Supernatural Friday: Ghoul or Zombie: It's All How You Look at It

"They are neither man nor woman

They are neither brute nor human

They are Ghouls"

— Edgar Allan Poe

When George Romero's Night of the Living Dead came out, the press called the undead in it,  zombies. Except Romero never coined them by that term. Instead, he                  called them ghouls. Which would be the right term, as zombies are connected to voodoo and are people drugged and controlled, not flesh eating monsters.

What are ghouls? A ghoul is a legendary evil being that robs graves and feeds on corpses.  It is one who shows morbid interest in things considered shocking or repulsive and supposedly lives in burial grounds. In Arabic folklore, ghouls are a type of jinn that could change their shapes but had one unchanging feature: donkey's hooves for feet. Even more horrible, it kills young children and even can lure unwary folk into abandoned places. By extension, the word ghoul is also used derogatorily to refer to a person who delights in the macabre, or whose profession is linked directly to death, such as a gravedigger.
Ghoul is from the Arabic ghul, from ghala "to seize." It is even thought to come from Gallu, a Mesopotamian demon. In Sumerian and Akkadian  mythology, the Gallus (also called gallu demons or gallas[Akkadian: gallû]) were great demons/devils of the underworld. Their job was to haul off unfortunate victims to the underworld and even accompanied Istar when she headed down to the underworld.
The ghul is a fiendish type of jinn believed to be sired by Iblis, known to the Devil in Islam. A ghoul is a desert-dwelling shapeshifting demon that can assume the guise of an animal especially a hyena. It lures unwary people into the desert wastes or abandoned places to slay and devour them. The creature also preys on young children, drinks blood, steals coins, and eats the dead, taking the form of the person most recently eaten. In the Arabic language, the female form is given as ghouleh and the plural is ghilan. In colloquial Arabic, the term is sometimes used to describe a greedy or gluttonous individual.
In stories and films, I think Gollum as closest to the idea of a ghoul, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is what Tolkien had in mind when he wrote him into The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. What other beings in books or TV or film, do you believe are ghouls?

Supernatural Friday: Mother's Day

Mother’s Day—the day Mom is celebrated for taking care of us the rest of the year. Before you take her out for breakfast or Sunday brunch, before you rush to the stores to buy her that special gift, before you take her out to an event or the movies, the celebration of Mom began with ancient myths connected.

Ancient myths say that Greeks and Romans celebrated Mother's Day by honoring Goddess Cybele, personifying Great Mother Earth and Goddess of fertility, and Rhea, mother of the Gods. In 250 B.C., ancient Romans celebrated a spring festival called Hilaria. This was dedicated to a mother goddess named, Cybele, on the Ides of March. Her followers would make offerings at the temple, hold parades, play games and also have masquerades. It lasted three days.

Social activist Julia Ward Howe thought the idea of a day centering on mothers to the United States after the Civil War. But her idea was much different from the flowers-and-hugs we connect with Mom. Howe wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation and envisioned a Mother's Day for Peace, in which women would protested against war. Some groups still observe the holiday like this, one of the most famous being a huge crowd of women who gathered outside the Lawrence Livermore Library at the University of California in 1982 to protest nuclear weapons.

The Mother's Day we celebrate today was started by Anna Jarvis in the early 1900s. She got Congress to recognize the day, founded the Mother's Day International Association and even trademarked the phrase "Mother's Day." She was inspired by her own mother, who called for Mother’s Work Days, for improvement on conditions of soldiers on both side of the Civil War. Interestingly, a decade after she got it recognized, Ann Jarvis came to despise it for commercialization, even was arrested in 1948 for protesting for its demise.

Today, Mother's Day is the third most popular holiday in the world, second to only Christmas and Easter. Pink and red carnations are given to mother’s that are still alive, while white ones are for those that have passed away. And the single carnation is the traditional gift most given. There had been a study to determine why mothers loved getting flowers. Conducted by Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, she concluded that flowers affect human behavior, making people feel more compassionate toward others and happier in general when fresh-cut blooms are around.

What are you doing for Mom this Mother’s Day?

Supernatural Friday: The Story Behind the Jack-O-Lantern

Come now, friends and fiends, and enjoy the following  tale behind the jack-o-lantern. Every October, carved pumpkins peer out from porches and doorsteps in the United States and other parts of the world. Gourd-like orange fruits inscribed with ghoulish faces and illuminated by candles are a sure sign of the Halloween season. The practice of decorating “jack-o’-lanterns”—the name comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack—originated in Ireland, where large turnips and potatoes served as an early canvas. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, home of the pumpkin, and it became an integral part of Halloween festivities. Counting to. . . HALLOWEEN!

Stingy Jack was a miserable, old drunk who loved playing tricks on anyone and everyone. One dark, Halloween night, Jack ran into the Devil himself in a local public house. Jack tricked the Devil by offering his soul in exchange for one last drink. The Devil quickly turned himself into a sixpence to pay the bartender, but Jack immediately snatched the coin and deposited it into his pocket, next to a silver cross that he was carrying. Thus, the Devil could not change himself back and Jack refused to allow the Devil to go free until the Devil had promised not to claim Jack's soul for ten years.

The Devil agreed, and ten years later Jack again came across the Devil while out walking on a country road. The Devil tried collecting what he was due, but Jack thinking quickly, said, "I'll go, but before I do, will you get me an apple from that tree?"

The Devil, thinking he had nothing to lose, jumped up into the tree to retrieve an apple. As soon as he did, Jack placed crosses all around the trunk of the tree, thus trapping the Devil once again. This time, Jack made the Devil promise that he would not take his soul when he finally died. Seeing no way around his predicament, the Devil grudgingly agreed.

When Stingy Jack eventually passed away several years later, he went to down to Hell to see the Devil, but the Devil kept the promise that had been made to Jack years earlier, and would not let him enter.

Thinking, Ah, Heaven will surely let me in then!, he wandered up to the Gates of Heaven, but was refused entrance because of his life of drinking and because he had been so tight-fisted and deceitful.   
 
Jack went back to Hell to see the Devil.

"Where can I go?" asked Jack.

"Back to where you came from!" replied the Devil. "You doomed yourself to roam the earth, a restless soul who can find no rest ever." Lucifer tossed him a turnip and a ember straight from the fires of Hell itself. "Here, hollow out this turnip and place this ember inside. Use its light to find your way through eternity." 

And to this day, Jack wanders, never stopping in one place, a hauntingly lost soul, who learned you never ever really beat the Devil at his own game.

 

Supernatural Friday: Myth of How Taps Came To Be and The True Story-Happy Memorial Day

Since Memorial Day will be here in 3 days, I found this myth for Supernatural Friday concerning the origin of Taps. It has been circulating the Internet.

It began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison's Landing in Virginia. The Confederate Army waited on the other side of the narrow strip of land. 

Captain Ellicombe heard the moan of a soldier who lay mortally wounded on the field sometime in the night. Not knowing if it a Union or Confederate soldier, the captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention. As he crawled on his stomach through the gunfire, he reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him over the ground toward his encampment. When the captain made it to his own lines, he discovered he had saved a Confederate soldier. Even more, the soldier lay dead. 

The captain lit a lantern, then caught his breath and went numb with shock. The dim glow revealed who the soldier really was. His own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out and not telling his father, he enlisted in the Confederate Army.
The following morning, the heartbroken father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial, despite his enemy status. His request was partially granted. The captain had wanted a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge at the funeral. That portion of the request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate, but with respect for the father, they allowed him one musician. 

The captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of his dead son's uniform. 

This music became the haunting melody we now know as "Taps" that is used at all military funerals.

It’s a lovely tale, but not true. The true origin of Taps came out after the Seven Days battles near Richmond, Virginia, in July 1862. The wounded Commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, General Daniel Butterfield reworked with his bugler Oliver Wilcox Norton, another bugle call, "Scott Tattoo," to create Taps. 

Later, Colonel James A. Moss substituted playing "Taps" for the firing of three volleys over the grave of one of his soldiers. This was due to his Artillery unit being in the proximity to the enemy.

You can heard Taps being played on Youtube at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn_iz8z2AGw

And John Wayne teling the true Taps story again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usk81XVsE9o

Supernatural Friday: Forget Those Chopsticks and Learn the Myths Behind the Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year 2014 began January 31^st. This year it is the year of the horse. Which happens to be my son's and my Chinese Zodiac animal. 

The Chinese Zodiac has the horse, tiger, rat, rooster, dragon, snake, goat, monkey, ox, dog, cat, rabbit and the boar.

The new year celebrations were born out of fear and myth. There is an ancient Chinese legend that told of a man-eating predatory beast called Nian. This creature was fierce, and had a long head and sharp horn. Nian dwelled deep in the sea most of the year, but on every Chinese New Year Eve it climbed onto the shore, and devour livestock and harm humans in a near-by village. Every Chinese New Year's Eve, the villagers would take their old and young and head for the mountains to hide from the monster.

One Chinese New Year's Eve, a grey haired man appeared in the village. He asked permission to stay for the night and assured everyone that he would chase away the beast. No one believed him. When it was time to go hide in the mountains, the old man steadfastly refused to do that. The villagers departed without him.

The beast arrived at the village to wreck havoc as usual, but it was met with a sudden burst of exploding firecrackers. Startled by the noise, the flashes of light and red banners flying about, it turned about and fled back into the sea.

The next day, when the villagers returned from the mountains, they found everything intact and safe. The old man had left, but they found the remains of the three precious items he had used to chase the beast Nian away. They all agreed that the old man must be a deity who had come to help free them of the beast.

From then on, every Chinese New Year's Eve, families hung red banners, set off fire crackers, and light their lamps the whole night through, awaiting the Chinese New Year. The custom spread far and wide and became a grand traditional celebration of the "Passing of Nian" ("Nian" in Chinese means "year"). So celebrating the Chinese New Year is "passing of Nian" or "Guo Nian" in Chinese. 

Today, the 15-day New Year festivities are celebrated with a week of vacation in metropolitan areas of China. Much like the Western New Year (January 1st), the biggest celebration is on the eve of the holiday. But aside from New Year's Eve, there are other important days of the 15-day New Year Festival, including:

JIE CAI CENG: Welcoming the Gods of Wealth and Prosperity
On the 5th day of New Year's, it is believed that the gods of prosperity come down from the heavens. Businesses will often participate in setting off firecrackers as they believe it will bring them prosperity and good fortune for their business.

YUAN XIAO JIE: Festival of Lanterns
The 15th day of the New Year is known as The Festival of Lanterns and marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. All types of lanterns are lit throughout the streets and often poems and riddles are often written for entertainment. There are also paper lanterns on wheels created in the form of either a rabbit or the animal of the year (Pig for 2007). The rabbit lantern stems from a Chinese myth or fairytale about a female goddess named "Chang E" who jumped onto the moon. So she wouldn't travel alone, she brought a rabbit with her to keep her company. It is said that if your heart is pure enough, you can see the goddess Chang E and her rabbit on the moon on this day.

Called "hong bao" in Mandarin, the red envelopes filled with money are typically only given to children or unmarried adults with no job. If you're single and working and making money, you still have to give the younger ones the hong bao money. The color red denotes good luck/fortune and happiness/abundance in the Chinese Culture and is often worn or used for decoration in other celebrations.

The Dragon is present in many Chinese cultural celebrations as the Chinese people often think of themselves as descendants of the mythical creature. On the fifth day of the New Year when many people have to start going back to work, they will also have the Dancing Dragons perform in the front of the office building. On the 15th day of the New Year (Yuan Xiao Jie), they will also have a lot of dancing dragon performances. The dragon represents prosperity, good luck and good fortune.

Traditional Foods

The Chinese New Year's Eve meal is the most important dinner of the year. Typically, families gather at a designated relative's house for dinner, but these days, many families often celebrate New Year's Eve dinner at a restaurant. Many restaurants require reservations months in advance. There are also some families that hire a professional chef to come cook at their house. Chefs are often busy running from one home to another cooking dinners for different families on New Year's Eve.

Chinese New Year is a 15-day celebration and each day, many families rotate celebrations between homes of their relatives. The festivies are day-long and sometimes, a family ends up cooking two meals for their relatives, once at lunch and once at dinner. These dishes used to be all made from scratch, but now people can easily buy them prepackaged at the supermarkets.

Eight Treasures Rice (contains glutinous rice, walnuts, different colored dry fruit, raisins, sweet red bean paste, jujube dates, and almonds). 

"Tang Yuan" - black sesame rice ball soup; or a Won Ton soup.

Chicken, duck, fish and pork dishes.

"Song Gao", literally translates to "loose cake"- which is made of rice which has been coarsely ground and then formed into a small, sweet round cake.

"Jiu Niang Tang" - sweet wine-rice soup which contains small glutinous rice balls

a sweet soup made of cut-up fruit: Cut fruit is added into hot/warm water which has had a thickening agent (like cornstarch).

Based on the Lunar Calendar

The date of Chinese New Year changes each year as it is based on the lunar calendar. While the western Gregorian calendar is based on the earth’s orbit around the sun, China and most Asian countries use the lunar calendar that is based on the moon’s orbit around the earth. Chinese New Year always falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. Other Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam also celebrate new year using the lunar calendar.
Though Buddhism and Daoism have unique customs during the New Year, the Chinese New Year is far older than both religions. Chinese New Year is rooted in much a celebration of spring just like Easter or Passover. 

Depending on where rice is grown in China, the rice season lasts from roughly May to September (north China), April to October (Yangtze River Valley), or March to November (Southeast China). The New Year was likely the start of preparations for a new growing season.
Spring cleaning is a common theme during this time. Chinese people clean out their homes during the holiday. There is another possible reason for the New Year celebration just a way to break up the boredom of the long winter months. 

Another interesting Chinese festival concerns hungry ghost. I blogged about that at Supernatural Friday: Ghosts Are Hungry.

Supernatural Friday: Thunderbird!

If you ever read Indian myths, then you heard of the thunderbird. It is described as a large bird, capable of creating storms and thundering while it flies. Clouds are pulled together by its wing beats, the sound of thunder is made by its wings clapping, lightning flashes from its eyes when it blinks, and individual lightning bolts are made by the glowing snakes that it carries around with it. In masks, it is depicted as many-colored, with two curling horns, and, often, teeth within its beak. The Lakota name for the Thunderbird is Wakį́yą, a word formed from kįyą́, meaning “winged,” and wakhą́, “sacred.” The Kwakwaka’wakw has many names for the Thunderbird and the Nuu-chah-nulth gave it the name of Kw-Uhnx-Wa. The Ojibwa word for a thunderbird that is closely associated with thunder is animikii, while large thunderous birds are known as binesi.

Although associated most of the time with the Plains Indians, the Thunderbird was also known to the Algonquin-speaking peoples.  However, like most Native American cultures on East Coast (except maybe Iroquois), little is now known of their beliefs. 

In regards to the Thunderbird, this much is known: This fearsome being that resembles a winged man or an immense bird causes fear and dread. The myths tell that it is known to actually kill and eat humans from time to time.

There once existed a gigantic bird in North America. Called the Teratornis Merriami, it stood five feet tall and had a wingspan of twenty-four feet and had the long narrow beak of the predator bird, too. Bones of this bird and humans have been found in the same areas together. Maybe the ancestors of the Native Americans today killed these giant birds for their feathers or myths of the Thunderbird arose due to the birds kidnapping their children and stock.

Supernatural Friday: Curse of the Three Sisters

For Supernatural Friday this month until Thanksgiving,  I am going to talk about the Native American myths and legends. Today's is all about a ghostly legend told about the Potomac River in Northern Virginia, as told in my book,  Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales. 

What are your favorite Native American stories? Let us know, by leaving a comment.

 

Curse of the Three Sisters—Northern Virginia

Another tale of the Algonquian tribes is about a curse by three Algonquin women that apparently seems to still work today. This curse concerns three large granite rocks that rise out of the water between Virginia’s shoreline and Washington D.C. The story takes place a hundred years before Jamestown had been settled by the white man.

Though the land was rich with farmland and game and everyone did well, peace did not reign here. To the north were the Iroquois and Susquehannocks and they would raid the Algonquin tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy in the Virginia area, the battles fierce and bloody.

After a long siege, one Powhatan chief felt it was safe enough for his warriors and him to hunt for food. He forbidden though, three of his young sons to go with them, feeling they were not old enough to defend themselves if trouble came.

The young men decided to show their father how well they could go out and bring enough fresh fish to feed the women, children, and old men in the village. They did this after the hunting party left.

Now the greatest abundance of fish lived in the waters near the northern shore where the Susquehannocks warriors might still be. Using a canoe, they pushed it into the river and struck out. Not long after, a Susquehannock scouting party captured them and they were brought before the village, tortured, and killed. Of the villagers, three young daughters of the village shaman who were in loved with the young men watched with horror and growing anger.

They devised among themselves that they would cross the river to the village of the Susquehannocks to demand the warriors that killed the men they loved. They would take them back to their village to beguile them with their beauty and their fathers’ medicine. But afterwards, they would kill them by a long, agonizing death.

The sisters lashed several logs into a raft and pushed it from shore. But the current from the river proved too strong and fast and soon, they found themselves racing downstream. Still angry over the senseless deaths of the men they loved, the sisters cursed the river and said if they couldn’t cross it, no one would ever be able to do so.

The raft broke up and they sank to their deaths. The curse became true as one flash from a lightening struck the spot where they went down. That night the storm continued and the river’s waters went crazy. The following morning all grew calm as the sun rose into the sky. But three boulders had rose out of the spot where the sisters drowned, boulders that hadn’t been there before.

From that time on, the rocks take their toll on those who dare to try and cross the river there. A growing list of those victims who died is added to a growing list by local law enforcements—many fishermen, swimmers, and boaters. Old-timers claim that you can hear moaning over the Potomac during a storm, warning of another impending drowning.

In 1972, when they tried to construct a bridge to span the river, it became interrupted by one of the worse storms ever. Whitecaps surged on the water and lightening struck the spot where the bridge supports were starting to be built. The water surged and swept away the construction framework. Funny thing, the bridge was to be called “Three Sisters Bridge.”

Next time you feel you want to test an Indian curse work, try swimming in the Potomac where three sisters had died.

Like every state in the Union, Virginia has unique myths, legends, and yes, even true stories that sound much like legends, but aren't. Learn about the urban legend of the Bunnyman and what happens to mortals at his Bunnyman Bridge in Clifton at midnight on Halloween. Prepare to discover the myths surrounding Edgar Allan Poe and other famous Virginians. See why Natural Bridge is actually a haunted tourist attraction. And what makes the Great Dismal Swamp so creepy: Is it the ghosts or Bigfoot? Meet the Witch of Pungo in Virginia Beach and find out that Mothman and the Jersey Devil actually visited Virginia. Read Virginian stories of witches, demons, monsters, ghosts, pirates, strange animals, and soldiers from the Civil War. Come visit a most amazing, frightening, and even intriguing Virginia that you never knew existed.

Beware of the Devil Monkeys!

Thus begins for days leading up to Halloween on ghosts, monsters, the Bunnyman and other serial killer urban legends, and other terrifying things. Then on Halloween, there will be a special Halloween horror fiction of mine for all to enjoy.

Today, we'll talk about a Southern legendary monster, the devil monkey. Devil monkeys are described as baboon-like creatures able to leap like kangaroos. They have dark, “mean” eyes, pointed ears, short to shaggy fur that varies from red to gray to black, and large flat feet. Ranging in height from three to eight feet, it is said that they won’t back down, even from dogs, and although thought to be vegetarians, there are stories told of them killing livestock and small game. They exhibit a range of primate hoots, calls, screeches, whistles, and unearthly screams, and have an odor so bad, they have been also called Skunk Apes. It has been seen in the area of the Appalachian  Mountains to even in British Columbia.



A cryptozoologist, Chad Arment, investigated the sightings of these creatures that one Virginia family and their friends had experiences with. This occurred from 1959-1990s, in the mountains that surround Saltville.


Paranormal investigators Pauline and James Boyd’s parents were attacked in 1959 by a creature that left three scratch marks on their car. Not long after, a couple of nurses were driving home when an unknown animal attacked their vehicle, ripping the convertible’s top off. Badly shaken, they escaped otherwise unharmed.


Friends of Pauline saw one of these creatures trotting across the road in front of their car. It leaped over a ditch, glided over a fence, and bounded through weeds along the road.

Other sightings have occurred as recently as 2001, when a giant black monkey was seen nine different times over the course of two weeks in rural New Hampshire. It has even been told that a search party was formed to track one of these they thought was a devil monkey, but that the dogs refused to follow the trail.

Another beast, the "Belt Road Booger” was encountered by several people in Georgia in the 1970s. It was thought this might have been a devil monkey. The Nalusa Flaya of Choctaw legend bears a strong physical resemblance to the devil monkey, though the devil monkey does not appear to have any of the supernatural abilites attributed to this legendary monster.

 What are these devil monkeys? Some people think devil monkeys are feral monkeys released into the wild or escaped from research facilities, such as the ones that broke free in Florida due to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Cryptozoologists think that are a surviving species once thought to be extinct, like a fruit-eating spider monkey originating from Brazil, or a large baboon that lived 650,000 years ago in East Africa. Maybe they could even be a sort of Sasquatch?  Or could these beasties be nothing more than an illusion? Whatever devil monkeys are, they are a fascinating tale to tell on Halloween around the hearth fire or around a campfire.


In 1996, a woman named Barbara Mullins was driving down a stretch of road in Louisiana known as Highway 12 when she noticed something odd on the side of the road. At first Mullins through the carcass she had found was that of a dog, that was until she saw it’s baboon like features. Mullins snapped several pictures of the carcass with her camera; the resulting images have been the topic of much debate in the cryptozoology world. The creature was described as being about the size of a large adult Saint Bernard and covered with a think coat of dark wooly hair. It's most notable attribute was its decidedly simian features, extended feet, and small, presumably pointed ears. I went to the website with the pictures and concluded myself it was nothing more than some dog, maybe gone feral. To me, there was nothing ape-like or monkey-like in the dead animal's appearance.



Was that a screech you heard in the night? Beware, it just might be the. . .devil monkey!