Non-Americans Share Their Local 'Bigfoot' And 'Area 51' Equivalents
Of course you do. It's an American cultural legend. Almost a ghost story--it's a clear cover-up by the government with no true explanation. Only theories. It's almost fun to stew on. But every country must have something like this, right?
ekrgekgt asked Reddit:
Non-Americans of reddit, what is the "Bigfoot" or "Area 51" equivalent of your country?
Here are some culturally diverse urban legends.
Dahut
In france we have a mythical creature in the mountain regions called a "dahut". What's funny is that it supposedly has shorter legs on one side, either left or right, to accomodate the slopes he lives on. So if you encounter one, you just have to shout, which causes him to turn around, thus falling down because the long legs are now on the top side of the slope... That flaw makes them a rare sight and an endangered species.
Ghost Train
In Stockholm (Sweden) we have a half finished metro station that you just pass through. It is rumored that there is a ghost train called Silverpilen (the silver arrow) traveling to that station. If you accidentally board that train your die and your ghost is trapped on the train forever.
Missing
Slovakia here - There's a myth of Bermuda triangle like phenomenon in mountains (or perhaps hills) of Tríbe?. It is nothing but few hills, forest and it is really hard to get lost there, because of its small size in square kilometres, but few people went missing there and were never found.
Sirens
Grew up in a rural part in the south of Norway. When I was a kid my parents and other adults would tell us stories about "Nøkken". A water creature that would lure you to the water and drown you. I remember the dad of my bestfriend telling me they could come through the toilet and drag you through to your death.
Méxicante
Mexico has "La Llorona" (the crying woman), who's basically a Mexican banshee lady who lives in the countryside.
Also, el Chupacabra, a beast said to suck the blood of farm animals.
Abandonment
In the Netherlands we have a bunch of military bases, which you can all look up on google maps and see the satellite pictures of, but there's this one area of a military school they felt the need to scramble. [link].
I've been in that area once (you can just walk to it, it's about as secure as a regular school), and there's nothing interesting there. It seems like a leftover they forgot to 'undo' when in the past they blurred every military area, but many people in the area think they train special marines there, which I highly doubt.
Unidentified Flying Mountain
Oh boy, I was waiting for this question to be asked.
I live in a small city in Serbia, Zaje?ar. About 35 km away from me is a pyramid shaped mountain called Rtanj . And why that mountain is popular, besides that strange shape is because there are rumors that aliens land there. But, the fun part is, there were lots of UFO sightings over Rtanj and over my home town too. Even I saw a couple of UFO's flying over the mountain. Scientists have gathered a couple of times to investigate what is happening over there. And the only thing they have said is that the UFO's might be lightning balls, although they don't know why they're forming on the mountain.
Now, I will try my best to describe them. My whole family has seen them, since our balcony is directly facing the mountain , and all of them behave and look the same way. Small circles that are moving extremely fast in similar patterns, their paths are usually like geometrical shapes. They also change color, and after travelling for a couple of minutes, they disappear into thin air, sometimes they can even reappear in a different place. Note: the sky was always clear, no clouds were near those things
Ogopogo..ie?
We've got the Ogopogo in Okanagan lake in B.C. Canada. It's kinda like the Loch Ness monster except... wait no there's pretty much no difference
Ghosts
Lots of them in Galicia, Spain. The one that scared me the most as a child was the myth of the "Santa Compaña":
The common belief is that of a procession of the dead (or a procession of souls that are in torment) that wander through the village paths of a parish beginning at midnight wearing white, hooded cloaks. The procession is led by a living person carrying a cross or a cauldron of holy water (sometimes he carries both), followed by several of the souls of the dead holding lit candles. The living leader of the procession is compelled by a supernatural force (in this case, a mysterious curse) to go out every night and walk by towns, villages and forests; but having no recollection of it the following day. By the same token, because the living person is unaware of what he is doing, there is no chance that he will renounce his duty in leading the Santa Compaña as the curse that forces him to lead the procession puts him into a trance every midnight.
The region of Galicia is pretty similar to Ireland, they even share to a certain degree some Celtic traditions. My parents told me that the rainy weather, the fog, etc... was the origin of such stories.
More Than The Yeti
India
We have Yeti, a snowy figure which is rumored to live in the Himalayas.
There are many equivalents of Area 51, mainly:
- Pokhran Test Ranges. Pokhran TR is secured by more than 5 Indian agencies working independently or in tandem with other agencies. The outer perimeter is secured by special BSF commandos while Indian Army secures the facility. Overall security Is maintained by RAW and MI officers. There is also a COIN team to check any leak of information from within. Various ISI spies have been caught trying to get soil or nail samples of the scientists working there. A CIA agent too was rumored to be caught.
- Wheeler's Island. India's missile testing base. India's strategic nuclear missiles and tactical missiles, all are tested here. From Agni 5 to BrahMos, everything takes shape here.
- Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Of the 572 islands in AANI, only 34 are open to public. AANI also hosts India's top secret Tried Service command.
- Trishul Airbase. Trishul Airbase in Bareilly is the largest underground airbase in Asia. This facility was so secure that it housed the MiG-25 fox bats which were bought under complete secrecy. The acknowledgement of Foxbats happened only on the day they were retired. Imagine an airbase so secure that you don't see which fighter jet flies out of it.
Iceland-Consonants, AND Monsters
Iceland, we have a few. I'll skip the elves, ghosts, trolls and dwarves for now.
- Nykur - a water demon that lures you to your death masquerading as a horse
- Lagarfljótsormurinn - cousin of Loch Ness Monster
- Yule Cat - it will eat the naughty children at Yule (called Christmas in some places these days)
Kareful Of Kappa
In Japan, it would be kappa. A human like green creature that lives around river.
The Fictional City
The city of "Bielefeld" in Germany.
If you look it up on any map, or even on Google, you'll find nothing except a normal looking city.
Except that city does not exist. No one is completely sure why it shows up on almost every map, but it has always been that way. There are some theories, that "Bielefeld" was created by a map maker a few hundred years back to check if anyone copys his maps and after some people did that, Bielefled has become some sort of easter-egg for map designers.
Some guys will argue that they are from Bielefeld, but thats just an old running joke in germany.
A Million Ways To Die
UK.
Instead of UFOS abductions our folklore has a lot of faerie/fairies abductions. People being tempted and drowned in lakes by Kelpies. People stepping into faerie circles/rings and dancing at a party for a few minutes but when they leave its been hundred years and someone see's them dissolve into dust. Fairies stealing babies and swapping changelings in their place. People destroying a fairy fort and getting cursed, even in modern day link and link some of these stories are still heard, but not so much in the abduction side.
Hasn't been a sighting for years but spring heeled jack is an old one.
There's always sightings of big black cats or hounds England) in the countryside and I've had one of these experiences myself. Saw a black cat in a field when I was a passenger in a car but it didn't look right like for the size and distance it was. Something didn't match up. Either a perspective illusion or it was a big cat.
Lot and lots of haunted places. Every town seems to have a good few ghost stories.
Secret societies and what they get up to. Freemasons being linked to jack the ripper (if you read they all love jack) or demon summoning if you follow they are based around king Solomon myths. Funnily Illuminati used to be a real but less sinister group and it sounds like most of the fears about them come from their rivalry with the freemasons. Though in most cases these societies and freemasons seem to be glorified gentlemen's drinking clubs and not that sinister nowadays. There's also Aleister Crowley and his former group the Golden Dawn too.
Tee Hee
In Portugal there's the "Honest Politician". No one has seen any in ages, our parents swear they were a real thing a couple decades ago, but it's been so long since anyone's seen any, that it pretty much became a mythical creature.
The Most Canadian Bigfoot
Aboriginal Canadian... Also Bigfoot. We call him Sabe and he is a tender manitou (spirit creature) of the forest that teaches us honesty. Arguable you could also include the windigo and our various sea serpents, some of which other people living in Canada also believe in.
Also a local Rez has a story about Monkey-Dog, half monkey and half dog that causes mischief. It's not my Rez so I don't know too much about it. I can only assume a white man brought it over to inconvenience them.
A Hot Place
Aussie here. I can't think of anything which fits the bill. Aboriginal people have plenty of legends, but nobody thinks they might be true. The Thylacine is believed to be extinct but if it was found in the wild, nobody would be totally surprised.
There is a story I heard of the Black Dac. Basically a DC4 Dakota painted totally black which is seen flying over the outback from time to time. Most of the stories have it passing over a campsite at 50 feet or so.
But I have never met anybody else who knows that story so it doesn't really qualify.
Evil Mountain
It's not my country, but Russians have Metro 2. It is/was a secret metro system buried deep enough under Moscow to withstand a direct nuclear attack. It was made to help ferry government officials from place to place and act as a nuclear shelter as well. Supposedly it has lines that stretch beyond Moscow so they can flee the city if necessary, but it also has living quarters and offices if they need to stay. Like Area 51, it's existence is confirmed, but there are many legends about what goes on in it, and nobody knows if it is still operational.
They also have Mount Yamantau, which is their closest Area 51 analogue. The mountain itself literally means "Evil Mountain" in the Bashkir language, and the Russians have been constructing some kind of massive facility there. Tens of thousands of workers are housed there but the Russian government has been tight-lipped on what is going on there. They've refused to give the US even a hint of what Mt. Yamantau might be used for, and the speculation is endless.
Tikoloshe
In South Africa, there is a Zulu folklore about a little dude that basically looks like a dwarf/ water sprite/ gremlin type, and he just causes mischief wherever he goes. A lot of Zulu families until this day still put their beds on bricks because they believe that it's too high up for the gremlin to reach. He's known as the Tikoloshe. Zulu shamans created him back in the day to scare people off if they offended the shaman. Apparently he can do all sorts of things; from stealing to killing. The folklore says that the Tikoloshe mostly targets schoolchildren.
Space Dust
The Tunguska Meteorite.
The year was 1908, late June. For several days, in several locations in the Northern Hemisphere strange lights were seen in the sky. Mainly in Western Siberia, but also as far as Bristol in England. Then, on June 30th, an enormous ball of flames flew over Siberia. A giant explosion was seen and heard hundreds of kilometers from the crash site, with observatories all over the world detecting a shockwave from it. Glass was shattered within a radius of a few hundred kilometers, and a wave of hot air was reported by several people living far away from each other. Reports closest to the epicenter of the explosion say that the heatwave was so devastating that dry grass bust into flames.
The force of the explosion is estimated to be up to 50 megatons, equal to the power of the Soviet thermonuclear weapon, the Tsar bomb. The explosion was heard from 800 km and the seismic wave was detected all the way in Germany. For almost the entire month after that, lights in the sky kept appearing.
The year was 1927. A meteorite researcher named Leonid Kulik went on an expedition to find the crater from the supposed meteorite. Having gathered several witness reports in 1921, he determined where the epicenter should have been. He never found the crater. Not even after he photographed 250 square km of land from a plane in 1938. To this day, no crater was found, and consensus is, no crater ever existed. The meteorite exploded several kilometers from the ground. Yet, even now, nobody knows for certain what exactly it was.
The strange lights in the sky were actually easy to explain, it was ice from the meteorite. But it wasn't pure ice, and what caused it to explode before hitting ground is unknown. It's still a mystery, and it caused many science fiction writers to incorporate it into their stories. To this day it is used as a source for alien technology in fiction, with a video game Crysis 2 being a good example.