Halloween is fast approaching, the pumpkins are chiseled, carved and topped with candles. Everyone is wearing black or orange, this is an occasion to party. But formerly, on this date, nobody went out, moreover on two dates in the year. Pile 40 days after the spring equinox, April 30 was the night of Walpurgis, the night of the witches. And 40 days after the autumn equinox, October 31, is the deadliest night of the year, Samhain, the old Celtic festival, where the dead could come and say hello. The veil between the dead and the living is thin at this time, you never know what can cross it. This is why this week, you will be entitled to the best of the worst Alsatian legends, to make you shiver.
These legends were told in the Kùnkelstùb, when it was pitch dark outside, there was no public lighting. And they were repeated, adapted, because it is an art to know how to tell them well, they have pursued generations of young Alsatians to the grave, these stories which have happened right next to you. It was not necessary to venture at night in many corners a little lost or cashed in a valley. Monsters lurked, local damned souls would sometimes wake up, to take a stray or two.
Here, did you know that vampires have been raging for a long time in the south of Alsace? In oral tradition, ‘s Doggala, it’s her little name, is described as a kind of little vampire who disturbs children’s sleep by settling in the middle of the night on their chest, preventing them from breathing in their chest. sleep. This dirty beast tries to suffocate children, and when they are too small, well … He is related to the Toggele of Leymen, the Doggele of Altkirch or the Dockele of the Florival, they are all bad domestic geniuses to whom we attributes nocturnal asthma or sudden infant death syndrome.
He was seen, also drawn, the size of a dark colored dog, a medium-sized dog with glistening fangs, which blends in with the night, and which can spread black wings to flutter up to the roof, up to ‘at the windows. Once the child grows up, the Doggala no longer comes, he feels that the child will be able to struggle, call for help. So tonight, check to see if a dark-dressed dog is prowling in the street, under the window where your toddler sleeps. We never know.