RED HEADS : part 1

I thought, being a ginger myself, I would start a series of blog posts about red heads!

There are so many strange myths and fascinating pieces of information surrounding red heads throughout history!

Here is part 1 of the Red Heads series! This part will be majority of the historical myths that surround the ginger hair colour. 

Please click on the "Read More" button for some interesting tidbits!!! 

·      The coolest and craziest 

  myth I have found is that in Ancient Greece, they believed that red heads turned into vampires. No issue with this myth… seems pretty badass.

·      Red Heads were conceived during menstruation. This is mainly a historical myth, but it still persists today in some places!!! Some of the lovely nick names that derived from this belief are “Red-Knob” and “Tampon Top”

·      We are unlucky. Ancient Egyptians thought that gingers were such bad luck that they regularly sacrificed people who had that hair colour to end bad streaks. It is also reported that they burnt red headed maidens alive. Another way to get rid of redheads in Ancient Egypt was to burry them alive as a sacrifice to the god Osiris.

·      On the other side of the ancient coin, Romans believed that red heads were super duper lucky. Even ginger slaves were sold for a higher price (yippee).

·      We have horrible “fiery” tempers. There has never been a study to deny or support this …. Hence it being in the myths portion

·      We have STOLEN THE HELL FIRE!!!!! I have zero issue with this one.  Sounds rad as hell! During the Spanish Inquisition, hundreds upon hundreds of red heads were killed because they were believed to be witches. From 1488-1784, thousands of people were burned at the stake because they had “signs of the witch”. It was common to strip suspected witches and look for “abnormalities”, such as freckles, moles, warts and birthmarks. Considering the amount of freckles most red heads have, it was pretty common for them to be deemed a witch.

·      Aristotle was quoted as saying that red heads were “emotionally unhousebroken”.. whatever the hell that means.

·      Red heads were, and still are in some places, considered highly sexed and associated with crimes of lust.

·      Adam’s first wife, Lilith (who had red hair), was kicked out of the Garden of Eden because she refused to be a subordinate to him. When he told her to lie beneath him, she responded, “Why should I lie beneath you when I am your equal since both of us were created from dust?”. YOU 

  GO GIRL!!!

·      One of the best publications I came across was a translation of "Malleus Maleficarum" authored by Montague Summers. He wrote it in the Middle Ages and talked about how red hair and green eyes were tell tale signs of a witch, werewolf or vampire.  A direct quote from the translation is as follows “Those whose hair is red, of a certain peculiar shade, are unmistakably vampires. It is significant that in ancient Egypt, as Manetho tells us, human sacrifices were offered at the grave of Osiris, and the victims were red-haired men who were burned, their ashes being scattered far and wide by winnowing-fans. It is held by some authorities that this was done to fertilize the fields and produce a bounteous harvest, red-hair symbolizing the golden wealth of the corn. But these men were called Typhonians, and were representatives not of Osiris but of his evil rival Typhon, whose hair was red.”

·      Fun little conspiracy theory is that gingers are an alien/human hybrid. One article asked this question, “Think about it: Why did several kings and queens of Eurpoe have red hair even though, percentage-wise, redheads are fairly rare?”.  The obvious answer to that question is answered by genetics. If I need to explain that further, get a goddamn book or google.

·      Red heads have been considered untrustworthy throughout history. Judas was depicted as a red head.

·      In the Bible, Eve had red hair, representing the original scarlet letter. Also, her son Cain had red hair as well and fell from grace in one of the Bible's stories

·      I will end this list with my all time favorite one:  Red heads do not have souls… FALSE! We steal souls…. Completely different situation.

Hope you enjoyed part 1 and please do let me know if you liked it!!!

Stay tuned for more!!!