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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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 Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 11:09 pm Post subject: Legends from where you teach |
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Anyone have stories to share on legends from the people/country where you teach? Something that has affected you, or in which you find some truth?
Me first since it's my thread. I choose the story of la llorona from Mexico. Here's something written...
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Sooner or later, everyone in Mexico encounters La Llorona, The Woman Who Wails. It is known that stories about La Llorona dated back to the time of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. Some say she is older than the Aztecs, old as despair itself.
Legends are often a mix of history and imagination. Real events combine with the ideas or points of view of people and ripen over time. Most Mexican legends are several centuries old; some dating back to pre-Columbian times while others were born in the colonial period. A legend like La Llorona entails the ideas, values, beliefs, and fears of many generations of people over many places and times.
The word, Mexico, means 'navel of the moon'. Traditionally in cultures all over the world, the moon is a symbol closely associated with women. Mothers are symbolic with the giving of life. In the clash of cultures that engender Mexico's horrific problems also germinates a great flowering of humanity. Is it any wonder that legends about a grieving Mexican mother endure to this day?
Legends tell how a mother gave away her children in a time of famine and now, brokenhearted, forever mourns them. Another legend says that in the few years prior to the arrival of the Spanish to Tenochtitl�n, a woman was heard, especially at night, weeping loudly: "Oh my poor children! Where could I take yooouuuuu? Where could I hide you?"
This was interpreted as an omen for the fall of the Aztec Empire. Some say La Llorona is Malinche, mistress of Cort�s, endlessly lamenting her betrayal of her own Indian people to the Spaniards. Perhaps La Llorona was an Indian girl of noble blood who lived with a Spanish gentleman. When he abandoned her to marry a woman of his own race, like Medea abandoned by Jason, the Indian girl strangled her children and committed suicide. Her ghost, it is said, still prowls at night within the walls of Mexico City bewailing her sacrificed sons, which explains the name Llorona, the Bereaved.
Another popular variation to this legend tells how a beautiful young lady, wearing an elegant dress used to appear at night, before midnight. Her face remained hidden to those who followed her towards the river or another watery place. Some men, wild with excitement over her apparent beauty, upon approach, discover she has no face. Only a skull!
Some men died instantly, others drowned, and of course a few lived to tell the tale.
This story was told again and again as a warning to young men not to go out at night or not to go out and get drunk. Or told to children to prevent them from going near water and drowning. |
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Kent F. Kruhoeffer
Joined: 22 Jan 2003
Posts: 2129
Location: 中国
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:31 am Post subject: |
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Hi Guy !
Here in Thailand there's an interesting legend surrounding
HM King Taksin The Great, who was born to a Chinese father
and Thai mother. The legend itself concerns the details of his
mental health and of the strange circumstances of his death.
The official story is that he was executed on April 6, 1782,
although legend has it that he was secretly moved to the south
of the country, where he lived the rest of his life as a monk.
Rather than copy & paste the whole story,
I'll just be lazy & submit a link instead:
"Legend Fit For a King"
http://www.guidetothailand.com/thailand-culture/stories/taksin.htm |
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benno
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 501
Location: Fake Mongolia
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 8:21 am Post subject: Re: Legends from where you teach |
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| Guy Courchesne wrote: |
Anyone have stories to share on legends from the people/country where you teach? Something that has affected you, or in which you find some truth?
Me first since it's my thread. I choose the story of la llorona from Mexico. Here's something written...
| Quote: |
Sooner or later, everyone in Mexico encounters La Llorona, The Woman Who Wails. It is known that stories about La Llorona dated back to the time of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. Some say she is older than the Aztecs, old as despair itself.
Legends are often a mix of history and imagination. Real events combine with the ideas or points of view of people and ripen over time. Most Mexican legends are several centuries old; some dating back to pre-Columbian times while others were born in the colonial period. A legend like La Llorona entails the ideas, values, beliefs, and fears of many generations of people over many places and times.
The word, Mexico, means 'navel of the moon'. Traditionally in cultures all over the world, the moon is a symbol closely associated with women. Mothers are symbolic with the giving of life. In the clash of cultures that engender Mexico's horrific problems also germinates a great flowering of humanity. Is it any wonder that legends about a grieving Mexican mother endure to this day?
Legends tell how a mother gave away her children in a time of famine and now, brokenhearted, forever mourns them. Another legend says that in the few years prior to the arrival of the Spanish to Tenochtitl�n, a woman was heard, especially at night, weeping loudly: "Oh my poor children! Where could I take yooouuuuu? Where could I hide you?"
This was interpreted as an omen for the fall of the Aztec Empire. Some say La Llorona is Malinche, mistress of Cort�s, endlessly lamenting her betrayal of her own Indian people to the Spaniards. Perhaps La Llorona was an Indian girl of noble blood who lived with a Spanish gentleman. When he abandoned her to marry a woman of his own race, like Medea abandoned by Jason, the Indian girl strangled her children and committed suicide. Her ghost, it is said, still prowls at night within the walls of Mexico City bewailing her sacrificed sons, which explains the name Llorona, the Bereaved.
Another popular variation to this legend tells how a beautiful young lady, wearing an elegant dress used to appear at night, before midnight. Her face remained hidden to those who followed her towards the river or another watery place. Some men, wild with excitement over her apparent beauty, upon approach, discover she has no face. Only a skull!
Some men died instantly, others drowned, and of course a few lived to tell the tale.
This story was told again and again as a warning to young men not to go out at night or not to go out and get drunk. Or told to children to prevent them from going near water and drowning. |
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a mexican banshee!!!!!! |
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Deconstructor
Joined: 30 Dec 2003
Posts: 775
Location: Montreal
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 12:53 pm Post subject: |
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Wherever I've gone,
Whatever I've done,
The legend has always been
my father's son!  |
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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Welcome back Decon...ain't seen you around much. Legends from Montreal? |
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Ben Round de Bloc
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1946
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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This part of the country is rich in Mayan legends, myths, and folklore.
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MAKECH
There once was, I have been told, a Maya princess who fell in love with a man she would never be permitted to marry. So heartbroken was she that she wept night and day over her forbidden love. A shaman, hearing her cries and learning of her misery, transformed her into a glittering beetle, a piece of living jewelry. Her beloved pinned her to his breast. Thus she spent her life, close to the heart of the one she cherished.
- http://www.halfmoon.org/story/makech.html |
My advice: If you find yourself in a situation similar to the Maya princess, don't let the local brujo get wind of it. |
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Perpetual Traveller
Joined: 29 Aug 2005
Posts: 651
Location: In the Kak, Japan
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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That depends... can I count 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' or 'The Da Vinci Code'? 
PT |
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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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Only if we can incude legends of hack writers making deals with t | | |
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