So I promised more stories published this week but I did not do so. Here's the rest if the folktales and tonight I will finish and mist likely publish my new text story. Love you guys ❤ creds to bustle website (some of these you have already read) FLOOD OF CREEPY PASTAS COMING IN TOMORROW
10 Spooky Folktales From Around The World
Handout/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
ByCATHERINE KOVACH
Oct 15 2015
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There's so much more to Halloween than dressing up in costumes and eating the giant bag of candy you bought to give trick-or-treaters. One of the best parts about this time of year is the fact that the spookiness of every day life is not only allowed, but encouraged. Who doesn't love some scary decorations of skeletons propped up outside of houses, or a good ol' haunted hayride?
I certainly love and embrace it all, but one of my favorite things to do this time of year is read ghost stories. Reading about calls coming from inside the house, creepy clown statues that turn out to be murderers, or the cell phone of a manmaking calls after his death (which is apparently true, and just gave me chills) is truly an awesome way to get into that holiday spirit. After all, how often are we allowed to revel in the terrifying without being considered weird or morbid? Not often.
Sure, it's super-easy to just read theHorrors section of Snopes.com, or a whole mess of creepy novels, but for those who want a bit of international flair thrown in with their spooky, I've compiled a list of 10 scary folktales from around the world. Join me in feudal Japan, by a river in Mexico City, on a train in Stockholm, and several more locations while I spin a creepy yarn for you.
Are you afraid of these ghosts?
La Llorona, The Weeping Woman
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Coming at you from Mexico is the tale of La Llorona, or translated "the weeping woman". Legend has it that La Llorona began as a beautiful woman named Maria who drowned her children in a river because her husband left her for various reasons, usually involving boredom or a younger woman. Suddenly full of remorse over what she had done, she threw herself in river as well. Unfortunately for Maria, it turns out that drowning your children in rivers does not give you a ticket into heaven. Cursed to wander riverbanks for eternity, La Llorona weeps as she walks, kidnapping children and drowning them in the misguided hope that her children will forgive her. Often used as a sort of boogeyman to scare young children, it's been said that those who hear her cry are fated for death.
Silverpilen, The Ghost Train of Stockholm
Not a specific story, but more of a recurring character in many Swedish urban legends, the Silverpilen was a strange train - silver instead of the normal green trains - not often seen by residents of Stockholm. Starting in the 1980s, rumors began to spread that the Silverpilen was a ghost train. Legend has it that if a passenger is picked up by the wayward train they would disappear forever, or resurface weeks or even years later with no memory of where they had been. It's said that the cars are either empty, or full of ghosts, and occasionally it's connected with an abandoned train station called Kymling, leading to the phrase "Bara de döda stiger av i Kymling" or "Only the dead get off at Kymlinge." Try not to think about that the next time you're in New York City and waiting for the subway!
Botan Dōrō, or The Peony Lantern
Half-love story, half-ghost story, and wholly terrifying, the story of the Peony Lantern began in 17th century Japan. Although many versions exist, they all follow the same general premise: on the night of Obon (a Japanese festival that honors the spirits of one's ancestors), a widowed samurai named Ogiwara meets a beautiful woman named Otsuyu, always accompanied by a young girl holding a peony lantern. The lovers meet in secret from dusk until dawn, and one day an old woman who has lived by Ogiwara for many years grows suspicious. Spying on the two of them, the old woman is horrified to discover Ogiwara in a loving embrace with a skeleton. Needless to say, he's a bit horrified to discover this as well, but his love for Otsuyu is too great, and the story ends with his dead body wrapped in her skeleton. This story has endured for centuries, having been a kabuki play, the subject of several paintings, as well as several films.
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Scary Texts and Stories
HorrorHello! This book is just filled with scary short stories and texts that are either made up or from the internet. I will try to credit the websites so you can check them out. Enjoy! Continues every October :)
