19th-century doctors were performing experiments on members of the African American community. White farmers used this as a scare tactic against blacks, a technique that was picked up by the Klu Klux Klan after the Civil War.

Source: https://www.msn.com

Le Loyon

Residents of the areas surrounding the Maules Forest in Switzerland told stories about a mysterious man who walked around the woods wearing a long camouflage cloak and a gas mask.

He was named the ghost of Maules or Le Loyon by the locals. But with no proof of his existence, it was all brushed off as folklore.

In 2013, however, a passerby snapped this photograph of Le Loyon. Not long after, his cloak and gas mask were found in the forest with a note saying he couldn't take being seen as a monster. It is unclear what happened to him, but he was never seen or heard from again.

Source: www.msn.com

The killer in your attic

It's a tale as old as time. We've all heard stories involving a potential killer living in our attic who comes down when everyone is peacefully asleep. But this has actually happened. In Germany in 1922, a farm owner named Andreas Gruber noticed that small things started going missing or being misplaced. His family also heard footsteps while Gruber himself found footprints in his house. A few weeks later, the entire family was found slaughtered in their home. The identity of the mysterious killer remains unsolved.

Source: www.msn.com

Charlie No-Face

If you're an American from the Pittsburgh, PA, area, chances are you've heard about Charlie No-Face, a faceless man who wanders the roads at night.

The story says the man was a utilities worker whose face melted in an acid attack or an electric accident, depending on who's telling it.

But, the truth is, the man was real. His name was Raymond Robinson and he was the victim of a childhood accident that completely disfigured his face. He, understandably, avoided crowds, opting to go for strolls at night.

Source: www.msn.com

The horror stories from the Japanese Occupation

To describe the WWII tragedies that befell Filipinos as “creepy” won’t do it justice. Even calling it “horrifying” is an understatement. Without a doubt, the Japanese atrocities in the Philippines showed us how far humans could go in the name of honor and lust for power.

Jintaro Ishida, a Japanese veteran who served in the navy during WWII, once shared how his comrades in the Philippines learned to kill innocent civilians–including women and children–as if they were “just killing insects.” A well in a village somewhere in Lipa, for example, became the final resting place of about 400 Filipinos who were thrown to their deaths. A total of 2,000 people in Calamba were also massacred on February 12, 1945, with the old men strangled to their deaths using a rope because it was “an easier and cheaper way to kill them than with rifles and bullets.”

The Engineering Building

Somewhere in the Philippines, there is this engineering building I've spent most of my college life in. Now, I get to see it twice a week for my part-time teaching classes. During the day, the halls of the building are brimming with life, but at night, when everyone has left the building, the cold, the dark and the quiet that would greet you would send chills down your spine. Through the years I've known the building I've heard of many spooky stories, but for now, I am sharing with you some of my stories - those that I've personally experienced as a student, and as an instructor.
Story Number 1: Candle Scent
We just successfully defended our research paper. Our team aced the defense and we were beyond joyful. Finally, we could release the stress and most importantly, get off of our (then) best corporate get-ups. We loved our outfits but as Engineering students who were about to get dinner and head home, we opted for comfort over style - it was 9PM on a weeknight after all. Since we were all girls, we all went to the same rest room (public with cubicles). There were a lot of chitchat and a lot of laughing and goofing around that we didn't notice we were the only ones left, but since we were "residents" of that building, we paid no attention to the cold and dark, plus we were there so it wasn't quiet. When we were walking down the hallway of the fourth floor, I caught the scent of a burning candle. I tried shrugging it off owing to the fact that there are several Chemical laboratories on the fifth floor and there may be people conducting experiments there, but then, my group mate stopped in her tracks and said, "Can you smell that?" My brain went into overdrive and in a span of two seconds, I have put two and two together - No way should a smell of a burning candle reach the fourth floor at that hour.

Wag Tularan Lugawan

In Sangandaan, Caloocan, locals say that the various lugawans in the area actually serve human parts generously supplied to them by nearby funeral parlors as goto. Are you brave enough to add this place on your weekend food trip itinerary?

Source: https://8list.ph

Laughing ghosts

There is an account by a couple who decided to watch a comedic film in Starmall Alabang’s Cinema. The movie was so funny that they said loud laughter would erupt from the audience. But to their surprise, when the lights were turned back on post-credits, there had been only a few people watching the film with them. A pretty creepy experience, unless their collective laughter was just that loud.

Source: https://8list.ph/philippines-urban-legends/#read-more

Cursed Painting

One of Juan Luna’s well-known paintings, the Mi Novia, is said to have cursed every person who had owned it before it was given to the National Museum. Don’t worry; you won’t be harmed by just looking at the piece on your museum visit.
Source: https://8list.ph/philippines-urban-legends/#read-more

Haunted Barrio

Take care when passing through Kaybiang Tunnel of Ternate, Cavite to enter the so-called Barrio ng Aswang. As one story goes, a group of friends went to the barrio but was disturbed by the ominous aura that emitted from the locals. When they ventured back home, one of them had become cursed by an aswang that had to be purged from him with the help of an abularyo. You’d hear a lot of ghost stories about the haunted barrio. If you’re brave enough, try going there to see for yourself just how haunting it is!
Source: https://8list.ph/philippines-urban-legends/

Arkansas: The Dog Boy

Why it's creepy: The name sounds kind of goofy, or actually even kind of like Goofy. But if you find yourself at 65 Mulberry Street, in the middle of the minuscule Arkansas town of Quitman, you won't laugh if you see the hulking outline of a 300-pound half man, half beast -- complete with glowing animal eyes -- glaring out of the windows. Walk quickly, as he has been known to chase people down his street, biting at their heels -- kind of like a dog, actually.

Where it came from: This is actually the rare urban legend where the story behind the story ends up being even creepier than the folklore. Gerald Bettis, the only son of the Bettis family of 65 Mulberry, was always a problem child. But not in the cute, Junior Healy way. Bettis would "collect" and torture animals (hence the "dog boy" moniker), before turning his sociopathic focus to his elderly parents, allegedly imprisoning them in their own home and potentially even murdering his father. Eventually, Bettis would be imprisoned for growing marijuana on his back porch and would die in a state penitentiary in 1988 of a drug overdose. -- WF
Source: www.thrillist.com

Arizona: Skinwalkers

Why it's creepy: It's easy to feel uneasy while driving through the desolate desert roads of Arizona, especially at night, and particularly so when you hear a short burst of taps on your window while cruising at 60 mph and turn to see the shapeshifting, mutilated, half-human creature responsible for the high-speed interruption. Relax -- it's only trying to rip the flesh off your bones. This legend is so ingrained in Arizona culture that, when a Navajo woman was found brutally murdered in Flagstaff, the accused killer's defense in court was that the attack could have only been perpetrated by a Skinwalker. There's even a defined and well-documented portion of the state known as Skinwalker Ranch where you are most likely to see one of the creatures. Not that you'd actually want to.

Where it came from: The Skinwalkers, like so many ancient American urban legends, have roots in Native American folklore. While it's fairly hard to gather specific details -- as speaking of potentially sinister legends is seriously taboo in Navajo culture -- it is understood that what non-Navajos refer to as "skinwalkers" are witch doctors who have become an evil reflection of everything the Navajo nation values. Basically, they are men who've transformed into malevolent, murderous creatures that have no qualms using their spiritual powers to kill. Navajo medicine men are trained to learn both good and evil aspects of their power, and Skinwalkers are those who have turned to the Dark Side. It's all very Star Wars. And, frankly, still terrifying. -- Wil Fulton