Vampire History

Vampires seem to be more common now than ever before. With the rise of the Twilight Saga, True Blood series, never ending books from famous authors and countless movies and childrens shows, vampires have become a part of our every day lives. Count Chocula resides on chocolatey breakfast cereals, many of us today grew up learning to count with Count Dracula on Sesime Street. Vampires are found throughout the history of film starting with Nosveratu in the 20's, Grandpa in the Munsters in the 50's, Dark Shadows in the 70's, and into the True Blood series of today along with the countless movies that continue to swarm into theaters.

Although vampires are a large part of our culture today, where did they really come from?

Vampires have been around long before Vlad the Impaler and Countess Bathory. People would die from disease or natural disaster such as drought and the rest of the village where they reside would  not be able to explain what happened. The most logical explanation for the death and destruction was vampires.

During this early time graves were robbed often as well as added to for lack of money and proper buriel rituals. The bodies would be dug up and found to be bloated with blood draining from the mouth. Imagine being someone who not knowing anything of medicine and recent decomposition discoveries, finding that in a grave. I would have thought that they were a vampire! 

There were many ways to avoid vampires. One that is still used today is garlic. Wearing cloves of garlic around your neck and consuming garlic would detract vampires from wanting your blood. Another method was to carry a bag of salt with you in case you were chased by vampires. If by chance you were being chased and hunted you would drop a trail of salt behind you. The vampire would stop to count the grains thus allowing you to escape. (Interesting, this may be why the Count counts!)

During burials, people suspected of being a vampire were staked to the ground so they could not rise in the night and drink blood from villagers. Another method often used was inserting a brick into their jaws before being buried in the ground.

Although, today, we know what happens during decomposition of human bodies, and we no longer stick stakes through the chests of the dead or bricks in the jaws, vampires still never cease to awe us. Whether they glitter in sunlight or burn to a crisp, vampires will live on through the myths and stories of where they came from.


Information on this page can be found http://www.livescience.com/24374-vampires-real-history.html