There is stil a part of my country that is very rural called "Chiloe" (I live in Chile), in that place they have lots of legends and most people still believe in them (Or at least they pretend to so they can attract tourists). Ill tell you one of those legends: The "Caleuche".

The Caleuche is a ghost ship, its a ship that always has a lot of lights and a eternal party on board. It can nearly go anywhere with a natural water source as people claim that suddenly some rivers wideness and depth grows magically and the ship appears out of nowhere. The ship is not a welcome sight because when its sighted it always kidnaps someone nearby. The day after someone is kidnapped a hooded person always appears and tells one of his loved ones that the kidnapped person has joined the crew of the ship and that he's fine.

(Im inXD).

My favorite is legend about Wawel dragon, in which shoemaker killed dragon with WMDs.

Story starts with dragon demanding virgins to eat. At the beginning King Krak wanted to stop him but dragon killed all his knights Krak send to stop beast. Then humble shoemaker Dratewka came, filled sheep with sulphur and gave it to dragon to it. Dragon ate it but because of poison he became thirsty and started drinking water from Vistula river until it exploded.

BUMP

Double BUMP

Triple BUMP :D

Here we have what we call the "Lobizón", it's somewhat similar to a werewolf but this myth arises from the guaraní people. According to the legend, the seventh son (that is the seventh son given that all other 6 were males too, it doesn't work if you have some female(s) in between) is cursed to become the "lobizón", which is some kind of black wolf- or dog-like creature that is obviously up to no good.

Now, the best part is what follows: supposedly to avert this awful destiny you need have that kid baptized by the President Him/Herself!!! In Argentina, Perón actually established a law to formalize this! I know a person whose brother was baptized by Alfonsín!

Hilarious! (Though apparently this thing with the President baptizing the "cursed" kid started because superstitious people were KILLING their seventh son in the late 1880s, early 1900s, which isn't that hilarious.)

Actually from the description, I imagine that infanticide must have been its original function. Birth control and population growth management being itself the function of -amongst other practices- infanticide. Which makes sense in traditional societies that don't have advanced technological contraceptive tools, and require limited population for self-sustainability.

BUT I DIGRESS.

Each time I want to draw for a winner, a new extremely cool post pops up, and makes me believe that more will still arrive. It's both infuriating and awesome. I'll wait for the next "24h without a myth" to close the giveaway...

Just saying, for people not to think that I just forget about this.

In my country's national park (Peneda-Gerês National Park), there's a charming old bridge, with an interesting myth that had it's impact in the real life, it's the Misarela bridge:

According to the legend, in the past a criminal, escaping justice, facing the cliffs near the river asked the Devil for help. The Devil came, made a bridge and asked for his soul in return. The criminal accepted and crossed the bridge, which disappeared, preventing the capture of the criminal. After this, he regret his decision and asked for a monk's help. The monk agrees to help him and tells him to go to the place of the bridge and ask the devil's help again. He does that, the Devil appears and again creates the bridge. Then, the monk appears and sprinkles the bridge with holy water, vanquishing the Devil, regaining the man's soul and keeping the bridge intact.

Alter that, when a woman kept miscarrying when she was pregnant, she would go to the bridge and sleep under it, asking for help with her pregnancy. The first person to cross the bridge the next day would have to be the child godfather/godmother and the child would be named "Gervásio", if a boy, or "Senhorinha (Little Lady)" , if a girl. All this had to happen, for a successful pregnancy. Because of this, there are still today lots of people with these names in the regions around the bridge.

BUMP!

You're my winner of this giveaway +1

Now that wasn't exactly the reply I expected. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

Congratulations to P1na! :D

It was certainly a humorous entry XD.

To summarize, we have a new legend:

If you see a black cat cross your path and let it walk just like that, you'll be cursed. However, if you invite it to your house and let it have some fun until it leaves, you'll get a new videogame.

I for one will be inviting the cat to a can of tuna next time I see it around.

And fear not other entries! I didn't run this giveaway lol, so P1na gets one 5.99 game of his choice and the grandprize is still up for grabs!