HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE
Vampire myths and legends go back hundreds, and thousands of years. They occur in almost every culture. The different types are many, although the vampires we are familiar with today, are mainly based on Eastern European myths.
The modern concept of a vampire retains many of the original traits from the East European stories. Traits such as drinking blood, preying on humans, only coming our at night, rising from the dead. Other aspects of the Vampire, such as Goth type clothing, cloaks, turning in to bats etc are much newer innovations.
Other features of some of the old myths are now all but gone, such as sprinkling salt, or seeds over the Vampire in order to keep them counting all night, rather than preying on human blood.
Romanian Vampire Mythology
This place is in the center of many Slavic countries, and there mythology, stories, and legends are similar to the Slavic Vampire. There are several different types of Romanian Vampire, and several different ways to become one....
There were witches, they turned in to Vampires after there death. Reanimated corpses that suck the blood of livestock, and humans. Anyone born out of wedlock, died an unnatural death, or died before being baptised was destined to become a Vampire. The Seventh sone of a seventh son, or seventh daughter of a seventh daughter would be a Vampire, as would naturally, being bitten by a Vampire.
The presence of a Vampire was usually noticed when a human, or some livestock were attacked. They were thought to be most active on the Eve of ST Georges Day (4th May).
In order to check for Vampirism, graves were often opened three, five and seven years after a persons death. The ways of destroying a Vampire were similar to those of the Slovacs. These included staking through the body and decapitation. Dismembering the body and burning.
Bats and Vampires
Bats are currently very popular in Vampire legend and culture, but this was not always the case. There are many myths about bats themselves, most likely because they come out and hunt at night, and some of them do feast on the blood of livestock. This puts them alongside Vampires in feeding habits, so it isn't very difficult to see how the two became intertwined. Stoker was the one that eventually cemented the link between bats and Vampires in the mind of the general population.
Vampire beliefs in the world today
There are many places in the world where people still believe in Vampires to this day. Many of the modern day believers have been greatly influenced by the depiction of Vampires in film and fiction. The was a Vampire scare in London as recently as 1970 where Vampire hunters flocked to see what they could do. During 2002 and 2003 there were a number of alleged Vampire attacks carried out in Malawi. This created mass hysteria in the population and several people were killed while looking for the Vampire. In Romania in 2004 several people believed that one of there relatives had turned in to a vampire. They dug up his body, ripped out the heart, burned it, mixed it with water and drank it.
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