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Halloween Traditions Across the World

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In this wide world we have countless customs, holidays and traditions. But the tradition of honoring, and at times, fearing the dead around the dark autumn time, seems to be something we do in all corners of the earth.

Through the modern media we have all grown accustomed to this specific type of Halloween traditions. Carving pumpkins, go trick or treating and dressing up is now a global phenomenon. But the concept of celebrating the dead, souls and spirits during the harvest season has always been something people have done, and probably will continue to do for a while. But although the American style Halloween have monopolised a lot of the celebration, there are still both old and local variation of celebrating this kind of festivity. Here are some of them:

Samhain — Britain

Samhain: Bonfires, offerings to fairies and feasts for the dead was a tradition in the old Samhain celebrations.

The Samhain celebration is probably were the modern Halloween traditions has borrowed most customs and ideas from. It is a Gaelic festival marking the end of harvest season and the beginning of winter. it was usually celebrated from 31. October to 1. November. It was celebrated all throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, with many similar festivals held around the same time around the rest of the Celtic Islands.

According to tradition, bonfires were lit as they were seen to have protective and cleansing power. Offerings to the Aois Sí, the spirits and fairies was made to give them a good harvest and making them last through the winter. There was also held feasts where they made place for the dead at the table, as it was believed that the souls of the dead would visit.

The festival was held because the time was seen as a liminal time, were the boundary between the living and dead were minimal and the crossing between this world and the otherworld were more easily done. A part of the festival also included people dressing up in costume to recite verses for food, called mummers play, or mumming.

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All Saints Day — Catholic Church

All Saints Day: This Christian holiday is celebrated many places were there is a Roman catholic or Anglican church.

Within the Catholic Church the celebration of All Saints’ Day or All Souls’ Day is marked November the first and second. It is also called Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed and Day of the Dead. The All Saints Day is a day for celebrating all Saints and Martyrs in the Christian Church. The All Souls Day is mostly for the people still in purgatory to atone for their sins before entering heaven.

This together with Samhain turned into what we now call the modern Halloween with its traditions. Most often, the All Saints’ Day is celebrated within the western christianity, while in the eastern christianity they have celebrated somewhat the same in Saturday of Souls celebrations. It is mostly celebrated by Roman Catholics and Anglicans.

The feast itself is celebrated on November 1. and is mostly a day of prayer and remembering the souls of the dead. On the day there are many ways the practitioners remember the dead, and the traditions vary from church to church, but it generally include lighting candles and praying.

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Allantide — Wales

Allan Apples: Apples are important for Allantide as they are a token of good luck.

A Cornish version of Halloween traditions is the Allantide, or Kalan Gwaw, meaning the first day of winter. In the sixth century, Cornwall had a bishop named St Allan, and therefore it is also known as Allan Night and Allan Day. Traditionally it was celebrated on the night of October 31 and the day after.

A lot of common traits with Hollantide celebration in Wales and Isle of Man as well as Halloween itself. To celebrate they rung the church bell to comfort Christian souls on their journey to heaven. They made Jack’o lanterns from turnips. But the most important fruit this feast was red apples. Large, glossy Allan apples were polished and given to friends and family as gift for good luck.

Divination game to read the future was also a part of the festivities. They ere for example throwing walnuts in the fire to predict the fidelity of their partners, or poring molten lead in cold water to find out the job of their future husband. Also some parts of Cornwal, they lit ‘Tindle’ fires to the Coel Coth of Wales.

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Day of the Dead — Mexico

Día de Muertos: This day is often recognized for the costumes and makeup.

The Day of the Dead or Día de Muertos in Spanish is a Mexican holiday, well known for their distinctive costumes and face paint. Before the Spanish colonization in the 16th century, the celebration was in the beginning of the summer in Mexico. But it became intertwined with the Christian church and European Halloween traditions and moved to the end of October and beginning of November.

It is a holiday, stretching over several days gathers families and friends to pray for their lost ones and help their way to heaven. According to the Mexican culture, the death is viewed as a naturally part of the human cycle and should therefor not be seen as a day of sadness, but a day of celebrations.

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Pchum Ben — Cambodia

Preparing to open the gates of hell: Monks praying and people gifting food and flowers to the ancestors.
Prayers during Pchum Ben. Credit: Maharaja45

The holiday is a fifteen day celebration on the 15th day of the tenth month in the Khmer calendar, at the end of the Buddhist Lent, Vassa. And would in the Gregorian calendar, mostly be in September and October. The translation of Pchum Ben is Ancestor Day, and its a time were many Cambodians pay their respect to the dead family and relatives up to seven generations.

Monks chant the sutta in Pali language without sleeping overnight to prepare the gates of hell opening. This occurs once a year and is a time were manes (spirits) of the ancestors come back. Therefore they put out food offerings that can help them end their time in purgatory.

People give foods like sweet sticky rice and beans wrapped in banana leaves, and visit temples to offer up baskets of flowers as a way to pay respect to their deceased ancestors. It’s also a time for people to celebrate the elderly.

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Pangangaluluwa — Philippines

After sundown: In Philippines they light candles and camp out in the cemeteries to honour the ancestors.
Photo by Alexandr Chukashev on Pexels.com

The name of the holiday is from the word kaluluwa, meaning soul or spirit. It is an event that lasts three days at the cemetery with food stands and pop-up stores around the cemetery as the people celebrating the festivities, camp out.

On the first of November people gather in cemetaries to light candles and put flowers on the grave to respect the ancestors. some places in the north they have this old tradition of lighting pinewood next to the graves. In the cemetery there is a priest walking through it to bless all the tombs.

Outside of the emetaries, there are carollers singing through the night, all draped in white blankets. The same tradition is for children as they go door to door and singing hymns to get money.

Today, the local tradition is slowly fading out, merging more and more with the modern Halloween traditions, but out in the provinces, mostly, the old practices is still upheld for now.

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Saint Andrew’s Day — Romania

Night of the Wolf: During this night wolves have special powers and can speak.
Photo by David Selbert on Pexels.com

This day is today connected to the Christian saint, but it also have some pagan origins with the Roman celebration of Saturn. In the Dacian Ney Year was an interval when time started up again. On the turn of the night, wolves were allowed to eat the animals they wanted and it was also believed that they spoke as well, although, if you heard it, it meant an early death.

Early on the day, the mothers went into the garden to get branches, especially from apple, pear, cherry trees and rose bush branches. They made a bunch of these branches for each family member, and if a branch bloomed by New Years day, it meant they would be lucky and healthy the following year.

There was also a tradition of girls hiding sweet basil under their pillow to have dreams about their wedding. It was also customary for girls to put 41 grains of wheat under their pillow, and if they dreamt someone stole them, it meant they were going to be wed the next year. This premonition was also done by bringing a candle to a fountain at midnight and ask Saint Andrew himself if he could give them a glimpse of their future husband.

This day was especially good for revealing the future husband by magic, a superstitious belief that was also in Ukraine, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Russia as well as in Romania. This was also the day were vampiric activity was at large, all until Saint George’s Eve on the 22. of April.

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Dziady — Poland

Dziady: Cemetery on dziady night by Stanisław Bagieński from 1904.

The Dziady is a slavic feast to remember the ancestor long passed. It is sometimes translated to Forefathers Eve. It used to be celebrated both in the spring and in the autumn, but today, it is usually held in the end of October like .

In the feast they eat ritual meals to celebrate the living and the souls. It was either held at the house or at cemeteries, were poring directly on the grave was and still is a thing. In some areas the ancestors also had to bathe, and saunas was prepared for them. They also lit up candles and lights to guide the souls so they wouldn’t get lost and wander off.

There was also a special kind of begger, a beggars-dziady, people thought to be connected to the other words. They were given food and sometimes cash to make them pray for their loved lost ones.

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Top European Horror TV-Series

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From the spooky alps to the cold Swedish forests, the European horror TV-series is slowly taking its space among the detectives and social realism drama series. Although the formula of a person coming back to a small village is massively prominent, it’s like the European TV community is coming back to its root, with Europe as a hella haunted and spooky continent. These are some of the more horror based TV shows (excluding the UK) that has come out from Europe.

Marianne (France)

The series was dropped in 2019 with thirteen episodes but was cancelled after one season. How much we are supposed to lean into that Marianne is the personification of the French Republic is unclear, but it is however certain that Marianne the series has been a staple series for French production on Netflix. The plot revolves around a young writer, Emma who writes horror novels. But then she realizes that her characters in her books also exists in the real world when she goes back to her hometown.

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Curon (Italy)

This Italian series is about a woman that returns to the small village she is from in northern Italy. There is something strange going on in the lake near the village and something start to appear from it. With her she also brings her two twin children. But upon her return the hauntings that made her leave in the first place starts coming back. The series was also set in the real iconic place Curon were the submerge village in the lake is an actual thing.

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Ares (Netherland)

In this creepy series, we follow a student in Amsterdam that joins a secret society. The society has been around since the Dutch Golden Age, but demands more than many are willing to give. And the student must decide how far she is willing to go to enter the fine society.

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Dark (German)

Not a pure horror series, but a fine mix of sci-fi, drama, mystery, time travel and philosophical debate, this German series will take you on a trip. And unlike many other international dramas on Netflix, this series ended on its own terms with a full circle and fulfilling three season run. The premise of the series is the disappearance of children in the forest. And it all escalates when the police man’s son, Mikkel, is one of those who goes missing. And a journey through time and space begins for more than one in the small German village.

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Jordskott (Sweden)

Seven years after her daughter’s disappearance, a detective returns home to look for clues as a current case seems similar. The daughter was believed drowned as she vanished by the lake and the body never recovered. But now, more and more children start disappearing and the cases gets more and more unexplainable. And when Nordic Noir detective drama meets old Nordic folklore, the drama unfolds getting stranger and more sinister by each episode.

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The Returned (France)

This French series from 2012 inspired many spin offs after its released. It is actually based on a movie from 2004 which in turn have a lot of similarities from the Brazilian Novel “Incidente em Antares”, by Eric Verissimo. The series is set in a French town way up in the mountains. It’s a small place were everyone knows everyone. Suddenly the dead stars coming back like they never died, not remembering anything. And the remaining people in the town must face the consequences of their past as well as their present.

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Black Spot (France)

Another series set in the moody mountain areas of France, this series takes a more bloody and gory turn. A police chief teams up with the eccentric prosecutor who is new to this isolated town named Villefranche, a town without any mobile reception. Together they investigate what mysteries and crimes is happening in the forest.

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The Kingdom (Denmark)

From the mind of Lars von Trier, this Danish series is a loopy trip one can expect from a director like this. It is set in the most technologically advanced hospital in Denmark. However, strange stuff keeps happening to the staff and patients. Like the phantom ambulance that comes every night, voices in the elevator belonging to no one, and the pregnancy of a doctor that is happening way to fast. All and more is challenging the staffs belief in that there is nothing more than pure science.

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Post Mortem: No One Dies In Skarnes (Norway)

This slow burn horror is set in the Norwegian countryside with a vampiric twist. A man is struggling to keep his funeral home business alive. It is bad business that no one seems to die in this small place. He is super happy when he gets a call that a woman finally died, but have mixed feelings when he finds out the dead woman is his sister. And everyone is confused when she comes back to life, but with a blood thirst. But can this thirst for human blood actually be the solution to save the family business?

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Bloodride (Norway)

Another Norwegian entry on the list is the bonker anthology series from 2020. A group of passengers on a bus share their twisted and macabre story one by one. Together with their separate stories, they are heading to an unknown destination with the phantom bus in the night.

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The Myth of Oiwa — The Paper Lantern Ghost

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The blinking paper lantern hides a vengeful ghost in one of the most famous Japanese ghost stories. From a local legend about a real woman to the stage, the myth of the ghost of Oiwa continues to inspire horror.

Many of the more well known stories of ghost and horror from Japan is about the Onryō, meaning a vengeful spirit. A ghost so full of regret and rage, they are posing a threat to living humans. And sometimes, they can come in the form as a Japanese Paper Lantern Ghost. This is the case of the ghost of Oiwa.

Read more about the Onryō

Onryō — the Vengeful Japanese Spirit

In many cultures, ghosts are put in different categories. Such is the case with Onryō (怨霊 onryō,) It basically means “vengeful spirit” or “wrathful spirit” in Japanese and is a mythological spirit of vengeance from Japanese folklore. They also have ghosts, called yurei, but these differ in the will of the ghost. As opposed to…

There are many movies, books and popular culture that feeds on the old legend of the vengeful spirit. Today in modern time we have The Ring and The Grudge series that makes use of this old legend, and in many instances, they are both also inspired by the most iconic Onryō throughout time, the ghost of Oiwa.

Yotsuya Kaidan — The Tale of Oiwa and Tamiya Iemon

The ghost of Oiwa is a vengeful spirit that we first learned of through the kabuki play called Yotsuya Kaidan (四谷怪談) or Ghost Story of Yotsuya from 1825. It was written by the writer Tsuruya Namboku IV, known for his plays with supernatural themes and macabre and grotesque characters.

She is an easy recognisable character on stage with her droopy eye and hair falling out or as the iconic Paper Lantern Ghost. She is also often seen as a Japanese ghost lantern in art.

Read Also: Check out all of the ghost stories from Japan

Kabuki Theatre

The Kabuki theatre is a traditional Japanese style plays originating in the Edo period. It is well known for its characteristics wigs, costumes, makeup and masks. It is exclusively theatre troops of men playing all roles. The distinct styled stage performances is the origin of many iconic looks in modern pop culture, like the distinct style of the Onryō with the white dress, white makeup and long black hair.

Yotsuya Kaidan is not the first and original written account of the legend, but certainly the most famous one. The first written manuscript about the ghost of Oiwa is dated to 1727 called Yotsuya zōtan 四谷雑談. It was an underground publication, most likely of the scandalous rumour of the true rumours of a noble family and lady that acted as an Onryō after her death.

Yotsuya Kaidan tells the story of Oiwa and Tamiya Iemon and in this play it tells the story of a woman scorned by her man and coming back from the dead for revenge. Throughout the years, there have been many adaptation and versions of the story and it was a popular story to tell as a part of a samurai parlor game.

Read Also: Games to Play in the Dark – including Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai

It is considered to be one of Nihon san dai kaidan — Japan’s Big Three Ghost Stories. It is arguably the most famous Japanese ghost story of all time and has spurned a couple of local legends of its own.

Read about the Nihon san dai kaidan—Japan’s Big Three Ghost Stories:

Banchō Sarayashiki — the Ghost of Okiku

The tale of Banchō Sarayashiki (番町皿屋敷, The Dish Mansion at Banchō) is a well known Japanese ghost story (kaidan). It was popularized in the kabuki theater tradition, and lives on in popular culture and folklore alike.

Keep reading

The Ghost of Oiwa — The Vengeful Spirit

Yotsuya Kaidan starts out as a classical romantic tale. Oiwa was said to be a loving and devoted wife that risked everything for her husband, Tamiya Iemon. They married in secret, without her father’s consent. Tamiya Iemon was a wandering samurai, a poor rōnin and not suited to marry his daughter according to the father.

The ghost of Oiwa
From the ”Thirty-six Ghosts” series by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, ”The Yotsuya Ghost Story”, 1892.

Oiwa’s father whoever, was not as pleased with her marrying this man without honor and no money. When he found out the rōnin’s misdeeds, he confronted him. After a heated argument, the father was killed by the son in law when he threatened to make them stay apart from each other, and he did not bless their marriage.

After his death, Oiwa mourned her father. Iemon comforted Oiwa, claiming they would find her father’s killer.

To earn money he had to take up work as an umbrella maker to care for his pregnant wife. The old samurai grew bored doing the tedious work and turned resentful towards his wife, Oiwa. A woman he once loved and done horrible things to stay with. But in the end, there was no love left.

Next door they had a neighbor with a granddaughter that loved Iemon. The neighbor himself wanted his granddaughter and Iemon to get married. They were wealthy neighbors, and Iemon wanted to be that as well. So they planned how to get rid of Oiwa together.

Unbeknownst to Oiwa they sent her either an ointment or face cream laced with poison. But the poison didn’t kill her and only left her disfigured with one eye drooping and her hair falling off as she tried to brush through it, making Iemon so disgusted by her, he came up with a plan to rid himself of her. He hired one of his friends to rape her so that he would have grounds for a divorce.

His friend however is unable to go through with the plan and shows her a mirror instead. When she sees herself she understands what has happen and how she has been deceived. She takes a sword and accidently kills herself with it, and on her last breath, she curses Iemons name. In some versions there is actually Iemon that kills her.

Iemon threw her in the river to rot and went on to plan the wedding to the neighbors granddaughter. That night, the night before his wedding, he had terrible night terrors, and he saw his dead wife manifesting. In a burning paper lantern she comes out as a ghost, frightening him as a warning of the hauntings that are about to come.

The Chōchin obake

In Japanese legends, they have this concept of Tsukumogami (付喪神, “Kami of tool). This is the belief that inanimate objects, when they ‘serve’ their owners for a hundred years, they are granted life and a soul. When the Japanese lantern, or Chōchin reaches this age, it can become Chōchin obake, a Japanese lantern ghost, a mostly harmless ghost that laughs and lightly scares humans. But they could also be inhabited by a powerful onryō.

The Lantern: The print depicts a Kamiya Iantern haunted by the ghost of Oiwa as the Paper Lantern Ghost in Yotsuya Kaidan
Kuniyoshi Utagawa, ”The Ghost in the Lantern”, 1852.

But he is not frightened enough as he still goes on with the wedding the next day. When he lifted the veil of his bride though, it was the ghost of Oiwas disfigured face staring back at him. He beheaded her, and therefore, his new bride as well. There is all in all a lot of killing going on.

He was then pursued by the ghost of Oiwa, not wanting him to escape. She was turned into a vengeful ghost, pursuing him into madness, making him suffer. He dies in the end, after suffering horrible.

It changes in the different adaptations of Yotsuya Kaidan how he dies though. Sometimes he is killed by Oiwa’s brother, or brother in law and in other versions it’s the haunting of the ghost of Oiwa that drives him out of his mind and into death. Sometimes it’s Oiwa herself, that pulls him down from the height with her. Either way her revenge is complete.

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The Deaths Behind The Play of the Paper Lantern Ghost

The success of the Yotsuya Kaidan play was so big that they had to reschedule more performances to meet the demands. It was mostly believed that the popularity of the play was because it tapped into the zeitgeist of the society at the time.

Oiwa as the lantern: The ghost of Oiwa manifesting herself as a Japanese Paper Lantern Ghost. From the series One Hundred Tales (Hyaku monogatari).
Print by Katsushika Hokusai. 1830

The theme of repressed women was something that reflected the Bunsei era that was also a time of great unrest. And the story of the victim taking her revenge of her oppressor was something the audience revelled in.

But where did the story come from? Was it just from the imagination to Nanboku when he wrote the play?

In most blogs it is said the legend created the play. But was it actually the play that created the legend? Yes, it is based on the terrifying vengeful ghost, something older than the kabuki play. But were did Nanboku really get his story from?

According to some sources Nanboku’s play was based of an actual murder of the wife of a samurai that went insane after her husband got another woman pregnant. She wandered off from her home, never to be seen again.

It is also claimed that Nanboku based his play from to separate murders. One of the murders was that of two servants who had murdered their masters. They were caught and executed on the same day. The second murder that inspired the play was a samurai that nailed his wife and her lover to a wooden board and threw them into the Kanda River for being faithless.

In any case what source the play was created from, the play itself became something that created more legend. It has adapted for film over 30 times, and continues to be an influence on Japanese horror today.

The Real Oiwa and her Rocks

But who was the real Oiwa behind the manuscript? Both the play and the written account from 1727 from the underground publication that claimed a dead wife had turned into an onryo. Wether this account really refers to this Oiwa, is a bit uncertaint though.

We can find an Oiwa Tamiya in the real life that had something mysterious happening to her. Living in the 17th century, she was born into a powerful family, but she and her husband had financial difficulties.

One day Oiwa came over two very large rocks she felt was something special and put them both in her garden. She prayed to these rocks for good luck and prosperity for her family to overcome their financial difficulties.

And over time, the things she prayed for to the rocks really happened for the family and everyone believed it was because of the magic rocks that she had prayed to. The rocks became famous, and was called Oiwa Inari or Yotsuya Inary. In the end, a shrine was built for it, and this is the shrine people flock to pray to.

Even the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education found it necessary to distinguish the real life Oiwa and the play and they have put this message:

Tamiya Inari Shrine, commonly known as Oiwa Inari, used to be i the premises of Tamiya family of Osakitegumi doshin (military officer in the Edo period).

An old story is passed down that Oiwa (died in 1636), a daughter of Tamiya Matazaemon, worshipped at the shrine and restored her family with Iemon, her husband. Therefore, the shrine was gradually worshipped as ‘Oiwa Inari* by people. There was yet another story to attract further worshippers, the ghost story ‘Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan’, written by Tsuruya Nanbuko and was staged in 1825 and was very popular.

However, it was written after 200 years of time when Oiwa and Iemon actually lived. Unlike the famous ghost story, their marriage in reality was enjoyable. After Inari shrine was lost by a fire in 1879, it moved to Shinkawa in Chuo Ward. The present shrine was rebuilt here at Yotsuya in 1952.

— Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education

Although not like in the play, there were rumours about Oiwa being a vengeful ghost, long before the Kabuki actors entered the stage for the first time. Something we can read about in the manuscript from 1727 that also hinted to this fate for her.

A more sinister legend of this lady though is the curse she apparently set on three houses had been disrupted, rumour saying it was the grudge of Tamiya’s wife, Oiwa that killed them. They were both victims of the reforming rule of the eight Tokugawa Shōgun, Yoshimune Kō. In some accounts she disappeared, in others she commited suicide, vowing to revenge those who wronged her. In all she was blamed for the deaths of at least fifteen people.

The Shrine in Oiwa’s Honor

Already in 1717, there was a shrine erected in her honor, something they sometimes did to appease the wrath of an Onryō, long before the publication that were written ten years after. This is a list of some of the shrines that were built to restore her honor and protect from the harmful ghost, or at least connected to the Oiwa legend:

  1. Yotsuya O’Iwa-inari Tamiya Shrine
    四谷於岩稲荷田宮神社
    新宿区左門町
  2. O’Iwa-inari Yōunji
    於岩稲荷陽雲寺
    新宿区左門町
  3. O’Iwa-inari Tamiya Shrine
    於岩稲荷田宮神社
    中央区荒川
  4. Myōkōji
    妙行寺
    豊島区西巣鴨

They say that when visiting her grave, there is a statue of Oiwa inside the main building in some of her shrines, although not accessible to visitors. you can wish upon it as it is said she grants the wishes of her worshippers. This is also the rumours about her grave.

The Curse of Oiwa’s Grave and The Curse on the Play

The revenge of Oiwa: The ghost of Oiwa coming out from the Japanese lantern in Yotsuya Kaidan as a ghost with her son in her arms.
Artist:Kuniyoshi

It is said her body is buried at Myogo-ji temple in Sugamo, Tokyo. Her death is listed in February 22. 1636 and the grave has been rumoured to have been haunted for ages.

After the play started, there have been reports of accidents, injuries and deaths around the production of the play or even TV or movie adaptions of the story. This has been blamed on the ghost of Oiwa and her wish for revenge. Therefore it has become a tradition to visit and pay respect for the people involved in a production of Yotsuya Kaidan just to be safe.

I you go straight through the graveyard, there is suppose to be a red torii (a Shinto shrine archway) by a tree. Under the tree, her grave is supposed to be. But don’t run off to check it out just because you are curious and nothing more. According to legend, if you visit the grave just because of curiosity, your right eye will swell up, just like hers did with the poison.

It is said to be a curse over it all. And very much like the Macbeth curse, the people involved in productions of the legend of Yotsuya Kaidan, still honors it. Before retelling the story there is a tradition to go to her grave, to ask her permission, asking for her blessing to tell her story again. So… will you?

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References:

Chōchin obake

Tsukumogami | Yokai Wiki | Fandom

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2090.html

Tsuruya Namboku IV | Japanese dramatist | Britannica

Japan’s Three Great Ghost Stories | Japanese Art

O-Iwa’s Curse

https://kokoro-jp.com/culture/1489/

YOTSUYA KAIDAN

YOTSUYA KAIDAN

Oiwa-Inari Tamiya shrine – Shinjuku, Tokyo

Tokyo Ghost Hunting: Visiting Oiwa’s Haunted Shrine in Yotsuya

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Minxiong Ghost Mansion

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Minxiong haunted house, otherwise known as the Liu Mansion is located In the Taiwanese countryside and the old baroque mansion left abandoned and decayed by weather and time. And after being abandoned by the owners, rumours of ghosts started to be told and the mansion is one of the well known haunted places around.

On the serene countryside of Taiwan, amidst rice fields and forest, a mansion is left abandoned between the Banyan trees that have soon claimed the mansion as its own. The majestic red brick building must have been beautiful when first built, but now, it only holds the mysterious charm that old ruins have with its secrets and signs of the passing of time. 

The Baroque styled house, also known as the old Lui Family Mansion (劉家古宅民雄鬼屋) is located in Chiayi, southwestern Taiwan. It’s a hot and humid climate, but the story surrounding this house is a chilling one. The Minxiong Mansion is an eerie place, so forlorn, but famous as it is considered Taiwan’s most famous haunted place. A fact especially seen during ghost month were visitors flock to the site to catch a glimt of something paranormal going on in the quiet countryside.

Read More: Check out the rest of our ghost stories in haunted houses and mansions here.

The Haunted Minxiong Mansion

So what is it about the house that make people claim it is haunted one? A lot of factors have contributed to its rumour of Minxiong Mansion being haunted. Firstly, It’s located along a road with a graveyard close on either side. This has made drivers vary about driving pass for a long time.

The house is also today in a constant state of decay as no one is really paying any attention to it, and the old and dangerous ruins of the house turns out to be a perfect setting one. Then finally, there is the local legend about the house being haunted and cursed from the start. According to this one legend, the one who built it placed some sort of a charm or spell in the house in secret, making everyone living there hear strange noises, footsteps and unexplainable sounds.  Who built it though and why it was cursed never really makes it into this particular legend though.

Read Also: Check out more haunted abandoned places like Yongma Land Abandoned Theme Park and Hauntingly Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital

So who used to live there when it was first built? The three storey house was built in 1929 by Liu Rongyu (劉溶裕), a local businessman and landowner. The baroque architecture the house was built in was very in style with the wealthy merchants in Taiwan at that time.

Liu Rongyu had seven children and wanted somewhere peaceful and quiet to enjoy the countryside and the grandchildren that would follow. But not long after the building was complete, the mansion was completely abandoned, and the owners never came back in the 1950s. And so, the legends about it being haunted started creeping into the once beautiful family mansion.

The Maid in the Haunted Well

Local legends have a lot to say about the reasons the family left Minxiong haunted house. Was it just because of the remote location? The building was so far from everything and an inconvenient place to commute back and forth from work that maybe the family would rather relocate to the city? Or is it something about the story that has been told about the maid? 

The Haunted Well: The allegedly haunted well that can still be found on the property of Minxiong haunted house. It reminds a lot of the ghost story of Okiku who was also a maid that drowned herself in the well on the estate.// Photo: Koala0090, source.

One of the legends about the place, we find a more disturbing reason for the abrupt escape from the mansion. In the surrounding garden from the house there is an old well sealed shut that no longer is filled with water. And from this particular well, the legends of this house seeps through the cracks of the dried up well.

It is said one of the maids of the house had an affair with the man of the Minxiong Mansion. When the story came out, she ended up jumping to her death in the well that can be found outside.

Some versions of the story tell that the wife found out about the affair and tormented the maid, both mentally and in some accounts even physically, until she couldn’t take it anymore and ended her life by drowning herself in the well. But the story didn’t end with the tragic death of the young maid though, and the maid came back for revenge against the masters of the house. As a spirit she returned to torment the family who had tormented her. Every night her ghost terrorized the family until they packed up their things and left to never return. 

In the following years the visitors coming at night to the abandoned building were also haunted. And so many have been rumoured to be struck by bad luck or even illness, taking their life as the vengeful ghost still haunts the grounds. Especially the soldiers of more than one army have been allegedly chased away by the ghost. 

For more ghosts haunting the wells, check out some of our other stories in the MoonMausoleum:

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Banchō Sarayashiki — the Ghost of Okiku

The tale of Banchō Sarayashiki (番町皿屋敷, The Dish Mansion at Banchō) is a well known Japanese ghost story (kaidan). It was popularized in the kabuki theater tradition, and lives on in popular culture and folklore alike.

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The Japanese Army Massacre in Minxiong

The story of the maid has been said to be nothing but gossip and false lies several times, and the Liu family themselves are tired to hear about the strange stories surrounding their old family home. But the following strange happenings after the family left the Minxiong Mansion helps keep the story of the alleged curse of the house. 

During the time the Minxiong haunted house was built and the family lived there, the island of Taiwan was under Japanese rule (1895-1945) that could factor into the story. During this time business flourished after the Japanese built up the city of Chiayi after a devastating earthquake in 1906. At the time, this was the fourth biggest city in all of Taiwan. Perhaps that was not the case after the Japanese left and could that be some of the reasons that the Liu family eventually left the Chiayi countryside?

The more rational explanation would perhaps be that the Liu family simply relocated themselves for business reasons by moving downtown in Chiayi City, something that the family itself have expressed on multiple occasions although it doesn’t fit well with the rumours of the Minxiong Mansion being haunted.  

There also has been stories about the Japanese army opening gunfire around Minxiong haunted house for no apparent reason when the Japanese army temporarily stayed there, ending in killing innocent soldiers in the crossfires. Who or what did they think they saw in the dark and remote old mansion? The story about the killed soldiers in the mansion have not been verified as a historical fact, and is more told as an anecdote. Verified or not, several holes in the walls from what appears to be from gunfire can be seen still to this day, making one wonder who and why they were fired. 

The Strange Deaths of KMT Soldiers

A few years later after the Japanese army also left the mansion was occupied by the KMT (Kuomintang of China) the Chinese nationalist party of Taiwan, which in fact is officially known as Republic of China (ROC) came into power in 1949. By this time, parts of the Minxiong haunted house had already been damaged during bomb raids by the American army during the second world war and the interior of the house had been stripped away to build the nearby schools. You could say that the place already looked a little haunted.

Some soldiers from the KMT were stationed at the house in 1949. At this time there was no electricity and the Minxiong Mansion and the grounds around were completely left in darkness during night time, something the soldiers themselves refused to endure. There were several complaints from the KMT soldiers about seeing a ghost floating outside their window, demanding they had to put up electricity to fight the darkness they thought surrounded them in the house. 

Minxiong Haunted Mansion: Entrance to the Old Liu Family Mansion still have visitors, although no one have lived there for ages. Now, it seems to belong to nature and the wild. It is now mainly visitors that are in search for the paranormal and to try to spook each other that visits.// Source/Flickr

Here, a string of deaths started to give fire to the haunted house rumours. According to the rumours of the deaths it was either that the KMT soldiers residing there got sick and died or on other accounts, thought to be suicides. All of this made the mansion get a reputation as haunted.

But also here, we have some counter intelligence that tells another story and although not haunted it is a tragic one. According to the other version many of the soldiers stationed there suffered badly from homesickness to their mainland China that in turn drove them to kill themselves on this foreign land so far from home. 

Minxiong Haunted House Movie From 2022

In 2022, it was even made a movie about the place and based on the urban legends surrounding the mansion called Minxiong Haunted House (民雄鬼屋). It didn’t really do so well in the box office, but it certainly renewed the interest for the old haunted ghost mansion.

The story is set to the Minxiong Mansion where a mother goes looking for her daughter who goes missing inside the old mansion. They go there during the Qingming Festival to visits the tomb at Chiayi Minxiong Cemetery when her daughter disappears. And on her search for her daughter, she ends up encountering the ghosts within the mansion and has to deal with a haunting past as well.

Minxiong Haunted House: Poster from the 2022 movie called Minxiong Haunted House about the Liu Mansion. The movie is based on the many legends and myths that the ghost mansion has acquired over the years it has been left abandoned. Photo: Disney+

Hauntings During Ghost Month

The story of the Minxiong Mansion continues to inspire and attract visitors, especially during ghost month when people flock to try to see a ghost or two at the old Lui Family Mansion that never seems to rid itself of its haunted reputation.

Read more: The Obon Celebration – The Ghost Festival is around the same time and is also based on the traditions during ghost month.

Ghost Month: Traditionally, that ghosts haunt the island of Taiwan for the entire seventh lunar month, known as Ghost Month. The first day is marked by opening the gate of a temple, symbolizing the gates of hell. On the twelfth day, lamps on the main altar are lit. On the thirteenth day, a procession of lanterns is held. On the fourteenth day, a parade is held for releasing water lanterns. Incense, food and spirit paper money are offered to the spirits to deter them from visiting homes. During the month, people avoid surgery, buying cars, swimming, moving house, marrying, whistling and going out or taking pictures after dark. It is also important that addresses are not revealed to the ghosts.//Photo: mahe haroutinian on Pexels.com

Every year, especially in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, or Ghost Month, the Minxiong haunted house gets plenty of visitors. The floors of the house have long collapsed, and the red bricked walls has started to crumble, soon it will perhaps disappear completely.

Any plans to restore the haunted and decaying house have long been rejected by the Liu family as they want nothing to do with it anymore. The Minxiong Mansion will soon be taken by the forest and swallowed whole, unable to reveal the truth of what actually happened at the manor.

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References

18 Creepy Haunted House Stories – True Ghost Stories 

Abandoned Taiwan: The Old Liu Family Mansion at Minxiong 

Liu mansion in Chiayi voted top haunted house 

Minxiong Haunted House | A Thrill Seeking Adventure

興中村 

Minxiong Haunted House 民雄鬼屋

民雄鬼屋 

【古蹟探索】台灣四大鬼屋之首–民雄鬼屋名列亞洲十大鬼屋的民雄劉家古宅追追追| 貓大爺| 鳴人堂

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The Prisoner of Château de Puymartin

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After a husband caught his cheating wife, the punishment for her lasted into the afterlife. After she was discovered, the husband imprisoned her in the tower of Château de Puymartin, and according to legends, the wife is still haunting this French Château as a Dame Blanche, or the Lady in White.

The honey colored towers of this elegant castle in France called Château de Puymartin is like taken out of a fairytale romance. But the tales about this castle in Southwestern France, is by no means fairytale-like, but more of a horror story without a nice ending.

The Château de Puymartin was constructed in the early 1200s and the castle went through a lot of hands throughout history. In 1357, the castle was taken by the british before being bought back by the council of Sarlat. They didn’t stay though and the castle was left abandoned.

Read also: Check out all of our ghost stories from France

The castle was abandoned for a while and it wasn’t until the 1450s Radulphe de Saint-Clar rebuilt the Château de Puymartin and making it bigger that people started living in it. But can anyone really say they lived peacefully in it?

The Prison in the castle: The castle that used to be the Lady in White’s home at Château de Puymartin turned into her prison were she lived her remaining years in the tower and the rest of eternity walled up in the walls of her former prison.
Photo: Manfred Heyde source

Dame Blanches in French Folklore

All French Château’s must have its own legend of a Dame Blanche or the ghost of a Lady in White roaming around the castle halls at night. The Château de Puymartin is no exception from this and has it’s own twisted tale of the Lady in White. But really what is this types of ghosts that we always hear of wandering the castle halls?

One of the most pervasive supernatural mythologies associated with haunted castles and Château’s is the Dames blanches, or White Ladies. These mysterious figures are said to wander through fields and forests near the city, bringing with them both luck and misfortune to those who encounter them. 

They are known way back from myths and folklore as well and quite well spread in European ghost stories. Tales of these enigmatic creatures have been told for centuries, inspiring many artistic interpretations and offering a glimpse into a fantastic world beyond our own.

Read Also: Check out more ghost stories about the Lady in White or la Dame Blanches in France like The Buried Alive Ghosts of Château de Trécesson in the Enchanted Forest or The Hitchhiking Woman in White in Palavas-les-Flots

There’s also a long-standing local legend involving the castle’s ‘Dames Blanches’, or ‘White Ladies’. According to folklore, these female ghosts are said to inhabit the castle and torment its inhabitants with misfortune, calamity, and sometimes even death in many stories in French folklore.

Lady in White Ghost: The most common ghost you hear about is the ghost of a lady, often described as wearing white. The legends is different from every culture, often described as a sorrowful ghost in European ghost stories and taking a more vengeful spirit take in Asian ghost stories. What they all have in common though is they experienced something unfair in their life and in their death they can’t see past in their afterlife.

What used to be vague figures from old mythology and legends, now tells the tragic ghost stories about real women who died in horrible ways and have unfinished business in their afterlife. Such is the tale of the Dame Blance in Château de Puymartin.

The Legend of the Dame Blanche in the Castle

The legend of la Dame Blanche, or the woman in white that is said to reside inside of Château de Puymartin is said to be the spirit of a woman called Thérèse de Saint-Clar. She was married to Jean de Saint-Clar, the man of the Château de Puymartin in the 1500s. Her name is not set in stone, as the legends most often specify her name at all.

The husband could also have been Raymond de Saint-Clar who fought in the French Wars of Religion, a war between the Catholics and Protestants. He is well known to be the one who managed to get rid of the Huguenots from Sarlat. The timeline with the names in this legend can get a bit messy as we can neither confirm or deny all of the details.

But either way, the story goes that the man of Château de Puymartin was away at war and while he was away, the wife stayed home and took a lover. 

Read more: Interested in haunted castles? Check out all of our ghost stories set in haunted castles around the world. What about readling about more haunted French Châteaus like The Haunted Château de Commarque, Haunted Nights in the Château des Fougeret, The Time Travelling Ghost Haunting Château de Versailles or Ghost Stories from Greoux-les-Bains and the Château des Templiers?

But the affair would not stay secret for long at the Château de Puymartin. After distinguishing himself in the battles, the husband was allowed to return home to his home and wife for what he thought would be a happy reunion and he would be recieved by his wife as a war hero.

The homecoming was anything but thought and when he went to her, his wife was found in her lover’s arm.

The husband went mad and ended up killing her lover out of jealousy in a fit of rage. His wife was also punished but in a much slower and torturous death. He ended up imprisoning his cheating wife in a tower in their Château as he no longer could trust her on her own and their marriage was in all sense of the matter over. 

Imprisoned at the Tower of Château de Puymartin

For years the wife was trapped in the northern tower of Château de Puymartin, never allowed to leave or go outside, not even after her death. One could almost argue that she is still not allowed out in her afterlife.

Immured: Throughout the years, there have been plenty of stories about women sealed inside of walls for punishments or for religious purposes. Who knows just how many old walls are hiding a secret?

The wife lived trapped inside of the tower until she died in what was called a ‘fifteen long years of repentance’. 15 whole years she stayed in the same little room never allowed to leave.

The door leading into her tower was supposedly walled up to keep her from escaping, only leaving a small trap door for the servants to bring her food while she was alive. She was stripped away from the fine living she was used to being the mistress of this grand castle and they only left a bad mattress for her to sleep on in a corner.

The only view she had was to look out from the window through the barrs they put up for her to prevent her from escaping. There she could see just how close freedom was, past the garden, over the hill and into the forests. This almost seems more cruel than shutting the window off completely.

It doesn’t say if she had any visitors, but over the years it looks like the husband never pitied her and let go of her anger. And if she spent 15 years inside the tower without anyone to talk to, she most likely went mad after the first few years.

According to legend her body was sealed inside the walls of the room when she died, trapping her there, even in her afterlife and she never got a proper burial in the ground, and was laid on the cold stones of the castle walls. Since then, she comes back to haunt the castle at night. At least now she can move outside the tower. She wanders the stairs, her room and on the pathways around the grounds. 

Read More: Check out all of our ghost stories concerning women that were supposedly walled up inside of a building like The Evil Bishop Against the Maiden in Love – The Ghost of Haapsalu Castle, Dracula and Ghost Nuns in Whitby Abbey and O-shizu, Hitobashira — The Human Sacrifice of Maruoka Castle

The Château de Puymartin Today

Today you can visit the Château de Puymartin for a fee to try to get a glimpse of the sorrowful ghost that have been spotted by its owners and visitors over the centuries.

The Château de Puymartin have in its later years embraced their Dame Blanche legend and it’s a part of the experience when visiting the castle. They have even made the story into an escape room play during Halloween season. Would you like to play?

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References

Château de Puymartin – Wikipedia 

La légende de la Dame Blanche – Puymartin un château hanté en Périgord The castle of Puymartin and the shadow of the White Lady… – Sarlat-la-Canéda – Dordogne –

Evènements au château de Puymartin 

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The Mausoleum of Rufina Cambacérès at Recoleta Cemetery — Buried Alive

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Marble mausoleums, famous people and haunted graves with excellent architecture. The city of Buenos Aires got more to offer than tango and good food. And in the old Recoleta Cemetery there are stories that those buried there is haunting the place. One of them is the grave of Rufina Cambacérès who were buried alive.

In the wonderful cemetery of Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, the most prominent of Argentina’s dead is laid to rest. Graves of famous people like Eva Peron, Nobel Prize winners, grandchildren of Naloleón Bonaparte and those who served as presidents have graves you can visit.

Walking through Recoleta Cemetery is an architectural wandering among the marble mausoleums with art-deco, neo-classical and neo-gothic architecture in the tombs to enjoy looking at and wondering the story of those inside.

The Recoleta Cemetery is more like a city of graves with narrow streets and cobbled ground, almost like the most quiet neighbourhood in Buenos Aires. Although the inhabitants of this city is no longer alive and the only ones roaming here are their ghosts.

Read Also: Check out all of our ghost stories around haunted cemeteries from around the world.

There are also those graves found in the Recoleta Cemetery that people got to know of the person resting there, only after the death. 

Rufina Cambacérès: The Girl who Died Twice

Buried Alive: Portrait of Rufina Cambacérès that is now buried in the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. Photo: Source

This is the case of Rufina Cambacérès, a girl that barely reached the age of nineteen before she tragically died, twice. Although she was a well known socialite in Buenos Aires at the turn of the 1900s when she was alive, it is her death she is remembered for today and is one of the buried in The Recoleta Cemetery. Although her burial was anything but peaceful.

Rufina Cambacérès’ family rose to the upper class of society in Buenos Aires from the money they made from cattle farming in Argentina. Her father, Eugenio Cambacérès was originally from France and a sort of famous writer in the country at the time.

Her father died of tuberculosis however when Rufina was only four, giving a precedent of premature deaths in the family, like the one Rufina herself would soon suffer from. 

A Temporary Death

In 1902 Rufina died for the first time in her life. Her death happened on her birthday no less. On her 19th birthday to be exact on May 31st. Her mother threw a party at their lavish house in Buenos Aires and they were all supposed to go to Teatro Colón to see a show or the opera.

Rufina Cambacérès retreated to her bedroom before they went out. She was getting ready in her bedroom for the night when something felt off. Perhaps she didn’t even get a chance to realize what was happening. She suddenly collapsed on the floor and was deemed to be dead for everyone around, even her doctors.

The reason of death the doctors gave was by catalepsy, a classical diagnosis that they have given those who were buried alive in history, especially the dramatic temporarily deaths from literature. This is the same death that Juliet was given temporarily by the poison, and in Edgar Allen Poe’s writing: ‘A Premature Burial’, also beginning with a false death that ends in a true death in the coffin.

Catalepsy: Is a strange disorder from from Ancient Greek meaning “seizing, grasping”. It really is a nervous condition characterized by muscular rigidity and fixity of posture regardless of external stimuli, as well as decreased sensitivity to pain. It has been today linked to epilepsy, parkinson or drug related.

Being declared dead before your time was not unheard of during those time at all and there are many examples of it throughout time. Sadly, Rufina became a part of this tragic statistic and before anyone could prove any different, she was buried, and first after her burial, she died. 

Read Also: For more ghost stories of those buried alive, check out The Buried Alive Ghosts of Château de Trécesson in the Enchanted Forest, O-shizu, Hitobashira — The Human Sacrifice of Maruoka Castle, The Mistletoe Bough – The Bride in the Chest, The Finnish Maiden of Olavinlinna Castle and The Evil Bishop Against the Maiden in Love – The Ghost of Haapsalu Castle.

Buried in Recoleta Cemetery

No less than three doctors pronounced her dead before she was put in a coffin and preparation for her birthday changed into preparing for her funeral. She was placed in her extravagant final resting place in the mausoleum already the next day in la Recoleta Cemetery. This seems extremely quick as there usually is held a wake to prevent people from being buried alive, and they really should have kept to the old customs before rushing her funeral.

Read also: The Poltergeist of Greyfriars Kirkyard or The Joelma Building and the Ghosts of the 13 Souls for more cemeteries that are supposedly haunted.

According to legend, she woke up in the coffin, dark and she was all alone far from her bedroom she was getting ready to go party. No one could hear her screams from outside the huge mausoleum that now was her prison. She tried to break free from her tomb she suddenly found herself in, trying to scratch herself out with her bare hands. The luxurious and sturdy coffin was sealed shut though and she had no chance of breaking free from it with her bear hands.

She was stuck inside as the air was slowly fading away. She must have lasted for a couple of days perhaps before eventually suffocating to death. For real this time. 

Recoleta Cemetery: a massive cemetery that houses many famous people like Eva Peron. The supposed haunted cemetery in Buenos Aires has also been hailed as the best cemetery by BBC in 2011, whatever that entails. It is known for looking almost like a little city within the city with streets and doors to the many mausoleums.

A cemetery worker allegedly noticed the lid of her casket was broken a few days later when he was around checking the many graves. The fact her grave was disturbed could also be attributed to robbers, since she was very likely to have been buried with her expensive jewelry because of her high status and riches.

But not according to those subscribing to the more macabre version, it was worse, it was the signs of her trying to escape from the coffin when she awoke from her shallow death and took one last shot at living. 

The Final Death of Rufina Cambacérès

Another legend tells that Rufina even managed to get out of the casket and ran through the cemetery at night. She managed to get to the gates, but there she died of a heart attack from the fright and had to be put back inside the coffin. 

More rumors about why she collapsed in the first place have been told throughout the years, creating more drama leading up to her collapsing. Among other things, her friend supposedly told her a secret so gruesome that it knocked her out so hard that they thought she was dead. According to her friend, the boyfriend Rufina was seeing was also together with Rufinas mother, or even worse, his own. A true scandal for a Tela Novela and would certainly send everyone into a shock. 

No matter the origin of the story and what really happened that day before going to the opera, the statue outside the mausoleum is solemn enough to create a number of haunted rumours as the statue really looks like she is trying to escape.

The Haunted Mausoleum: The mausoleum of the young girl Rufina Cambacérès, completed with a statue, representing her, with her hand on the door, her eyes looking, almost with a longing look, away from her tomb in Recoleta Cemetery.
Photo: Source: Tim Adams

Her family spared no expense on her mausoleum and Rufina Cambacérès final resting place is the only mausoleum made of marble from Milan and is decorated with beautiful ornaments. The young girl, supposed to be the young girl with one of her hands on the door, almost escaping, never able to see her 20th birthday or the exit of la Recoleta Cemetery.

According to some, the ghost of Rufina Cambacérès can still be seen roaming in the Recoleta Cemetery, still trying to get out of her shallow death.

Read Also: Another haunted cemetery with a strange Mausoleum is found in the story of Paris’ Haunted Père Lachaise Cemetery

So many legends surround the cemetery to this day like we find in Recoleta Cemetery. Among some of the ghosts supposed to haunt the place, is a cemetery worker, destined to linger in this place forever, as well as a woman in white, roaming the place. Perhaps trying to get out? 

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008. rufina cambacérès ◊ – AfterLife 

The Tomb of Rufina Cambacérès – Buenos Aires, Argentina 

Catalepsy

The girl who died twice and other secrets of Argentina’s La Recoleta cemetery

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Ghost of the Cathedral — The Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen

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From medieval times, history and bloody memories lingers in one of the only and longest standing cathedrals in Norway. This is the story of the Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen and the haunting of the Cathedral.

Once upon a time in history, the Nidarosdomen in Norway was the most visited place for pilgrimage in Northern Europe and is situated in Trondheim in Norway. People came a long way to seek salvation, peace and God in that holy place. That was those days and today it is mostly a big tourist attraction as well as some of Norway’s most well known buildings.

Nidarosdomen in Trondheim: The Cathedral has been rebuilt many times and started as a wooden chapel and the cathedral was finished by the 1320s. This is Nidarosdomen from 1821 by Carl Johan Fahlcrantz. This was how the cathedral looked before its major restoration and additional towers and much more like how it would have looked in medieval times.

Perhaps far from it today, Norway was a country of Catholics in medieval times, having nearly rid itself with its pagan roots of the Vikings and Norse Mythology, much later than rest of Europe perhaps. It was a church, much more mysterious than the one today that built upon both the learned Catholic as well as the pagan viking traditions.

Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Norway

Today the monasteries in Norway is from ancient times and most of them are turned to ruins, made to museums and stands as a memory of the power the catholic church once had of the country. Other cathedrals and churches from the time like Nidarosdomen were transformed to act as a house of God, even after the country became protestant.

The Haunted Cathedral in Trondheim

A place where the fantastical cathedrals continues its mission in a new suit is the Nidarosdomen, in the heart of Trondheim and one of the countries most precious religious buildings. But one can still hear the echoes of the past in the big halls and the memories of the monks still lingers in the walls.

Read More: check out our other ghost stories about ghost monks in Norway like The Ghost Monks at Lyseklosteret and The Haunted Natural History Museum in Bergen

Monks were men that gave up most of the earthly life to serve their lives in God’s service. They forsake the right to marry, have children and own properties in their name. The monks became anonymous, one of many and a part of an order with a strong hierarchy. They all dressed the same as their order, in robes to hide, to look the same. Even the face could be covered to not give away the identity. And at least on of these monks are said to still be wandering the halls of the cathedral in Trondheim.

The Bloody Monk: The Cathedral Nidarosdomen in Trondheim, Norway is said to be haunted by the ghost of The Bloody Monk. Tales of ghosts that looks like monks or nuns are often reported on appearing in old churches and even just the ruins of them, haunting after a great dishonor to their faith was done or perhaps they themselves couldn’t live the strict life of a monk without a sin?

Nidarosdomen is built over the burial site of King Olav II (c. 995–1030, reigned 1015–1028), who became the patron saint of the nation after his death as he was the one who really brought Christianity to the country, and is the traditional location for the consecration of new kings of Norway.

Over centuries the cathedral grew from a small chapel to one of the biggest churches in Norway. It has withstood fires, the reformation, the roof blowing off and if we are to believe the rumours, it has even managed to preserve one of the long residence ghosts.

The Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen

The first encounter we have found on the monk haunting the Nidarosdomen, comes from the month of January in 1924. It is a cold day in the city of Trondheim and the stone walls do little to keep the cold winter outside from the Maria Chapel in Nidarosdomen. Still, the people flock to Sunday service, now turned to a protestant church.

Read More: Check out all our ghost stories about Haunted Monasteries and Churches from all over the world like The History and Legends of the Haunted Abbaye De Mortemer, Dracula and Ghost Nuns in Whitby Abbey and The Evil Bishop Against the Maiden in Love – The Ghost of Haapsalu Castle.

The congregation gathered together in the hall in prayer and song. Perhaps that is what brought the The Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen forward this day? A hymn sung for centuries, a prayer heard this Sunday that acted as a summoning for ghosts? Was is the chanting voices from the whole congregation joined in the song as a choir? Something the monk recognized from the time he was alive?

People were gathering, chanting songs and prayers as the monk themselves once did, wandering with their incense? It’s hard to know exactly what with this particular sermon that brought him out. But since then, he has been a ghost observed many times in the cathedral and has been dubbed The Bloody Monk.

Holy Church: The Cathedral of Nidarosdomen is important for Norwegian christians as it is the resting place to one of the greatest saints in Norway, King Olav the Holy that died on the battlefield after bringing the religion to the country. After his death it was said his hair and nails continued to grow after death. Is it the holiness of the cathedral that keeps the ghosts haunting it, or is the place just built upon haunted ground already?

Marie Gleditch, wife of the bishop was the one that saw The Bloody Monk first. She claimed she saw a ghostly figure glide through the crowd gathered for service. She described him as a middle aged man with the monk robe hanging over him. This would not have been an unusual sight in medieval times, but in 1924, long after the monk orders had disbanded, this was not normal. Furthermore, Gleditch described the The Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen to have glowing eyes when she got a better look. But perhaps more striking is that he had a bloody stripe across over his throat, almost as if it was cut right through, giving him his name.

The Ancient Chant of the Ghost Monk

What really happened to this ghost? Was he really beheaded as the bloody throat would suggest? Was he murdered in cold blood? Or perhaps executed for a crime? We will probably never now as details of who came and went to this place was too may to count and keep track of.

Since that time, the ghost of The Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen with glowing eyes have created headlines several times in the country. It was for instance also seen by a bishop Alex Jonson who saw the figure in the cathedral in 1933. The Bloody Monk has perhaps become one of the more famous ghosts in Norway and people have visited the cathedral, just to try to get a glimpse of The Bloody Monk.

In 1966 a guy named Jon Medbøe forward with his story when he claimed to have encountered The Bloody Monk with his students when they had nightly walks in the cathedral and could hear something that sounded like footsteps dragging over the floor as well as a mysterious chant.

Medbøe who was a music historian and tried to pinpoint exactly what the music was like. He claimed the monk chanted a song, more specific, a choir song from the middle ages. A well known melody from the composer Perotinus from 1208. Was this perhaps the song that was played in 1924? Or something similar?

The Chanting Monk: This is one of Perotinus compositions and gives an idea of the type of chanting The Bloody Monk were doing. Perhaps this or something similar is the reason he is haunting the Cathedral?

Several have tried to come to the bottom of this mystery and after these modern sightings, it was written a lot about it it, even in German magazines. Who was this lonely monk, still wandering the halls, chanting old forgotten songs? How did he die? Even famous Norwegian, like horror writer Andre Bjerke tried to get into the cathedral to film it for a series of paranormal places he did, but he didn’t gain entrance. The church was not really forthcoming with information when it had anything to do with the Bloody Monk’s ghost. Medbøe was banned from his nightly trios into the cathedral after all the fuss it created.

Nidarosdomen tried for decades to cover the story of The Bloody Monk haunting Nidarosdomen up and shift its focus to it being an active church, not a common ghost house. So perhaps the Nidarosdomen still holds onto old traditions, more mystics and secrets we are not meant to know.

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References:

Nidaros Cathedral – Wikipedia

Munken i Nidarosdomen – Wikipedia  

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Ghosts of the Tsunami

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The tsunami disaster in 2011 left large parts of Japan in ruins. And some of the people never being found, are still trying to reach home it seems. This is the story of the Ghosts of the Tsunami.

It was a totally normal day. At least the morning was. It was supposed to be a totally normal day in 2011. It was mid day, so everyone was at work, busy filing papers, building buildings that would soon be torn down. Children sat in class at school, trying to learn something they would get on a test some would never even take. It was supposed to be a normal day. But then, the tsunami hit. Several tsunamis, up to about 10 metres rushed in over the coast of Japan after a massive earthquake.

Read Also: Check our all of our ghost stories from Japan

The event was known as 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami or Great East Japan Earthquake  (東日本大震災). It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900 with a magnitude of 9.1.

The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku’s Iwate Prefecture and people got as little as ten minutes to evacuate before it hit them.

After the waves of the tsunami hit, the entire city of Ishinomaki by the coast of Japan would never be the same again. After six minutes the entire city was under water and taking six thousand of the population with it. Half of those have not even been found. Soon after the survivor started talking about the ghosts of the tsunami that never found their way home.

The Tragedy of the Primary School

One of the big tragedies that the tsunami created was the primary schools that were affected. Especially what happened at the  Ishinomaki primary school, the city with most deaths. 70 of the 180 students was sitting in the classrooms that morning would never finish school.

When the teachers of the school finally got a notification of the oncoming tsunami, they were put in an impossible situation and spent too long making a decision if they should evacuate or not. And when they first group of children tried to run away the teacher chose a route that would lead them right were the tsunami hit and the teachers and students disappeared in the chaos as they tried to cross a bridge on their way to safety.

Massive destruction: The destruction was massive on that fateful day, like taking out an entire school. Many thinks that the victims came back as the ghosts of the tsunami. / Ishinomaki, Miyagi Japan/wikimedia

Later it was exactly the teachers that were blamed for the death of the towns children. A year later one of the teachers committed suicide, burdened by guilt and responsible of the children they weren’t able to rescue. Only the ruins of the school was left when the water retreated, and the ghosts of children was left in the form of the extra shoes, the homework that would never be done and the toys that would never be played with, ever again.

Ghost Passengers in Taxis

Over the decade since the tsunami hit, the echo of the humans that got their life broken by the power of nature. Several reports over the years tells that it’s been seen people that wanders headless, without arms and without legs in the places that was badly affected by the natural disaster. It is not just a particular name or person that is said to haunt the place. It is what we may call a Mass Haunting of the ghosts of the tsunami.

Read Also: Another example of a mass haunting after one particular incident is the The Haunting on Jeju Island in Korea

The ghosts of the tsunami wander the streets, on the hunt after the city they knew when they were alive. Many of the cities had to be completely rebuilt after the disaster and there is not much left of the place before the tsunami took it too the sea. The ghosts of the tsunami stands in line outside of the ruins of shops that were taken by the wave and walks the streets that are no longer there.

Vanishing Hitchhikers: Over the years, taxis in the affected area have reported about passengers they think might have been ghosts of the tsunami. Many taxi drivers talk about picking up passengers of confused ghosts that doesn’t recognize the city that had to be rebuilt after the tsunami.

Perhaps it’s not so weird then, that so many of these stories about the ghosts of the tsunami are told by taxi drivers that they think can guide them home. We have a lot of research and reports on this phenomena thanks to the many rumours about it and a particular university student who wanted to look closer at this phenomenon a few years back.

Yuka Kudo did her investigation on the haunted taxi drivers picking up ghosts of the tsunami as part of a school assignment. She tried to interview drivers about strange encounters they had while out driving. Most of them told her no and ignored her, perhaps not having experienced anything of the sorts. Perhaps it was because they had experienced too much. But those taxi driver who were willing to talk, told of many experiences with ghost passengers, looking for their home that no longer existed after the tsunami.

Read Also: Check out more ghost hitchhiking stories like The Hitchhiking Woman in White in Palavas-les-Flots, The Jayuro Road Ghost, The Ghost Bride at the Devil’s Curve and The Vanishing Hitchhiker

The stories about the ghosts of the tsunami told from the taxi drivers are very similar to one another. All the taxi drivers are sure they pick up completely normal passengers that are alive and well and know were they are going. The taxi drivers let the meter running and are told to go to a specific place. But when they arrive, there are never any passengers in the back seat, even if they had no stops on the way and the backseat door never opened or closed during the drive. Another thing is that the passengers, all seems so young, so full of life.

“Young people feel strongly chagrined (at their deaths) when they cannot meet people they love,” Yuko Kudo says about her findings after interviewing them. “As they want to convey their bitterness, they may have chosen taxis, which are like private rooms, as a medium to do so,” she says about the ghosts the taxi drivers encounters on a regular basis in the areas most affected by the natural disaster.

The Ghosts of the Tsunami in the Destroyed District

One of the stories involving a ghost of the tsunami happened in Ishinomaki in northeastern Miyagi Prefecture in Japan. This is as mentioned one of the cities that experienced most deaths and destructions to the city, and not much was left.

One of the men working as a taxi driver told that a young woman sat in the taxi near Ishinomaki station once, only a couple of months after the tsunami disaster. The incident was still fresh, many of the dead had not even been found and there was a lot of confusion going on. As of 17 June 2011, a total of 3,097 deaths had been confirmed in Ishinomaki due to the tsunami, with 2,770 unaccounted for. The female passenger told the taxi driver to go to Minamihama, a district in the town.

Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories involving Haunted Towns and Cities

The taxi driver reacted to her destination. He wondered why she wanted to go there anymore. Because it was one of the districts in town there was nothing left of after the tsunami had powered its way through and left nothing. He asked her about it and it was a silence from the backseat a while before the young woman said: “Have I died?” The driver turned, but there was no one in the backseat anymore.

The Collective Trauma of Ghosts

So exactly what is the particular nature of the ghosts of the tsunamis? One might be tempted to call them a process and thing of a collective trauma that the entire community had to start processing at the same time. No wonder that the concept of ghosts are easier to believe in than the aftershock the natural disaster left entire cities in.

It is convenient maybe, so many ghosts trapped in one place after one particular event. Perhaps it’s more convenient for the people left and a way to grieve the loss of too many at once. The ghosts of the tsunami acts like echo of all those people disappeared, those they could not rescue, and those they would never see again.

Seeing the ghosts of the tsunami, at least means they are not completely gone.

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Fisher’s Ghost Haunting Campbelltown

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The haunting of Fisher’s Ghost, a farmer in Australia, is one of the countries most famous ghost stories. It is based on the true events and a murder that happened in Campbelltown in the 1800s. And allegedly, the ghost came back from the afterlife to try to help people catch his killer.

The legend of the farmer Frederick Fisher is one of the most popular ghost stories in Australia and comes from Campbelltown in New South Wales. Today it has grown into a suburb of Sydney, but back in the 1800s the place was mainly for farmers of cattle and sheep. Even to this day the town is most known for the famous ghost story of Fisher’s ghost and Fisher’s Ghost Creek runs through Campbelltown’s parks.

Read Also: Check out all our ghost stories from Australia.

Since the 1950s, there have even been a festival named after Fisher’s Ghost that are hosted every year in his honor to show good spirit and community. The Fisher’s Ghost festival includes a parade through Queen Street, Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Fun Run, Street Fair, Carnival, Craft Exhibition, music, competitions, fireworks and the Miss Princess Quest. All in the honor of the towns greatest murder mystery were one local murdered his neighbour.

Fisher’s Ghost Bridge: Several of the places in Campbelltown in Australia is named after the ghost story of Fisher’s Ghost. Here is a photo from circa 1945.

But what really happened that day Fisher’s ghost returned from the dead to try to reveal what really happened to him the day he had disappeared?

The Disappearance of Frederick Fisher

From his staring, or wild rolling, eye.
Now, stout was the heart of Falconis, and bold ;
Nor weak superstition dwelt there ;
And hideous that object must be to behold,
That could daunt his fierce spirit, his blood curdle cold,
Or stamp on his cheek palid fear.
And, hideous, in sooth, was the object that scared
And turned him from homeward that night;
In shuddering amazement his hearers all stared,
Whilst, with half-lessened terror, Falconis declared
He had met with a murder’d man’s Sprite.
– The Sprite of the Creek

On a calm night on June 17th in 1826, the local farmer Frederick Fisher left his house in Campbelltown and never returned. No one knew were he had gone as he was just going out on a few errands that day. Without a trace he was vanished and no one managed to find out why and how he had disappeared.

Fisher was originally from London and was sentenced to go to Australia after forging bank notes in England. His thieving days was not over for him, even after he was sentenced to 14 years in Australia, and he ended up in prison again. It was not long since he had gotten out of prison again before he disappeared. His friend and neighbour George Worrall kept saying that Fisher had just returned to his native country.

Fisher’s Suspicious Friend and Neighbour

Four months went by and with no news about Fisher and what might have happened to him other than what Worrall claimed. Before going to prison, Fisher had given Worrall power of attorney over his farm and belongings until he got out again. Worrall said that Fisher had given him his property to keep forever and said that Fisher intended to stay in England and never return to Australia.

Worrall himself had also been sent to Australia on a prison sentence because of theft. And like Fisher, it seemed like his criminal days was not over. The police arrested Worrall that September because they suspected he had something to do with his disappearance after he had started to sell Fisher’s belongings. Worrall claimed his innocent and said it was 4 other people that had something to do with it who were also arrested.

The Encounter with Fisher’s Ghost

Then, one day a local man bursted into the Campbelltown hotel called Patricks Inn. The man was pale and shook to his bone. He couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed as it was simply out of this world and would change everything.

The local man was named John Farley and he told everyone in the hotel with a shaking voice, that he had just met Frederick Fisher, the one that had been missing without a trace for many months. The problem was that, he was not alive. Not anymore. It was Fisher’s ghost and was back to get his death known to everyone.

Meeting at the Fence: What really happened that night along the country road? Fisher’s Ghost allegedly appeared and showed were his body was buried and helped solve the mystery. What really happened that summer has been up for debate ever since.

According to John Farley’s testimony, Fisher’s ghost had sat on a fence along the way were the local man had walked past on his way home. Fisher’s ghost had pointed on a paddock beyond the creek as if trying to show Farley something. Then Fisher’s ghost had vanished right before the eyes in front of the shaken man.

Fisher’s Ghost and How he Helped Catching his Murderer

First, the tale Farley told to everyone in Patricks Inn was disregarded as just a fanciful tale, but soon, rumours about the sudden disappearance of the farmer and the mystical appearance of Fisher’s ghost got people even more suspicious.

Read also: Check also out these ghost stories were the ghost helped catch their own killer like The Red Barn Murder and the Ghost in the Dreams and The Greenbrier Ghost that Went to Court.

The man who had seen Fisher’s ghost was a wealthy and respected man in the local community. So the police decided they would investigate his claims after enough rumours and retellings had occurred and stirred up enough fuss. They went to the place the guy pointed out, but the officer found nothing by himself. They then got an Aboriginal tracker living in Liverpool, Australia to help them who managed to locate something when they tested the water in the area.

‘White fellow’s fat here!’, the tracker told the officers and to their big surprise, they found the body of Fisher, stashed away, out of sight, buried by the side of the creek. He had never left Australia, and had certainly never left his farm to his good friend and neighbor either.

The Murderer of Fisher was Caught

George Worrall, Fishers neighbour and his close friend was already under suspicion before the body was found as he had started selling Fishers property and told everyone Fisher had gone to England. They thought that Worrall had killed him when Fisher tried to get his farm back after getting out of prison. Worrall admitted to burying him there when the body was found and was hanged in early 1827. He never admitted to actually murdering him.

Fisher could finally rest in peace as he was finally buried in the cemetery at St. Peter’s Anglican Church in the town by his brother Henry.

Iconic Ghost Story: Ever since the murder happened, the story has been retold in poems, short stories, operas and movies. Here is an illustration by British scientist John Henry “Professor” Pepper, who in 1879 created the theatrical production “Fisher’s Ghost”.

So what was the deal with the ghost that suddenly appeared in the murder mystery? There are several theories as to why Farley talked about a ghost and knew were Fisher was buried. One is that he may have known something about where Fisher’s body was buried. Could he have been in on the murder? The details are hazy at this point and this has never been confirmed one way or the other. In fact, the whole story about Farley could be just a story made up after the murder.

Today the official police and court records don’t mention the ghost story at all and some think that the ghost part of this story first came about in the 1832 from James Riley named ‘The Sprite of the Creek’.

Fisher’s Ghost still Haunting Campbelltown

Another theory is of course that Farley did in fact walk past the creek and saw Fisher’s ghost sitting there as he pointed out exactly where he was buried and it helped to solve his murder.

Who can know for sure today exactly what happened? At least Fisher’s ghost found peace in the end after being found and buried properly, not in a shallow grave by the creek. Or did he really find peace? Some reports says Fisher’s ghost still haunts the hotel, to this day. Some even claim that the ghost never really left, and he is still haunting the town.

It is also said that Fisher’s ghost haunts Campbelltown Town Hall, which is built on land where Fred Fisher and George Worrall’s land crossed.

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References

Fisher’s ghost – Wikipedia 

Campbelltown, New South Wales – Wikipedia 

The Sprite of the Creek | The Dictionary of Sydney

The Legend of Fisher’s Ghost — Campbelltown  

Fishers Ghost Creek | The Dictionary of Sydney 

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28th of December – The Original Friday 13th

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On the Christian Calendar, apparently the 28th of December is the most unluckiest day on the calendar. The day was remembered as a sort of Friday the 13th. after a massacre of innocent children happened. This is the story of Childermass.

Once upon the time, the 28th of December was a day known as Feast of the Holy Innocent or Childermass. Why was it called Childermass? A bit odd name for a church day, but certainly the most fitting because of its backstory. The reason behind the name tells a sad story on tops of the memory of dead children.

The Massacre of Innocent in Bethlehem

“Herod the King, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day;
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young, to slay.”
– The Coventry Carol

28th of December, or Childermass remembers the day when King Herod commanded the slaughter of all the young male children under the age of two in Bethlehem. The sources of this happening is what we have been told in the Bible as told in Matthew 2:16. 

The Romans appointed him King of Judea in 37 B.C, and King Herod executed the children to prevent the new King of the Jews to rise that was foretold in the Old Testament.

Read Also: Check out more Haunted and Unlucky Numbers her in the Moonmausoleum.

Most of the biblical scholars tend to believe the story of the massacre of the children is a myth, but the Church thinks differently and remember the day as it was a real thing that happened. The christian scholars think that the slaughtered children are the first Christian martyrs and are celebrated like that.

Childermass and the slaughter of innocent: The Massacre of the Innocents painted between 1582 and 1587 by Jacopo Tintoretto. It depicts the massacre that was believed to have happened in Bethlehem on 28th of December and is remembered as Childermass or Feast of the Holy Innocents.

In the western church the date is marked to be on 28th of December. In the eastern church it is marked on the 29th of December. Why then do we keep remembering this day that maybe didn’t even happen, perhaps even today? According to a CBC article on the matter, a Dr. Gary Waite, teaching about European religion, witchcraft and the devil says:

“In the medieval era, every household would have experienced the death of a child, The feast of the Holy Innocents would have spoken to an experience that almost all families shared.”

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And even though the church never intended that the 28th of December was going to be remembered to be an an unlucky one, folk traditions, fears and believes were not easily persuaded.

The Childermass day was considered cursed by many. In Francis Kildale’s glossary from 1855, he called it: “that the day of the week on which it falls is marked as a black day for the whole year to come.”

Superstitions of the Childermass Day

No ships were supposed to take off from the ports on 28th of December and it was considered omen for weather. The Childermass day was also a day one didn’t get married and it was dangerous for children just in general. Up until the seventeenth century it was considered good luck to beat the child with a stick on childermass to remember the suffering of Jesus.

Read More: Check out more Sailors Superstitions

Childermass, or the Holy Innocents Day is not really celebrated much today though, and the feeling that the day is unlucky has also dwindled over the years. In some household it is a day were the youngest gets all the power for the day, and in Mexico it is a day for younger people to prank the older.

Today we don’t really head the old superstitions of the olden days. Although. The number 13 is actually neglected on buildings storey buildings and the likes. So… What made the 28th any different?

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