Friday the 13th, the true Black Friday of the world, is filled with superstitions and creepy happenings. This day is considered so haunting to some that scientists have now classified it as a phobia in America. Believe it or not, some think that this unlucky day was developed by Christians due to several mishaps happening on a Friday. Others believe that it's origins began even before Christianity existed and has to due with Norse gods. As for the number 13? Well this number has many origins but the most common one has to do with religious dinner gatherings of 13 people that have ended in disaster.
Whatever started this "holiday" doesn't really matter. All that we know is that they don't happen every month. Thank god. But in order to celebrate Friday the 13th, I've collected several hauntings, urban legends, myths and superstitions from colleges all around the world. And we'll start with what I believe to be the best college in the world (but I happen to be very biased.)
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
Ohio University was established in 1804 and is the oldest college west of the Appalachian mountains. With this kind of age surely comes haunting and stories, right? There are actually so many legends and events that have occurred on this campus that an entire book should have been written about them. So here's just a brief overview of what has happened there.
In Jefferson Hall, residents can hear the sound of marbles rolling on the floor above them even if they're on the top floor. There's also been reports of a ghost in an unused room that some students from 1996 claimed to see. But when they got an RA to go check, the door was locked and unable to be pried open. Other halls on campus have the same haunting or some even worse.
Another extremely haunted hall is Wilson. This hall has a confirmed history and is even located in the center of a pentagram formed by cemeteries. The real haunting comes from a girl who had died in room 428 and was said to have dabbled in witchcraft. The room became so haunted that it was sealed off from students ever living there again. There's also one more dorm known for it's hauntings and that is Washington Hall. The top floor of this dorm used to be a rec room when it was exclusively a male-only dorm. The legend goes that an entire male basketball team still plays basketball on that floor and, sometimes, you can hear a basketball bouncing on the floor.
Also on Ohio University's campus is an old insane asylum known as The Ridges. While some of these buildings have been renovated, most have not been. Until its demise in 2013, the tuberculosis ward was considered the most haunted building with mysterious stains from a woman who died, apparitions and more. The Ridges is one of the most popular places on campus to experience paranormal activity with all of the graveyards and inhumane deaths in the asylum.
Heidelburg University, Heidelburg, Germany
Heidelburg University is one of the oldest universities in the entire world, having been founded in 1386 during the Holy Roman Empire. That means that it has survived hundreds of wars. It just so happens that one of the most famous hauntings at Heidelburg has to do with World War II.
Back in the 1940s, the Nazis began taking professors who were found to be Jewish, or even communist, away from the university to concentration camps. The story goes that at least two professors died in the camps and they now haunt the classrooms where they used to teach. Students claim that the chalkboards seem to mysteriously erase or that they have odd words written on them. While the men were taken away from this university, numerous women were taken to Heidelburg to be sterilized by the Nazis. Because of the failed sterilizations and several deaths, there are lingering spirits who were never properly put to rest. They say you can hear their screams and crying from the clinic.
Another urban legend from Heidelburg also has to do with the Nazi era. Back in 1933, before the war, the university participated in the common book burnings that the Nazis made people do. So now on the anniversary of this event, students claim that the smell of burning paper and leather-bound books can be found around campus. While this school has been around for about seven centuries, it seems that the most well known hauntings come from the 20th century miseries in Germany.
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan; University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; and University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
These universities listed above didn't all have people die on campus and have similar hauntings or anything like that. This is far more a myth and urban legend than anything else and includes way more than just the universities listed. This myth actually includes all universities that have an M or W as a part of the name (University of Michigan.) It's called the Halloween Massacre.
This myth has been around for awhile now and it all started with a famous psychic. This psychic "saw" a man in a mask on Halloween come to a college that started with an M or W. This university is located near some type of body of water, a train, or near a cemetery. When this masked man arrives, he kills everyone on campus. The universities listed for this myth just happen to be the ones that believe in this the most when Halloween rolls around.
Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Moscow State University was constructed in 1953 by over 14,000 prisoners of war. Russia, being Russia, didn't provide proper conditions for the workers and many died from the weather or from starvation (and of course they died from getting shot, because Russia.) With these untimely deaths happening, the ghosts of the workers can now be heard in the building. Students have reported hearing the cries and screams of these spirits. There have even been reports of men in raggedy clothes appearing and the noises of construction still continuing in the buildings. Most of these events occur in the upper floors since the prisoners were housed high up so they would be unable to escape. Although some did try to fly out of windows with home-made wings. Spoiler Alert: they were not successful.
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
This story about Louisiana State has both a superstition and a haunting attached to it. Supposedly, a law student from LSU named George ended up shooting himself on the steps of the Law School building after he had failed his bar exams. More than just once. People say that the stone where he shot himself is sunken in while others say that it's green.
Eventually, students started painting the stones green to freak people out. To combat this, they've now removed the supposed stone and replaced it with a grate. While this may have stopped the painting of the stones, law students still believe that if they step on that grate, they will fail their bar exams.
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
There have been several murders on this campus, starting with construction all the way up to current times. The first notable death was that of one of the two men working on the stonework of the buildings. His death wasn't discovered for years after and it was believed to have been because of a love triangle. Ivan Reznikoff, a stonemason, still haunts the staircase where his body was discovered over 150 years after his murder. There's also a story that a student told about meeting the ghost of Ivan before his body was found. He went back to the kid's dorm and supposedly told him who he was, who killed him and why. Then, before the spirit left, he also told the student where to find his body. That's not even the scariest part of this story from Toronto. When Ivan was talking to the student, he told him that when he tried to kill his partner in self defense with an axe, he missed and hit a wooden door instead of his coworker, who eventually stabbed and killed him. This door happens to still be at the University of Toronto. Here it is.
The body was found 2 years later after the Great Fire and was correctly identified as Ivan. The door still stands today after surviving the fire.
There's another story where the owner of a manor on campus, which is now owned by the Sisters of Saint Joseph, left a horrible history behind after his death. The story goes that he took a woman captive and left her in a room with no windows and where only the owner and butler knew of her existence. The woman eventually hanged herself after going mad from solitary confinement. The owner became guilty over her death and eventually used up all of his inheritance and had to sell the house to the University of Toledo. Fast forward to today and apparently either the ghost of the owner or the ghost of the woman haunts that very room which has now been converted into a study. If a woman goes in there alone, the door will mysteriously slam shut and she will not be able to leave until someone from the outside hears her screams for help. If they ever do.
How about you? Are there any hauntings, urban legends, myths or superstitions not mentioned that happened at your university? Maybe you heard a different version of one the stories told above?
Friday the 13th is the perfect time to find out about the creepy things at your school. And maybe on this year's Friday the 13th, you'll experience something that will make your hair stand on end and force you to think twice.
