Ghost Story of the Sacrament Dog

The Sacrament Dog

The modern ghost story has become a sort of rite of passage in American culture. At the youngest age, children are scared by their older siblings’ renditions of a ghoulish tale. Teenagers nationwide think it is their duty to investigate their town’s local haunting at least once before graduating high school. Once these teens transition into adulthood, they begin to scoff at the stories they once embraced, criticizing the irrational content and telling their children that they are silly for believing in such blasphemy. Finally, such disbelief is somewhat removed when people reach an elderly state, and they begin to relish in the joy of passing on ghostly stories to younger generations, not necessarily with the intention to scare, but with a desire to preserve a history and tradition unique to their personal life experience. Ghost stories are thus an integral part of the human life, not only reflecting the “hopes, fears, and anxieties” of various societies and cultures (Brunvand 2), but also making up a great portion of how humans define themselves and their lives.

It is not surprising, then, that when I interviewed various members of the University of Maryland community, I was able to find many students with a ghost story (or two or three) on hand to share. One tale that I found particularly interesting and in-depth, and which will be discussed here, was told to me on one ironically-appropriate stormy night in a dorm room full of college students. The storyteller was a nineteen-year old, male freshman from Narstown, PA, majoring in English and Government and Politics. His mother is a nurse and his father is a telecommunications analyst. The story was about his Catholic college-preparatory high school in Penn...

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...g the latter element, the anxiety of the Catholic faith to keep its young followers intact by instilling in them a fear of wondering astray or a hope for salvation is reflected in the story’s pro-Catholic sentiment, unnecessary for the general spookiness of the story, but fitting in the Catholic school setting. Thus, ghost stories are note intended to be merely spooky.

Works Cited

Brunvand, Jan Harold. The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings. New York: W.W. Norton, 1981.

Maryland Ghost and Spirit Association. Ed. Beverly Litsinger. 2006. 8 April 2006 http://marylandghosts.com/.

Shadowlands Haunted Places Index - Pennsylvania. Ed. Dave Juliano. 2005. 8 April 2006 http://theshadowlands.net/places/pennsylvania.htm.

UMD Legends Index. Ed. David Schlossman. 2005. 7 April 2006 http://www.wam.umd.edu/~dschloss/Legends/index.htm.