The little mermaid costume is compared to the holy grail of Halloween costumes. Even without the runaway success Walt Disney movie and Ariel’s winning personality (the primary figure in the feature), a good number of children have fantasized about being a sea maiden.

The Little Mermaid (statue)

The Little Mermaid (Den lille havfrue) is a bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen , … aspx#mermaid The Little Mermaid – Downtown Public Art Circuit …

Dolphins, like humans and mermaids, are highly intelligent. They have been known for centuries to interact with both mer-folk and human folk. Some of the oldest cave drawings of mermaids and dolphins in the world are found in South Africa, in the mountains near Oudtshoorn. The paintings are over 30,000 years old.

There is a belief on some Pacific Islands that children should not go near the rivers during noontime for it is the time that mermaids will come out and drag children to the sea and make them their children. On the other hand, it is also well known that Mermaids love to take good care of children!

The selkies of Orkney legends were actually shapeshifting mermaids of sorts. When they were in the water, they possessed the bodies of seals, but when they came onto the shore they could change into the form of a human being. Many legends tell of selkie females who would become human men’s wives, only to leave them later on when they had a calling for their home in the ocean. Legend has it that if a man can hide or destroy the selkie’s seal-skin coat, that she will be his forever. But if she finds her seal-coat, she will be able to shift and return to the sea forever…leaving him heartbroken. For a woman to meet a selkie male, she must cry seven tears into the ocean and he will come.

More than anything, mermaids have given us the gifts of the human imagination. Just like the widely respected Minotaur, the half-man, half-horse, human folklore and legend has fallen in love with the idea of a shared species, the ability to change and the rewards to true adaptation to surroundings. Just like the colors of the sea, mermaids have been portrayed in art as a symbol of strength, oftentimes being seen with a sword and shield. Protectors of the sea, some would say, which would become an inspiration to people worldwide.

File:Cleveland Museum of Art – lagoon with mermaid.jpg

Description 1 Lagoon with mermaid statue, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. | Source | Author Daderot | Date 2008-07 | …

A fellow hubber (Lilleyth) told me a story of how her father would actually hear mermaids singing from within the depths of the ocean. He and his mates were in submarines (or ships, I can’t remember which) and would hear the seductive song of mermaids emanating from the ocean waves. Some men would even jump off the vessel in a trance from the mermaids’ songs.