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[Joost]

Pretty much every village, town or area has it's own folk tales and urban legends about ghosts, witches and haunted houses that have been passed on for decades or even centuries. Do you know any of your old local ghost stories?

The area where I am from (De Kempen) is famous for it's ancient tales about ghosts, witches and gnomes. These are two of the best known ones.

A farmer stole some land from his neighbor by secretly moving a landmark. His neighbor found out and confronted him. The farmer denied the charges and said that if he was lying that God should take his life then and there. Within seconds, a big thunder cloud formed right above him and he was struck by lightning. For years to follow, people claimed to have seen the burning ghost of the farmer, restlessly wandering the swamps and farmlands, carrying the heavy stone landmark in his hands. He's known as De Gloeiige (local dialect for "The Glowing One").

In the 18th century there was a gang of robbers that terrorized the south of the Netherlands and the north of Belgium. It was rumored that they had made a pact with the devil and that they rode through the sky on the backs of flying bucks, so they were known as De Bokkenrijders (The Buckriders). They were so feared that 600 people were executed because they were thought to be Bokkenrijders, while in hindsight it has been estimated that the gang probably had just a few dozen members. One of the most famous places that was marauded by De Bokkenrijders was the Postel Abbey (which is still there and is just four miles from my house). After a while the monks at this abbey got so fed up with De Bokkenrijders that they held an all-night praying session in an attempt to finally put a stop to them. That night when De Bokkerijders came flying near the abbey, they bumped into an invisable wall and though they kept trying, they couldn't go any further. After that night, De Bokkerijders were never heard from again. The Efteling (one of Europe's leading theme parks) currently has an attraction based on De Bokkerijders and the Postel Abbey.

[Octie]

That's quite interesting, Joost

I didn't really know any ghost stories about where I live, but I did a bit of a search and I found a Maori legend that could probably count as ghosty... It's about two water-dwelling monsters ("taniwha" in Maori), who effectively turned Wellington harbour from a lake into a harbour and shaped quite a bit of the surrounding area by trying to make their way to the open sea. Apparently one of the taniwha is believed to still be living in the Cook Strait (between the North and South Islands of NZ).    

[7 of 13]

Ghosts 'R Us

Haunted Toys R Us in Sunnyvale, California pt. 1

Haunted Toys R Us in Sunnyvale, California pt. 2

[nimrod]

I went to a school called west hill high school in the north of england, the school is actually an old stately home, about 300 years old I believe, anyway we had a live in caretaker (janitor) who had a german shepherd dog that he used to patrol the extensive grounds surrounding the building, he told us that one night early on in his time there that he was awoken by his dog howling and barking at around 2 am one night, the dog was inside the old building, as was his flat, he went downstairs to find the dog and when he did it was in an agitated and frightened state, he crouched down beside it saying whats the matter boy etc when suddenly it cowered and stared at a door to a classroom, he looked at the heavy old closed door when an apirrition of a woman dressed in Victorian clothing walked through the solid door and ascended (floated) up the large spiral staircase, he was unable to move through fear but eventually the dog ran away down the long corridor.
The janitor had seen the woman 2 or 3 times in the years which I attended the school and he had done some research and suspected it was a former lady of the house, Mary Harrison who had died mysteriously around 100 years before, curiously the school was next to a public park and a very similar woman was reported sat on a park bench on a couple of occasions by different people not attached to the school.
This is a sketch of my old school.

[7 of 13]

i used to work at that store in sunnyvale, strange things would happen there.

[JimmyMcCullochFan]

There are quite a few haunted spots here in St Louis. I haven't checked any of them out yet though.