A young woman stares into the mirror as she holds a candle and chants, “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.” Slowly an image appears, the image of a woman covered in blood, reaching out to attack the viewer.

Or so the legend of Bloody Mary goes. Or one of them, at least. The most common form for the Bloody Mary legend is in the terms of a party game. A young woman takes a dare to summon Bloody Mary. They are placed into a darkened room (generally a bathroom), and given a candle. After chanting “Bloody Mary” a certain number of times, the apparition will be summoned into the mirror.

But where does Bloody Mary come from? The apparition reportedly appears as a young woman or old woman, a woman’s corpse or a ghost. She can be dangerous, screaming or attacking at her summoner by scratching their face or eyes, or sometimes friendly. With the different interpretations, it’s difficult to tell what Bloody Mary is in folklore.

Bloody Mary is an urban legend that hearkens back to older legends about mirrors and souls. The folklore was actually written down in the 1960s, but elements place it as far older. The setting is the same: a darkened room, a candle, a mirror, and chanting. Chanting variants included “I believe in Mary Worth” (not any relation to the comic strip of the time), “Hell Mary,” or “I stole your baby Bloody Mary.”

In older legends about mirrors, young girls (or more rarely, young men) could use a candle to see a vision of their future husband or wife. However, the ritual could show them a skull or the Grim Reaper, telling them they would die before they were married. Superstitions about mirrors and premonitions are very old. Superstitions included seeing the devil if you look too long in the mirror, no doubt punishing a vain girl, or opening a portal to the spirit world. Since mirrors were thought to be able to trap souls, mirrors were turned or covered so that they did not face a dead person. Uncovered mirrors were invitation and traps for ghostly apparitions.

Mostly, Bloody Mary is a ghost story. The figure that is called is always female, her face disfigured by violent death. Earlier tellings of the legend suggested that she was once a very beautiful woman who was so vain she spent her life looking into her mirror, and now is angered by being summoned by someone else into a mirror. Other legends suggest that she was a mother who killed her own children, and now malevolently attacks anyone who summons her.

Bloody Mary has been linked to several tales to explain her origin. One tale is that she was a witch named Mary Bloodsworth who was convicted and executed for witchcraft. Another is that she was a young bride who was horribly killed in an accident on her wedding night. The most commonly accepted tale is that Bloody Mary was Mary I, Queen of England before Elizabeth I and daughter of Henry VIII, whose life was marked by turmoil and violence, and who suffered a string of pregnancies and miscarriages. She was named Bloody Mary from the bloody and public executions of Protestants in her realm, since Mary was Catholic and wanted to return England to Catholic rule.

Most of all, the legend and game of Bloody Mary is also a dare game for young adults. Will a young girl dare to light the candle, summon the spirit, and see what emerges from the mirror?