A lab worker in Meerut was minding his business, carrying blood samples from patients infected with COVID-19. This obviously requires a bit of careful handling, so you can imagine that this lab worker is likely paying pretty close attention.

It was definitely not enough.

A gang of monkeys attacked him mid-transport and made off with the box, containing 3 vials of blood. The COVID monkeys then escaped and were later found in a tree chewing on the samples.

But why would monkeys steal blood? Obviously they didn’t know that there was a pandemic situation and they were effectively stealing virus samples, right? Uh, we hope not. However, there is apparently a widely known conflict between humans and rhesus macaques. Their habitat has been reduced, which has forced them into proximity with humans, and the whole thing has just not gone well. Apparently, neither humans nor monkeys like sharing food and space very much.

Some experts are worried about the implications, but maybe not for the reasons you would think.

“Of course, now there will be naturally panic stricken people blaming the monkeys and there will be rampant cruelty directed towards the monkeys,” Shreejata Gupta said. 

Others have similar reservations. Shirley McGreal, founder of the International Primate Protection League, was more concerned with the actions of the lab assistant.

“I am puzzled that any medical professional would carry blood samples outdoors in anything other than a lock box.”

Fair, Shirley. Fair.

So. There’s your little nugget for today. There is a conflict between humans and monkeys the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. They stole some COVID-infected blood samples, gnawed on them, and haven’t been heard from again.

Thanks, 2020. We definitely didn’t ‘t have COVID monkeys on our 2020 catastrophe bingo card.

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Back in 2017, the New York Times released some leaked videos. They showed Navy F/A-18 fighter pilots during training flight. The video itself is weird enough, but the audio is even more compelling.

If you haven’t watched the video, go do it.

The pilots describe the scene – watching the objects move on the radar against the wind at 120 knots. Their shock is not hidden, and there is never an explanation given for the encounter.

“There’s a whole fleet of them!”

It’s something straight out of a movie. Now, over two years later, the Navy released UFO videos “to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that had been circulating was real or whether or not there is more to the videos,” said Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough.

That in and of itself is cool enough. I mean, the Navy released UFO videos and didn’t even pretend to explain them. But the story didn’t stop there.

A few weeks ago the Senate Intelligence Committee added some language to this year’s Intelligence authorization bill that would require the Pentagon and other U.S. intelligence agencies to release a comprehensive and unclassified look at everything they have on “unidentified aerial phenomenon.”

Yep. The Senate wants the agencies to be up front about anything they find regarding extra terrestrials. UFO reports have always seemed like something that should be classified and scary, but why? Why should we be kept in the dark?

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Where is Cerro Gordo?

Somewhere about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, 400 miles southeast of San Francisco and 200 miles west of Las Vegas sits Cerro Gordo – “Fat Hill.” A remote town (it’s about 25 miles from the nearest grocery store), it is nestled on the edge of the Inyo Mountains overlooking Death Valley National Park.

The town is appropriately creepy for a ghost town, and definitely haunted. Back in its heyday, Cerro Gordo averaged a murder per week, and they even built tunnels to allow for escape during labor disputes. Because, obviously things like that are necessary when you’re in a tiny town and someone is being killed off every week. With bullet holes in the walls of the saloon and blood stains on the floor, it’s not hard to imagine what went down. Cerro Gordo ghosts have some epic stories to tell.

For some wild stories, watch this:

That’s right, guys. Ghosts AND aliens, and a pretty badass back story. You can get the entire episode here.

Why would someone buy it?

So what would possess someone to buy a creepy old town full of 150+ year old buildings set on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere? Jon Bier and Brent Underwood, two young entrepreneurs, knew that the place was special. Over the past year, they have been working to revamp it into a retreat/conference space/film set/generally amazing little hideaway.

Then, when the pandemic hit, Brent decided to lock himself up in the little town to ride out quarantine with the ghosts of Cerro Gordo. He had no idea that he’d immediately be buried under 4 ft. of snow. It made for some pretty great Insta shots, which is probably enough of a reason to buy a $2 million dollar ghost town.

The ghost stories are wild

When they purchased the town, they were warned that some visitors may be hanging around. Apparently, the town’s brothel owner (it’s always the brothel owner), and another who was murdered in a card game gone bad are still setting up shop. Now, Brent is an admitted skeptic, but even he came clean that he had an encounter that left him pretty uneasy.

If you can’t watch the video, here’s a recap. As he was walking toward the bunk house he looked at the window, the curtain pulled to the side, and a little face poked out. Under the assumption that the contractors were staying in the bunk house, he asked when they were leaving and was told that they’re been gone for two weeks. So, a little uneasy, he locked up the door and went for a hike. By the time he got back, the kitchen light was on, even with a lock still on the door.

“Ghosts? I don’t know.”

If you want to follow along with Brent’s Cerro Gordo quarantine, you can find him on Instagram. It’s a fun ride.

And if you need more creepy ghost town stories, check out this week’s Homespun Haints episode.

Image pictured: Artist unknown. Untitled (Group Portrait of Miners). 1870. The Art Institute of Chicago.

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During Victoria’s reign in the 1800’s, though, Christmas became the celebration that we know today. But what made the Victorians so good at the Christmas ghost stories and haunted tales? And how did these ghost stories become such an important part of holiday gatherings?

Multiple reasons for Victorian Christmas ghost stories

As with most explanations, it turns out that there isn’t just one. Christmas celebrations took off the way they did partly for economic reasons. Due to the Industrial Revolution, many rural residents migrated into the cities for work. Many people found themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, and they craved the old stories that reminded them of home.

Also, a brand new middle class came about from the transition, and they had servants who were routinely using secret passageways and avoiding detection throughout the house as they worked. They were using gas lamps that produced carbon monoxide and caused hallucinations. It was a perfect setting for some brilliant and pretty trippy stories.

All of that said, it was more than just a massive shift in the population of the cities, a resurgence of the holiday, and environmental factors that lead to the birth of this unique genre of literature. It always comes down to giving the people what they want right? Throughout history, storytelling—particularly ghost stories—has been an oral tradition. For as long as there have been humans, we have been telling each other stories, passing them down through generations and creating lore.

The prevalence of the periodical press, though, gave a new outlet to these stories. Ruth Robbins, professor of English literature at Leeds Metropolitan University says that “publishers suddenly needed a mass of content, and ghost stories fitted the bill – short, cheap, generic, repetitive, able to be cut quite easily to length.”

Christmas is back in fashion. People are creating and consuming creepy stories, especially around the Christmas season when the nights are long and dark and everyone is trapped inside. There is a press that is eager for content, and they’re ready to give people what they want: Christmas ghost stories. And with that, we have the birth of a genre and resurgence of a spine-chilling tradition.

Some Christmas Ghost Stories we recommend:

Here are some of the best creepy ghost stories we could find, and they’re definitely worth the read:

The Kit-Bag
by Algernon Blackwood

A young man works for a prominent lawyer who is in court defending a murderer. Ready for a break, he is looking forward to Christmas. When he asks his employer to borrow a kit-bag for his travels, things go very, very wrong.

The Open Door
by Mrs. Margaret Oliphant

When the narrator’s young son starts ranting about an intolerable that recurs outside their Victorian mansion at night, people begin to think he’s losing his mind. Everyone except his father, that is.

Top Image: Winslow Homer. Christmas—Gathering Evergreens and The Christmas-Tree. 1858. Wood engraving on paper, published by published by Harper’s Weekly. The Art Institute of Chicago.

The post Christmas ghost stories and why the Victorian era was creepy AF appeared first on Homespun Haints.

And maybe it makes sense. We’re with our loved ones. We’re remembering friends and family and talking about our shared histories. When people gather, they tell stories and revisit the past—and of course, we all love to scare each other. But the connection between the spirit world and Christmas time is a little bit deeper than that.

The darkest day of the year

Winter solstice is the darkest day of the year—the time when the veil between the worlds is thought to be the thinnest. Some believe that this may help blur the line between the living and the dead—that spirits may have particularly good access to the living during the darkest day of the year. Christians chose December 25th for good reason—there is a parallel between the pagan celebrations of the death and rebirth of the sun and the birth of a savior. Perhaps the undead were celebrating at Christmas time before there was a Christmas to celebrate.

Our Best Podcast Episodes of Christmas Ghost and Paranormal Stories

• The Holiday Ghost Stories Episode
• The Weirder The Better
• A Christmas Ghost Story
• It’s the Most Scariest Time of the Year
• Butt-dialed from the Afterlife: A Christmas Ghost Story

A very Victorian Christmas tradition

All of this said, Victorian Christmases had a strong tradition of gathering around a fire and telling ghost stories. It’s a tradition that has disappeared from our modern Christmas repertoire of baking and singing and decorating trees, but British literature is full of scary Christmas stories. British humorist Jerome K. Jerome wrote an introduction to an anthology of Christmas Ghost Stories, “Told After Supper,” in 1891. He said that whenever five to six English-speaking people met around a fire on Christmas Eve, they would tell ghost stories. We even sing about the tradition in “The Most Wonderful Time Of the Year,” which contains the line “There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.”

For some reason, of all of the traditions we’ve kept from the Victorian era of Christmas, this is one that has died off. Yule logs, Christmas trees, and carols have all withstood the test of time, but rarely do people sit around those fires and lights and try to scare the pants off of each other.

More About Creepy Christmas Traditions

• Christmas ghost stories and why the Victorian era was creepy AF
• Why do we tell ghost stories at Christmas?
• Have You Been Naughty or Nice?

So, if you should choose to watch A Christmas Carol and spend some time visiting old ghosts, you wouldn’t be the first. And we’re definitely here for a Christmas ghost story resurgence. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a spooky day!

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