Bloody Mary is a scary game that kids sometimes play during sleepovers or even on their own if they are daring enough. While the actual origin of the story isn’t concrete, and Bloody Mary is not a real entity, several theorists have attempted to connect the game to historical figures.
One figure was Mary Tudor, also known as Mary I of England, often beheaded Protestants for heresy, giving her the nickname “Bloody Mary.” Another historical figure alleged to be Bloody Mary is Elizabeth Bathory, known as the “Queen of Blood.” She was allegedly convicted of murdering hundreds of girls in order to bathe in their blood.
Since these events, the story has changed a lot, and so has the potential origin of the Bloody Mary name. A more recent story alleges that during the third plague in the 1800s, people would seemingly drop dead only to apparently come back to life. The only way for doctors to check for life was either by pulse or putting a mirror under the body’s nose and looking for condensation. Oftentimes, they mistakenly buried people alive. In order to prevent this, they attached a string to the inside of coffins leading to a bell on the surface. Cadavers were also buried outside their house or a family member’s house so someone would hear the bell if it rang.
One Bloody Mary story goes that Mary had been bedridden for days due to illness. She finally gave in to the illness, so the coroner came to check for a pulse and condensation on the mirror. After concluding that she was deceased they put her in a coffin but didn’t nail it shut or bury it. They waited to ensure she was actually dead.
Mary’s parents waited day and night for her to spring back to life, but after over a week, they accepted that she was gone. But they buried her with the bell and string just in case. Mary’s parents decided to visit a neighbor’s house. While they were gone Mary woke up and started ringing the bell, but her parents weren’t within earshot. After ringing the bell endlessly it fell off the stick that it had been attached to. In a panic, Mary began clawing at the coffin till her fingers were bloody. She never succeeded at escaping and suffocated in the coffin. When her parents returned, they found the bell several feet from the stick. They dug her up to find her petrified corpse, her fingers covered in blood, along with the white dress she had been buried in. Her parents used a mirror to check for condensation, and it is believed that her spirit latched on to the mirror.