Thank you🙂

Just a quick message, I hope you all had a great Christmas and I wish you a safe and fun New year !!

Thank you for all the views and shares I really appreciate it ! 

🦇Happy New Year 🦇

M🦉

Santa Clause The legend of St. Nicholas

 

 

 

 

                                         Santa Clause and St. Nicholas..
                                   (LAST POST FOR 2021)

The legend of  Santa Clause has existed in some form or another throughout Europe for century's.

Though the modern  image of Santa we know today as a jolly fat man clad in red and white is largely thanks to a marketing ploy by the Coca Cola company in the lat 1800's and early 1900's.

 

In old Norse traditions Odin would arrive on his eight legged horse Sleipnir and leave gifts for good children.

The Dutch have  Sinterklaas.

Italy has the Christmas witch La Bafana.

there are several other traditions involving a magic figure bearing gifts, but for today we will focus on St.Nichols.

St.Nichols, Nicholas the Wonderworker, Saint Nicholas of Myra, Nicholas of Bari, Saint Nick etc..

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Saint Nicholas was a Greek saint from the early days of the Christian Church, born during the third century Roman Empire in the village of Patara At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey.

He lived from 15 March 270 – 6 December 343.

St.Nicholas is known as the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, prostitutes, children, brewers, pawnbrokers and unmarried people.
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The earliest accounts of his life were written centuries after his death and recount several miracles attributed to him.


He is believed to have been born in the Greek seaport of Patara, Lycia to wealthy Christian parents who raised him to be a devout Christian, His parents died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus’ words to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor,” Nicholas used his inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.

in one of the most well know story's  Nicholas comes to the aid of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman’s father had to offer prospective husbands something of value—a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man’s daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries.
 
The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas.

 

One of the oldest stories showing St. Nicholas as a protector of children takes place long after his death. The townspeople of Myra were celebrating the good saint on the eve of his feast day when a band of Arab pirates from Crete came into the district. They stole treasures from the Church of Saint Nicholas. As they were leaving town, they snatched a young boy, Basilios, to make into a slave.

The emir, or ruler, selected Basilios to be his personal cupbearer, as not knowing the language, Basilios would not understand what the king said to those around him. So, for the next year Basilios waited on the king, bringing his wine in a beautiful golden cup. For Basilios’ parents, devastated at the loss of their only child, the year passed slowly, filled with grief. As the next St. Nicholas’ feast day approached, Basilios’ mother would not join in the festivity, as it was now a day of tragedy. However, she was persuaded to have a simple observance at home—with quiet prayers for Basilios’ safekeeping. Meanwhile, as Basilios was fulfilling his tasks serving the emir, he was suddenly whisked up and away.

St. Nicholas appeared to the terrified boy, blessed him, and set him down at his home back in Myra. Imagine the joy and wonderment when Basilios amazingly appeared before his parents, still holding the king’s golden cup. This is the first story told of St. Nicholas protecting children—which
became his primary role in the West. 

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                                                        Nicholas and the sea.

 

During his youth, Nicholas made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

To walk where Jesus walked in order to  experience Jesus’ life, passion, and resurrection.

Returning by sea, a mighty storm threatened to wreck the ship. Nicholas calmly prayed. The terrified sailors were amazed when the wind and waves suddenly calmed, sparing them all. later he would be named  the patron of sailors and voyagers.

Nicholas also saved his people from famine, sparing the lives of those innocently accused, and more.

Throughout his life he did numerous kind and generous deeds all in secret, expecting nothing in return.

Within a century of his death he was celebrated as a saint.

Today he is venerated in the East as a  miracle worker and in the West as patron saint of children, mariners, bankers, pawn-brokers, scholars, orphans, laborers, travelers, merchants, judges, paupers, marriageable maidens, students, children, sailors, victims of judicial mistakes, captives, perfumers, even thieves and murderers! He is known as the friend and protector of all in trouble or need


Sailors carried stories of Nicholas along their travels, claiming St. Nicholas as patron, and told  of his favor and protection far and wide.as a result several St. Nicholas chapels were built in many seaports.

As his popularity spread during the Middle Ages, he became the patron saint of Apulia (Italy), Sicily, Greece, and Lorraine (France), and many cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Belgium, and the Netherlands (see list). Following his baptism, Grand Prince Vladimir I brought St. Nicholas’ stories and devotion to St. Nicholas to his homeland where Nicholas became the most beloved saint.
 

Nicholas was so widely revered that thousands of churches were named for him, including three hundred in Belgium, thirty-four in Rome, twenty-three in the Netherlands and more than four hundred in England.




Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. 

The prisons were so full of bishops, priests, and deacons, there was no room for the real criminal—murderers, thieves and robbers. After his release, Nicholas was said to have attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. Later legends claim that he was temporarily defrocked and imprisoned during the council for slapping the heretic Arius.

Nicholas's attendance at the Council of Nicaea is attested early by Theodore the Lector's list of attendees, which records him as the 151st attendee. 

However, he is never mentioned by Athanasius of Alexandria, the foremost defender of Trinitarianism at the council, who knew all the notable bishops of the period, nor is he mentioned by the historian Eusebius, who was also present at the council. Adam C. English notes that lists of the attendees at Nicaea vary considerably, with shorter lists only including roughly 200 names, but longer lists including around 300. Saint Nicholas's name only appears on
 the longer lists, not the shorter ones. Nicholas's name appears on a total of three early lists, one of which, Theodore the Lector's, is generally
considered to be the most accurate.


Nicholas Death..

 

He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a
unique relic, called manna, formed in his grave. This liquid substance, said to have healing powers, fostered the growth of devotion to Nicholas.
 

The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day, December 6th (December 19 on the Julian Calendar.
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Other versions of Santa

 

St. Nicholas’ feast day, December 6th, is celebrated with stories of his generosity.
In Germany and Poland, boys dressed as bishops begged alms for the poor—and sometimes for themselves!
 

In the Netherlands and Belgium, St. Nicholas arrived on a steamship from Spain to ride a white horse on his gift-giving rounds. December 6th is still the main day for gift giving and merrymaking in much of Europe. 

In the Netherlands St. Nicholas is celebrated on the December 5th, the eve of the day, by sharing candies (thrown in the door),chocolate initial letters, small gifts, and riddles. Dutch children leave carrots and hay in their shoes for the saint’s horse, hoping St. Nicholas will exchange them for small gifts.
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Less than 200 years after his death, the St. Nicholas Church was built in Myra under the orders of Theodosius II over the site of the church where he had served as bishop, and his remains were moved to a sarcophagus in that church.

 

In 1087, while the Greek Christian inhabitants of the region were subjugated by the newly arrived Muslim Seljuk Turks, and soon after their church was declared to be in schism by the Catholic church, a group of merchants from the Italian city of Bari removed the major bones of Nicholas's skeleton from his sarcophagus in the church without authorization and brought them to their hometown, where they are now enshrined in the Basilica di San Nicola. The remaining bone fragments from the sarcophagus were later removed by Venetian sailors and taken to Venice during the First Crusade.  

The Nicholas shrine in Bari was one of medieval Europe’s great pilgrimage centers and Nicholas became known as “Saint in Bari.” To this day pilgrims and tourists visit Bari’s great  Basilica di San Nicola.

Today his legend lives on in the hearts of children worldwide who eagerly await a visit from Santa Claus.

Merry Christmas Everyone and have a great New Year.🎄🎅🎄

Nordic Skraeling, Tiny people of the north pole

                                        The Skraeling

 

 The first written accounts of Arctic elves come from Viking Sagas- texts written by medieval Norsemen in ancient Nordic and Germanic history. 

Among the most famous of these is the saga of Erik the Red.

Erik the Red, a  Norse farmer who lived in Iceland in the late 10^th Century. 

In 982 A.D., he was banished from Iceland for committing a murder. 

Accompanied by a handful of  friends and relatives, he left his home and headed out to sea, bound for a mysterious land to the west which had been spotted by Icelandic sailors blown off course.

Erik the Red and his crew spent three years exploring this new land, and discovered that it had areas which were suitable for farming. 

In 985, he returned to Iceland and told  tales of what he dubbed “Groenland”, or “Greenland”. Having convinced a number of Norsemen to help him settle this new territory, Erik the Red returned to Greenland that year and established a colony there.

In 999 A.D., one of Erik the Red’s sons, called Leif Eriksson, traveled to Norway, his father’s birthplace, where he converted from Norse paganism to Christianity. 

 

Determined to bring the Christian religion to Greenland, he headed out into the North Atlantic. During his voyage, he was blown off course, and landed on a strange shore where wild grapes grew in abundance. 

He called this New World “Vinland”, or “Wineland”, and later returned there to establish a colony of his own. Some historians believe that Leif Eriksson’s Vinlandic colony was what we know today as L’Anse aux Meadows, a cluster of Viking ruins discovered on the northern tip of Newfoundland.

 

 

Icelanders  told of Erik the Red and Leif Eriksson’s adventure in New World.

 

This collection of story's would later become the Icelandic Sagas.

Many of the Sagas mention the Norsemen's  encounter with small humans in the New World, in both Vinland and Greenland. 

 

The Vikings called these people “Skraeling”. According to the 13^th Century Saga of Erik the Red, the Skraeling “were short in height with threatening features and tangled hair on their heads. Their eyes were large and their cheeks broad.”

Many historians believe that the Skraeling were the Thule people, the ancestors of the modern Inuit. , Inuit folklore even contains some references to bearded, sword-wielding giants called “Kavdlunait”, believed by many to be Viking explorers. 

Others claim that the Skraeling were the ancient Dorset people, whom the Inuit eventually displaced.

Though some maintain that the Sagas’ references to Skraeling constitute the first written records describing a lost tribe of Arctic dwarfs, remnants of which, some say, still inhabit the Northland to this very day.(see captain foxes discovery in previous post)

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next weeks post will be the last one for 2021...

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 So what do you think, is it possible there is still a hidden race of small people living the arctic to this day?

Captain Luke Foxe and the Norther Elves..

 

 

 Elves Dwarves Skraeling faý little people fairy's gnomes and the list goes on it seems every culture has at least one legend or myth evolving small human like beings sometimes only a few inchs tall others 3-4 feet in height

During an arctic expedition in the 16  hundreds one captain and his crew may have discovered an "eleven" burial sight.

elf by tess eisinger
 https://www.deviantart.com/tess-eisinger/art/Elf-859514719

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Captain Luke Foxe and the Norther Elf's

 

Captain Luke Foxe, was  a 17th Century English explorer and adventurer who followed in the footsteps of Martin Frobisher and Henry Hudson, and set sail on the icy waters of Northern Canada in search of the Northwest Passage. 

Captain Foxe's first and only Arctic expedition was during  the spring of 1631. 

Beginning in  Kirkwall, Orkney, he and his crew sailed west across the Atlantic to Frobisher Bay, situated near the northern lip of Hudson’s Bay. 

 

He sailed through the Hudson Strait and, after visiting the crew of Welsh Captain Thomas James, who was also searching for the Northwest Passage, headed west

 

 On July 27, 1631, Foxe and his crew disembarked at Southampton Island, a large island located at the northern end of Hudson’s Bay. There, they discovered a strange above-ground cemetery the final resting place of a number of small coffins made from wood and stone. 

 

Inside these coffins were “tiny" human skeletons only four feet in length, surrounded by bows, arrows, and bone lances. They were all adults, and there is some implication that not all of them were skeletons, but might have been whole frozen bodies.”

 

 

 

The first part of Foxe’s report, which he included in his personal journal, went as follows:

“The newes from land was that this Island was a Sepulchre, for the Savages had laid their dead (I cannot say interred), for it is all stone, as they cannot dig therein, but lay the Corpses on the stones, and wall them about with the same, coffining them also by laying the sides of old sleddes about which have been artificially made. The boards are some 9 or 10 foot long, 4 inches thicke. In what manner the tree they have bin made out of what cloven or sawen, it was so smooth that we could not discerne, the burials had been so old.

“And, as in other places in those countries, they bury all their Vtensils, as bows, arrows, strings, darts, lances, and other implements carved in bone. The longest Corpses was not above 4 foot long, 2 with their heads laid to the West. It may be that they travell, as the Tartars and the Samoides; for, if they had remained here, there would have been some newer burials. There was one place walled 4 square, and seated within the earth; each side was 4 or 5 yards in length’ in the middle was 3 stones, laid one above another, man’s height. We tooke this to be some place of Ceremony at the buriall of the dead.”

In a footnote, Foxe added, “They seem to be people of small stature. God send me better for my adventures than these.”.....

 

Another  winter/Christmas post next week🎄🎇🎆✨🎄

Norse Lullaby by Eugene Field

 

Winter is here, cold nights and snowy days, at least in most places. So here is a Norse lullaby by Eugene Fields no cryptids or monsters technically but still a nice addition to my posts. and it showcases the spirit of winter so still kind of paranormal lol 🙂

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The sky is dark and the hills are white

As the storm-king speeds from the north to-night,

And this is the song the storm-king sings As over the world his cloak he flings:

  "Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;"

He rustles his wings and gruffly sings:

  

"Sleep, little one, sleep."

On yonder mountain-side a vine

Clings at the foot of a mother pine;

The tree bends over the trembling thing, And only the vine can hear her sing: "Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep; What shall you fear when I am here?

  

Sleep, little one, sleep."

The king may sing in his bitter flight, The tree may croon to the vine to-night,But the little snowflake at my breast Liketh the song I sing the best,—

  

Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;

Weary thou art, anext my heart

  Sleep, little one, sleep.

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more winter / christmas themed posts soon😃🎄🎄🎄🎄

American Cryptid's: The Jersey Devil

   

                                                    THE JERSEY DEVIL

The Jersey devil is a cryptid that has haunted  the Pine Barrens for hundreds of years now.

Legends of the creature possibly pre date colonial settlements..

The local  Lenape tribes called the area "Popuessing" meaning "place of the dragon".
Later Swedish explorers named it "Drake Kill" ("drake" meaning  dragon, and "kill" meaning channel or arm of the sea (river, stream, etc. in Dutch).


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Joseph Bonaparte, elder brother of Napoleon, is also claimed to have witnessed the Jersey Devil while hunting on his Borden town estate around 1820.

 

Joseph Bonaprte's sighting:

"One snowy afternoon, [Joseph Bonaparte] was hunting alone in the woods near his house when he spotted some strange tracks on the ground. they looked like the tracks of a two-footed donkey. Bonaparte noticed that one foot was slightly larger than the other.
 

The tracks ended abruptly as if the creature had flown away. He stared at the tracks for a long moment, trying to figure out what the strange animal might be."

At that moment, Bonaparte heard a strange hissing noise.

Turning, he found himself face to face with a large winged creature with a horse-like head and bird-like legs.
 

Astonished and frightened, he froze and stared at the beast, forgetting that he was carrying a rifle. For a moment, neither of them moved. Then the creature hissed at him, beat its wings, and flew away."

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1909 Mass Sightings....

During the week of January 16 through 23, 1909, newspapers of the time published hundreds of claimed encounters with the  Jersey Devil from all over the state. Among alleged encounters publicized that week were claims the creature "attacked" a trolley car in Haddon Heights and a social club in Camden. Police in Camden and Bristol, Pennsylvania supposedly fired on the creature to no effect. Other reports initially concerned unidentified footprints in the snow, but soon sightings of creatures resembling the Jersey Devil were being reported throughout South Jersey and as far away as Delaware and Western Maryland.
 

 

 

The widespread newspaper coverage led to a panic throughout the Delaware Valley prompting a number of schools to close and workers to stay home. During this period, it is rumored that the Philadelphia Zoo posted a $10,000 reward for the creature's dung.

The offer prompted a variety of hoaxes, including a kangaroo with artificial wings.
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Possible Origins......


As a result of the poor farming prospects new wealthy settlers coming into the region would avoided the area as much as possible leaving it to those of leaser means to settle in the pine barrens and later becoming known as "Pineys".
 
Made up of the outcasts and less reputable members of colonial society, this reputation gave those outside the Barrens even more of a reason to stay far from the Pine Barrens.

 

It is possible that the jersey devils  origins story and the Leed's family were a form of social discrimination taking the form of folklore. The creature's fearsome reputation, combined with the possibly bad reputation of the family it came from, would only encourage locals to avoid the region for fear of being caught by the Jersey Devil.

The Jersey devil is also known as the Leeds Devil.



Prior to the early 1900s, and before the mass  series of sightings in 1909, the Jersey Devil was called the Leeds Devil or the Devil of Leeds, either because of it's connection with the local Leeds family or the southern New Jersey town, Leeds Point.

Modern day  Leeds Point  is now Atlantic County, New Jersey, the area most  commonly associated with the Jersey Devil story.

By at least the late 1700s and early 1800s at the latest, the "Leeds Devil" had become a well known  legendary in the southern New Jersey area.

Into the early to mid-19th century, stories continued to circulate in southern New Jersey of the Leeds Devil, a "monster wandering the Pine Barrens".

An oral tradition of  the "Leeds Devil" eventually became a prominent myth in the Pine Barrens area

Although the "Leeds Devil" legend has existed since the 1700's, the more modern description of the Jersey Devil, wasn't  truly standardized in current form until the early 1900's
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Origins of the the Jersey Devil  very s slightly  depending on who's telling it..

Some claim "Mother Leeds" was a woman named Jane Leeds, in other versions her name is Deborah Leeds.

In ether case,  Mother Leeds is said to have  had twelve children upon learning she was pregnant for the thirteenth time, she cursed the child in frustration, crying out that the child would be the "devil".

In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night while her friends gathered around her.

She soon gave birth, the child was born normal, but then started too change into a grotesque creature with hooves, a goat's head,  bat wings, and a forked tail.

Growling and screaming, the child then attacked and beat everyone in the room before flying up the chimney and heading into the woods where it is said to haunt to this day..

However it is entirely possible that the story of the Leeds devil is based on personal issues locals had with the Leeds family as opposed to a supernatural event resulting in a demon baby..

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In some versions of the tale, Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the devil, himself. legend also state that there was eventually an attempt by local clergymen to exorcise the beast from the Pine Barrens.

The real "Mother Leeds" was most likely  Deborah Leeds.

 Deborah Leeds and her husband Japhet Leeds really had  twelve children that where named in Japhet's will that he wrote during 1736, which is compatible with the legend.

Deborah and Japhet Leeds also lived in the Leeds Point during that time period.

Japhet Leeds house was still standing  up to 1937 on Moss Mill Road, Leeds Point, Atlantic County, New Jersey.


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Others believe that a colonial-era feud/disagreement  involving early New Jersey politician, Benjamin Franklin, and Franklin's rival almanac publisher Daniel Leeds (1651–1720) resulted in the Leeds family being labled  "monsters", and it was that  negative description of Daniel Leeds' that later resulted the name "Leeds Devil", rather than an actual creature, that lead to the later legend of the Jersey Devil.

 

                                                                 Daniel Leeds

Much like the Mother Leeds of the Jersey Devil myth, Daniel Leeds' third wife had given birth to nine children, a very large number of children  for the time.

Leeds' second wife and first daughter had both died during childbirth.

As a royal surveyor with strong allegiance to the British crown, Leeds had also surveyed and acquired land in the Egg Harbor area,  located within the Pine Barrens. The land was inherited by Leeds' sons and family and is now known as Leeds Point in the Pine Barrens the region currently most associated with the Jersey Devil legend and alleged Jersey Devil sightings.

Also in the 17th century, English Quakers established settlements in southern New Jersey Pine Barrens. Daniel Leeds, a Quaker and a prominent person of pre-Revolution colonial southern New Jersey, became ostracized by his Quaker congregation after his 1687 publication of almanacs containing astrological symbols and writings.

Leeds' fellow Quakers deemed the astrology in these almanacs as too "pagan" or blasphemous, and the almanacs were censored and destroyed by the local Quaker community.

In response to and in spite of this blatant censorship, Leeds continued to publish even more esoteric astrological Christian writing and became increasingly fascinated with Christian occultism, Christian mysticism, cosmology, demonology and angelology, and natural magic.

In the 1690s, after his almanacs and writings were further censored and labeled as  blasphemous or heretical by the Philadelphia Quaker Meeting, Leeds continued to dispute with the Quaker community, converting to Anglicanism and publishing anti-Quaker tracts criticizing Quaker theology and accusing Quakers of being anti-monarchists.

In the escalating dispute between Leeds and the southern New Jersey Quakers over Leeds' accusations, Leeds was endorsed by the much-maligned British royal governor of New Jersey, Lord Cornbury, despised among the Quaker communities.

Leeds also worked as a councilor to Lord Cornbury about this time.

Considering Leeds as a traitor for aiding the Crown and rejecting Quaker beliefs, the Quaker Burlington Meeting of southern New Jersey subsequently dismissed Leeds as "evil".

During 1716, Daniel Leeds' son, Titan Leeds, inherited his father's almanac business, which continued to use astrological content and eventually competed with Benjamin Franklin's popular Poor Richard's Almanac. 

The competition between the two men intensified during 1733, Franklin satirically used astrology in his almanac to predict Titan Leeds' death on October of that same year. 

 

Though Franklin's prediction was intended as a joke at his competitor's expense and a means to boost almanac sales, Titan Leeds was apparently offended at the death prediction, publishing a public admonition of Franklin as a "fool" and a "liar".
 

In a published response, Franklin mocked Titan Leeds' outrage and humorously suggested that, in fact, Titan Leeds had died in accordance with the earlier prediction and was thus writing his almanacs as a ghost, resurrected from the grave to haunt and torment Franklin.

Franklin continued to jokingly refer to Titan Leeds as a "ghost" even after Titan Leeds' actual death during 1738. Daniel Leeds' blasphemous and occultist reputation and his pro-monarchy stance in the largely anti-monarchist colonial south of New Jersey, combined with Benjamin Franklin's later continuous depiction of Titan Leeds as a ghost, may have originated or contributed to the local folk legend of a so-called "Leeds Devil" lurking in the Pine Barrens.

During 1728, Titan Leeds began to include the Leeds family crest on the masthead of his almanacs.

The Leeds family crest depicted a wyvern, a bat-winged dragon-like legendary creature that stands upright on two clawed feet.
 

                                                             Leeds  Family Crest
 

The wyvern on the Leeds family crest is reminiscent of the popular descriptions of the Jersey Devil.

The inclusion of this family crest on Leeds' almanacs may have further contributed to the Leeds family's poor reputation among locals and possibly influenced the popular descriptions of the Leeds Devil or Jersey Devil.


The fearsome appearance of the crest's wyvern and the increasing animosity among local South Jersey residents towards royalty, aristocracy, and nobility (with whom family crests were associated) may have helped facilitate the legend of the Leeds Devi and the association of the Leeds family with "devils" and "monsters".

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         OTHER SIGHTINGS
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During 1859, the Atlantic Monthly published an article detailing the Leeds Devil folk tales popular among Pine Barren residents (or "pine rats".)

A newspaper from 1887 describes sightings of a winged creature, referred to as "the Devil of Leeds",
 allegedly spotted near the Pine Barrens and well known among the local populace of Burlington County, New Jersey:

    Whenever he went near it, it would give a most unearthly yell that frightened the dogs. It whipped at every dog on the place. 

   "That thing," said the colonel, "is not a bird nor an animal, but it is the Leeds devil, according to the description, and it was born over in Evasham, Burlington county, a hundred years ago. There is no mistake about it. I never saw the horrible critter myself, but I can remember well when it was roaming around in Evasham woods fifty years ago, and when it was hunted by men and dogs and shot at by the best marksmen there were in all South Jersey, but could not be killed. There isn't a family in Burlington or any of the adjoining counties that does not know of the Leeds devil, and it was the bugaboo to frighten children with when I was a boy.


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In 1934 near South Pittsburg, Tennessee a Phantom Kangaroo or "kangaroolike beast" was reported by several witnesses over a five-day period, and to have killed and partially devoured several animals, including ducks, geese, a German Shepherd police dog and other dogs. Kangaroos are typically unaggressive and vegetarian. A witness described the animal as looking "like a large kangaroo, running and leaping across a field." A search party followed the animal's tracks to a mountainside cave where they stopped.


On July 27, 1937, an unknown animal "with red eyes" seen by residents of Downingtown, Pennsylvania was compared to the Jersey Devil by a reporter for the Pennsylvania Bulletin of July 28, 1937.

In 1951, a group of Gibbstown, New Jersey boys claimed to have seen a 'monster' matching the Devil's description and claims of a corpse matching the Jersey Devil's description arose in 1957.

In 1960, tracks and noises heard near Mays Landing were claimed to be from the Jersey Devil.


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It  was also the main focus on an episode of the X-Files titled "The Jersey Devil".

However  the Jersey Devil in  the episode is shown  to be a feral humanoid or possible subspecies of humans.  the lack of special effects and lower budgeting in the early episodes of the X-Files forced the producers to make a more cost-effective version of the creature.

The jersey devil was also a featured cryptid on an episode of "Monster Quest".


Legends of the Jersey Devil predates printed newspaper accounts and belief in its existence still ongoing.

The latter is made evident not only by commentators who elaborate on this possibility but even by investigative programs such as Mother Leeds' 13th Child, In Search of Monsters, Lore  and Monsters and Mysteries in America.

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🎃🎃Thats all for October, hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween🎃🎃

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North American cryptid's: The Hidebehind

 

 

                                                              The Hidebehind

Today's subject originates from  the myths of the North American lumberjacks.

Most people visit our National Parks without a problem, but for an unlucky few, they just never walk out of the woods again

To date, hundreds of people have simply disappeared in the forest of North America, todays cryptid by many accounts may be responsible for at least some of them.

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The Hidebehind is a famous creature from American folklore originating in the thick forests of the  pacific northwest, Oregon and Washington.


The Hidebehind  gets its name from its ability to hide itself seemingly anywhere..

Whenever someone tries to look at it directly, the cryptid will hide behind any nearby object or sometimes even behind the person it's stalking and therefore cannot be directly seen.

It uses this stealth ability to hunt its human prey without being seen and to attack without warning.

According to legend, it's preferred diet is the intestines of its victim and it's said to have  a severe aversion to alcohol, which is considered a good way to ward of this shadowy beast.

Old story's of the hidebehind were often used as a means of explaining the  many strange noises in the forest at night.


despite the fact that no one has supposedly every actually seen one, some of the earliest  accounts of the Hidebehind is usually  described as a very large and powerful beast.

In the early days of logging in the mostly uncharted pacific northwest injuries and even death was a common  occurrence, logging accidents, wild animals ect.

Eventually the disappearances of  lumberjacks that just never returned to camp were blamed on the hidebehind.

This stealthy cryptid is believed to target anyone in the forest, loggers, hiker, campers ect, and drag them off never to be sen again.

So the next time you venture into the woods for a relaxing day in nature, be alert because you never now what may be creeping up on you just out of sight.


 

 

 

 

 

The Kamchatka Globster, Sea Monster'S....

 
 

 

                                                     The Kamchatka Globster

EARLY POST THIS WEEK, NEXT WEEK WILL BE BACK TO FRIDAY POSTS :)

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Kamchatka in Russia's far east is known for its beautiful landscape and dozens of volcanoes even referred to as the land of volcanoes.

 

But aside from the stunning scenery and giant bears, several paranormal events have taken place in the region throughout the years,  this globster washing up  was just one of the more recent one's.

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A globster is any blob-like creatures without obvious eyes and bones, or a visibly distinct head. 

Cryptozoologists most often attribute the term to the British biologist Ivan Terence Sanderson.

 
He is widely believed to have first coined the term in 1962 to describe a strange Australian blob like-creature.

Globsters can also resemble large octopi and some might even have bones and tentacles, but none of them are usually as completely covered in hair as this  one.
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In mid August 2018 a strange  smelly hair covered blob washed ashore on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia's far east.

This odd find was discovered  and video taped by a local woman, Svetlana Dyadenko.

The “hairy sea monster” that washed up on the shor of the Kamchatka peninsula    is said  to have been more than three times the size of a man and has no distinguishable head or eyes.

It was covered with white and gray hair that Svetlana Dyadenko, the woman who first encountered the beast, says is tubular.

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“The most interesting thing to me is that the creature is covered with tubular fur,” Dyadenko said according to The Siberian Times.
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                                        Svetlana Dyadenko and the creature.

The tubular hair is hollow and colorless, similar to the type of hair found on polar bears. The animal also appears to have a long tail, or possibly a tentacle.


 

 

 

A marine biologist in Kamchatka Sergei Kornev, believes this is nothing more then a large whale chunk, telling The Siberian Times that the creature is most like a whale “Under the influence of the sea, time, and various animals, from smallest to the largest, a whale often takeson bizarre forms,” Kornev said. “This is only part of a whale, not a whole one.”

2018 was a busy year for globsters washing up, more on the other's in  later posts.

So what do you think, was the smelly hairy creature some as of yet unidentified sea monster or just the decaying remains of a dead whale?

 

btw  a few episodes of netflix's Stranger Things were also filmed in Kamchatka. so keep an eye out for the new season in 2022 :)

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Afew other examples of globsters..

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 New posts every friday, all October long..

The Zombie fog of 1976..

 

 

                                                                 Irish Zombies?


Ok, I've seen this one around for a while now, but i have not found any actual news articles related to the event...

So at least for the time being, i'm going to consider this more of an urban legend rather then an actual paranormal event.   if i can eventually find something to prove it otherwise i will update this post.

That being said if any of you have ever seen the movie "The Fog" by John Carpenter in 1980 or its remake, you know  that something like that in real life would be terrifying, whether the movie was inspired by this paranormal account or the urban legend came about as a result of the movie is up to you to decide ..

ok on to the post.


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One foggy day
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On October 9th 1976 in a small town in Norther Ireland a strange fog rolled in at around 7:00 pm.


Many residents of the small town felt uneasy and even frightened to the extent of locking up their homes.


The fog had lifted by morning.

But during the night, there had been over 60 reported sightings of the undead.

Police at the time  believed most of the reports were nothing more then prank calls.


However during their investigation, police  found that most of the graves in the local cemetery had been dug up lending credence to the fact that at least some of the calls were more then just pranks..

...
If true tomorrow marks the 45th anniversary of this mysterious zombie fog..

This legend was supposedly  very popular in the 70s all over Europe, but again i was unable to find any actual articles  related to it, if you know of any real news article's regarding this please fill free to post in the comments below.

New post next friday...

Ghost Stories; La Planchada, the ironed lady.

 

 

                                                   Ghost Stories; La Planchada

La Planchada also known as the  Ironed Lady, is a popular legend in Mexico.

The story dates at least as far back as the 1930’s

A nurse  named Eulalia was working  at the Juarez hospital in Mexico.

Her nures's uniform was always keept very clean and perfectly ironed.

She was said to be very good at her job and her patients felt enjoyed being under her care.

Then one day a new young and  handsome doctor joined the hospital’s staff, Eulalia and the doctor started seeing each other socially, and eventually  she fell in love with him and the two were engaged.

Not long  after their engagement, the doctor left to attend a medical seminar. To her shock and surprise, the doctor did not return the following week.  then another week passed and still he had not  returned. Eulalia became increasingly worried and felt something bad must have happened to him.
 
But several weeks later, the hospital received word from the doctor. He had met a new woman during the seminar and the two had recently married.

Upon hearing the news Eulalia was heart-broken and fell into depression. Her work began to suffer and she started to neglect the patients that were  under her care. As a result, one of her patients died. 

Realizing her terrible error, Eulalia became ill. She did not have the fight in her to survive  and died shortly after in the very hospital she worked in.


After her death strange things started to happen around the hospital. Patients, nurses, and even doctors started seeing a nurse in the emergency
room area.

Some versions of the story  claim that she appears to glow and floats instead of walking through the hospital corridors.

Others state she appears to walk normally, but no footsteps can be  heard. Eventually the hospital staff decided to call the apparition ‘La Planchada’ because she always appears wearing a clean, white, pressed uniform.

Several patients have reported seeing her and state that this ghostly nurse will appear at night on the ward she died in, too looks after the patients that appear to be neglected. 

In the morning these patients are well enough to be moved to less intensive care rooms.
When asked how they are feeling, they reply, “a nurse came in and healed me.”

Some people believe Eulalia returns as a spirit because of a sense of guilt.

Now it  seems she is forever doomed to pay for her mistakes in life.

There are a few other versions of this story.

One version claims she  was a cruel woman who treated her patients badly, so when she died, her punishment was to take care of patients for eternity.

In another version, Eulalia was never engaged to the doctor, this version states he rejects her advances and marries the other woman that he was already engaged to. She then takes her disappointment and anger out on the patients, resulting in several of them dying.

In any case it's an interesting story.


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More ghost and monster posts coming soon.

🦇🎃New October Post's🎃🦇

 

Just a quick update. 

I plan on adding a new post every Friday all October long.

Monsters, witches, ghosts and more hope you all enjoy, and a big thank you to all of you that share my posts on Facebook Twitter ect your awesome 😀

Ok that's all for now.

🎃👻🦇💀🍂😈🍂💀🦇👻🎃

Happy early Halloween

🎃👻🦇💀🍂😈🍂💀🦇👻🎃

American Cryptid: Pukwudgie

                                                                Pukwudgie


Many American Indian myth's have stories of little people.

The Wampanoag of Massachusetts’ legend is of the Pukwudgie. A small humanoid creature that was said to be jealous of the affection the Wampanoag showed the giant Maushop ( according to another myth the giant created Cape Cod for them), the Pukwudgie began to torment the Wampanoag Indians, playing tricks on them, stealing their children, and burning their villages. Pukudgies are described as humanlike, two to three feet tall with large noses, and ears. Their skin is grey.







 A Pukwudgie, also spelled Puk-Wudjie, is sometimes said to be as tall 4-to-5-feet.

The Pukwudgie can become invisible, use magic, and create fire at the snap of their fingers, but their most dangerous antics involve shooting poison arrows (with which legend says they used to kill Maushop and his five sons), and turning into a half-porcupine/half-troll.

These small human-like monsters have been known to lure humans to their deaths either by poison arrow, or pushing the human off a cliff. Afterward, the Pukwudgie can control the souls of their victims.

In modern times, people have reported encountering Pukwudgies in Freetown-Fall River State Forest, which includes a reservation in the Wampanoag Nation.

Japanese Myth's: The Oni 👹

 

                                                   👹   Today's post is all about Oni  👹

 

 

 Oni's

Oni are considered very large, strong and violent  beings, By modern standards Bigfoot Ogres and other giants could be classified as a type of Oni..
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Oni origins.

Oni are believed to be born when evil humans die and end up in one of the many Buddhist Hells, there they are transformed into Oni.

They become the ogreish and brutal servants of Great Lord Enma, the ruler of Hell, wielding iron clubs with which they crush and destroy humans solely  for enjoyment. An oni’s job is to mete out horrible punishments such as peeling off skin, crushing bones, and every other torture imaginable to those who
 were evil (but not quite wicked enough to be reborn as demons themselves). 

Hell is full of oni, and they make up the armies of the great generals of the underworld.

Occasionally, when a human is so utterly irredeemable and down right evil with a soul that is beyond any redemption, he transforms into an oni during life, and remains on Earth to terrorize the living.

These transformed oni are the ones most legends tell about, and the ones who pose the most danger to human's.

 These oni are the stuff of nightmares the source legends and fairy tails ind the inspiration for countless stories threw out   Japan.
 

No two stories about oni are exactly alike except for one thing: oni are always the enemy of mankind.(Except in some Manga and Anime)

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Some villages hold yearly ceremonies to drive away oni, mostly at the beginning of Spring. During the Setsubun festival, people throw soybeans outside their homes and shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" Oni go out! Blessings come in!"). Monkey statues are also thought to guard against oni, since the Japanese word for monkey, saru, is a homophone for the word for "leaving". Folklore has it that holly can be used to guard  against Oni. 

 

 

In Japanese versions of the game tag, the player who is "it" is instead called the "oni".

In more recent times, oni have lost some of their original wickedness and sometimes take on a more protective function. Men in oni costumes often lead Japanese parades to ward off any bad luck, for example. Japanese buildings sometimes include oni-faced roof tiles called onigawara, which are  thought to ward away bad luck, much like gargoyles in Western tradition.

Oni are prominently featured in the Japanese children's story Momotaro..the little Peach Boy(see previous post)

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The word "oni" is sometimes believed to be derived from (on), the on'yomi reading of a character  meaning to hide or conceal, as oni were originally invisible spirits or gods which caused disasters, disease, and other terrible things. 

These nefarious beings could also take on a variety of forms to deceive (and often devour) humans.

The Chinese character (pinyin: gui; Jyutping: gwai) meaning "ghost" came to be used to describe these formless creatures.

The invisible oni eventually became anthropomorphized and took on its modern, ogre-like form, partly via synchronicity  with creatures imported by Buddhism, such as the Indian rakshasa(a large shapeshifting bigfoot like creature) and yaksha, as well as the hungry ghosts called gaki, and the devilish underlings  of Enma-O who punish sinners in Jigoku (Hell).

They also share a few similarities with the Arabian Jinn.

Another source for the oni's image is a concept from China and Onmyodo.

The northeast direction was once termed the kimon (demon gate), and was considered an unlucky direction through which evil spirits passed. Based on  the assignment of the twelve zodiac animals to the cardinal directions, the kimon was also known as the ushitora , or "Ox Tiger" direction,
and the oni's bovine horns and cat-like fangs, claws, and tiger-skin loincloth developed as a visual depiction of this term.


Temples are often built facing that direction, and Japanese buildings sometimes have L-shaped indention's at the northeast to ward oni away.
 

 

 Enryakuji, on Mount Hiei northeast of the center of Kyoto, and Kaneiji, in that direction from Edo Castle, are examples. The Japanese capital itself moved northeast from Nagaoka to Kyoto in the 8th century.

There is also a well known game in Japan called kakure oni, which means "hidden oni", or more commonly kakurenbo, which is the same as  the hide-and-seek game that children in western countries play.


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Other media
Anime, Manga etc.
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                             liru the werewolf  was dressed as an oni in the series during one episode......

                                            Peach Boy Riverfront anime and manga.

                                                                    Yozakura quartet

                                                 Dagashi Kashi Manga Chapter 172

  

                      

                        Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken/ That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

                                                         Yuna and the Haunted hot Springs

                                                  Fate Series ....shuten douji and Ibaraki Douji

                                                   

                                                        Monster Girls Red, Blue and Gren Oni

                                                     Peter Grill and the Philosophers Time 

                                                     

                                                Princes Connect Re-Dive ...Eriko

 

 

                                             Onizuka-chan and Sawarida-kun.. manga series.

                 Kemono Jihen, The manga features a few oni in a "food processing factory"..

Urusei Yatsura, the female lead, Lum Invader, is an oni alien depicted wearing a tiger-skin bikini and the entire alien race to which she belongs is fashioned after the classical concept of oni.

Ao no Fuuin uses oni as a main theme when the female protagonist is a descendant of a beautiful oni queen who wants to resurrect her kind.

In Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, an Oni called King Yemma runs the Check-In Station in Other World, where he decides which souls go to Heaven and which to Hell.

 

Hellboy: Sword of Storms, Hellboy fought a giant Oni. Before the final blow can be struck with the Sword of Storms, the Oni fades away so  that Hellboy can break the Sword of Storms on the statue releasing the brothers Thunder and Lightning.

Yo-Kai Watch, many of the creatures found are based on oni. Oni themselves appear as a class of boss enemies. They are distinct between each other, but all have horns. Some also have either claws, horns, or both.