According to local folklore, Bloody Mary is a ghost, phantom, or spirit conjured to reveal the future. It is said that if you walk backward up a staircase in a darkened house at night, passing a mirror as you go, you will see reflected in the mirror one of two things: the face of the person you are destined to marry, or a skull. If the skull appears, it means that you are going to die before you get the chance to marry anyone.

Bloody Mary in history refers to Mary Tudor, the first-ever Queen of England to rule in her own right. Mary was the only child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive to adulthood. She was favored by her father in her childhood and received a good education. However, as the marriage of her parents broke up, she was also forgotten by her father. Henry VIII and Mary even had different religious beliefs – the daughter was a faithful follower of Catholicism, while the father promoted Protestantism throughout England. During her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions and purged over 60,000 Protestants – that's why she was called Bloody Mary.

The cocktail Bloody Mary was invented in the 1920s or 1930s. Even though we don't know which Bloody Mary the inventor associated with while he gave the drink this name, the above two stories exactly match up to the classic cocktail featuring a bloody color.

There are various theories as to the origin of the drink and its name, and the most common backstory dates back to Paris in the 1920s at Harry's New York Bar. Harry's opened in 1911 after an American jockey had a New York bar disassembled and shipped to Paris. The New York-style bar became an American destination during the Prohibition era. And around 1920, people who escaped the Russian Revolution arrived in Paris, bringing vodka with them, which was new to France. Fernand Petiot, the bartender at Harry's, found this foreign spirit to be tasteless, as he began experimenting with it in his cocktail creations. At the same time, Petiot discovered American canned tomato juice, which in the alcohol-free days of Prohibition was called a "tomato juice cocktail" on the bar and restaurant menus. After countless failed vodka cocktail experiments, Petiot finally combined vodka with American canned tomato juice and seasoning.

After Prohibition, Petiot brought the drink to Manhattan when he presided over the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel. For a time, the cocktail was rechristened the Red Snapper in a nod to more delicate American sensibilities. Petiot told The New Yorker in July 1964: "I initiated the Bloody Mary of today. Jessel said he created it, but it was really nothing but vodka and tomato juice when I took it over. I cover the bottom of the shaker with four large dashes of salt, two dashes of black pepper, two dashes of cayenne pepper, and a layer of Worcestershire sauce; I then add a dash of lemon juice and some cracked ice, put in two ounces of vodka and two ounces of thick tomato juice, shake, strain, and pour. We serve a hundred to a hundred and fifty Bloody Marys a day here in the King Cole Room and in the other restaurants and the banquet rooms."

Like many classic drinks, it has inspired several variations. Popular versions include the Bloody Maria (made with tequila), the Red Snapper (spiked with gin), and the Caesar, a Canadian creation that features Clamato juice.

The following is a simple recipe for Bloody Mary.

1)Pour some celery salt onto a small plate.

2)Rub the juicy side of the lemon or lime wedge along the lip of a pint glass.

3)Roll the outer edge of the glass in celery salt until fully coated, then fill the glass with ice and set it aside.

4)Squeeze the lemon and lime wedges into a shaker and drop them in.

5)Add the vodka, tomato juice, horseradish, Tabasco, Worcestershire, black pepper, paprika, plus a pinch of celery salt along with ice, and shake gently.

6)Strain into the prepared glass.

7)Garnish with parsley sprig, 2 speared green olives, a lime wedge, and a celery stalk (optional).