Le Bonhomme Sept Heures
In Quebec, children were told to be in bed by seven, or the Seven O'Clock Man would come and take them away in his sack.
What was reported
Le Bonhomme Sept Heures, the 'Seven O'Clock Man', is the bogeyman of French Canada. Children in Quebec and Acadia were told that if they weren't in bed by seven, or if they wandered outside after dark, he would come and carry them off in his sack.
He was imagined as a ragged, frightening old man, sometimes going door to door. Parents used him to make children go to bed on time.
Explanations offered
A popular explanation is that the name comes from the English 'bone-setter', a travelling healer who set broken bones, whose visits frightened children, but this is uncertain. He's one of many bogeymen used around the world to keep children in at night.
- When
- Told for generations
- Where
- Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
- Witnesses
- Generations of Quebec children
- Status
- Folklore
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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