Old Beliefs...

 

When the first Vampire stories began to circulate around 125 AD, they were Greek. The legends of Vampires originated in the far East, and later migrated to the west with caravans along the silk route to the Mediterranian. They continued to spread into the Slavic lands and the Carpathian  Mountains. The Slavic peoples developed the richest vampire legends in the world. By the 8th century, Christianity had began to spread, and Vampires survived only as myth. When the Gypsies began to move westward from northern India, and their myths about Vampires mingled with those of the Slavic peoples.

The Gypsies arrived in Transylvania shortly before Vlad Tepes was born in 1431. The vampire here was the ghost of a dead person, which in most cases had been a witch, mage or a surcider. Vampires were feared because they killed, and through the killing created mor eof their own kind. They looked like ordinary people, but they did not have a shadow, a reflection, and they could change into a bat, this made them impossible to catch. By day they slept in their coffins because the suns rays were deadly to them, but by night they drank humen blood. The Vampire would fly through a window in the shape of a bat, and then bite the victim in the neck so it could suck the victom dry of blood. The vampires could not enter a house if they had not been invited, but if they were, they could re-enter as often as they wished. The slavic Vampire could kill, and by killing, could create more of its own kind. Only special rites could kill a Vampire, such as a stake through the heart, or chopping their head off and then burning the body.

Here are some Old Beliefs...

If vampires are not detected and they climb into the belfry of the church, they can either

• Call out names of villagers (who will instantly die)
• Ring the death knell and anyone who hears it dies on the spot

If a vampire goes undetected for 7 years they can go to another country or place where a different language is spoken and become human again. They can never remarry but when they die the whole family becomes vampires (kids for first time & parent(s) again) There are 2 kinds of Vampire: the spirit of a dead person or a corpse reanimated by his own or another person (ie ethereal or physical) In some traditions, staking a vampire must be done IN ONE BLOW to do it right.

Here are some other Old Beliefs...

• In Eastern Europe, Vampires are said to have two hearts or two souls; since one heart, or one soul, never dies, the vampire remains undead.
• Criminals, bastards, magicians, excommunicated people, those born with teeth or a caul, and unbaptized children can all become vampires. The seventh son of a seventh son is doomed to become a vampire.
• Any person who does not eat garlic or who expresses a distinct aversion to garlic is suspected of being a vampire.
• Vampires can strike people dumb. They can steal one's beauty and strength, or milk from nursing mothers.
• In Romania, peasants believe that the vampires and other spectres meet on St Andrew's Eve at a place where the cuckoo does not sing and the dog does not bark.
• Vampires are frightened of light, so one must build a good fire to ward them off, and torches must be lit and placed outside the houses.
• Vampires can enter homes through chimneys and keyholes. So to protect oneself, chimney and keyholes should be rubbed with garlic and windows and doors as well. To protect your farm animals, you should also rub them with garlic.
• Crosses made from the thorns of wild roses are effective in keeping the vampire away.
• Spread thorns or poppy seeds on the paths leading to the village from the churchyard. Since Vampires are honor bound to pick up every one of them, it may delay them to the point of not being able to reach the village before sunrise.
• Take a large black dog and paint an extra set of eyes on his forehead with white paint. This alienates vampires.
• If a cat or other "evil" animal jumps or flies over someone's dead body before it is buried, or if the shadow of a man falls upon the corpse, the deceased may become a vampire.
• If the dead body is reflected in a mirror, the reflection helps the spirit to leave the body and become a vampire.
• One of the most common ways to locate a vampire was to choose a boy or girl, young enough to be a virgin, and seat them on a horse of a solid color, which also had to be a virgin, and had never stumbled, then lead the animal through a cemetery, over all the graves. If it refused to pass over a grave, a vampire was thought to lie there.
• Usually the tombs of vampires have one or more holes, large enough for a serpent may pass through.
• If a vampire is not found and rendered harmless, then it will first kill all members of its immediate family, then start in on the other villagers and animals.
• The vampire cannot stray too far from its grave since it must return by sunrise.

How to Kill or Repel a Vampire

• Drive a stake through its body and into the earth in order to hold him securely in his grave. The stake should be made from a wild rosebush, or an ash or asp tree. In some areas, red-hot iron rather than wood is used for the stake. Then the body should be burned or reburied at a crossroads (to confuse it). 
• Vampires can be repelled or harmed by religious symbols. (Crosses, holy water, etc.) This is widely believed because vampires are considered evil, and, naturally, good repels evil. This belief begun in the 1800's with the church as a way to strengthen their members.
• Vampires can be repelled by garlic or wolvesbane. Since Vampires are rotting corpses, they smell bad, and it was well believed that something that smelled worse would repel it.
• Vampires cannot cross water. When water is still, it reflects the same as a mirror would.
• Cut off its head or take its heart. The organs which are needed in order to survive are the brain and heart, so if you separate either of them from the rest of the body, the Vampirehas no chance of surviving.

Some Traditions

• Turning mirrors around at Funerals. Some places in Europe the custom of pouring all standing water out of containers and turning mirrors around in the house when a someone dies because they thought the dead person could stare at you, calling you into death with them.
• Closing the Eyes of the Dead. Originally, this was done in order to keep the dead from hypnotizing and calling you into the spiritual world.
• Headstones. Headstones were once placed above buried caskets to keep the dead underground in case they were a vampire. They were placed directly over the persons head. The angels carved on the headstone help the spirit have a safe, non-return trip to Heaven.
• Mourning Clothes. (Commonly black) Mourning clothes wore to funerals and during mourning time was thought to deceive the spirit into not recognizing its loved ones. By doing this, the spirit could not take them to the spirit world.

The Greeks Believe:

• Stillborns or people who died without receiving baptism become Vampires.
• People conceived or born on a holy day become Vampires.
• People who died excommunicated from their homes become Vampires.
• People who died as heretics or apostates become Vampires.
• People who led sinful lives and then died become Vampires.
• People who practiced sorcery or witchcraft and then die become Vampires.
• When an animal jumps over a someones corpse before burial, this person becomes a Vampire.
• People who did not receive a proper religious burial become a Vampire.
• People who eat the flesh of an animal killed by a Vampire become a Vampire.
• People who died as the Vampire's victim, espececilly when vampires were blamed for a plague or an epidemic of disease, become a Vampire.

Other Countries Beliefs:

• Some Serbs believed that a vampire could take the form of a butterfly.
• A tribe in Montenegro believed that the undead spent part of their unlife in wolf-form.
• Gypsies and Serbs believed the undead were often invisible to most people.

Romanian Vampires and the Eclipse:

• In the past, people of Romania used to believe that the disappearance of the sun was caused by the creatures of the dead, and that when such an event would happen the vampires would walk the earth.

Lifestyle of the Vampire According to Hollywood and Authors:

According to books and movies, Vampires are a social race with a working hierarchy. The Head Vampire, also known as the Master Vampire, is usually the eldest amongst their kind and in some way is responsible for the turning of all other Vampires beneith it; it is also the most difficlt to kill of all its race. In most literature, Vampires appear to hold high status in human society. They are depicted as royalty or owners of their own corporations, and are rarely given low status unless their undead lives take an unexpected turn.

During the day, certain humans, who were chosen by groups of Vampires, will protect them while they sleep, securing their bodies from Vampire hunters. (Daytime is the ideal time to hunt a Vampire because their powers are weakened by sunlight)  Some of these humans will willlingly give themselves to the vampires as nurishment; the Vampires will drink from them, leaving their bodies barely sustained for continued life. The Vampires will then wait until the humans regain enough blood, at which time the Vampires will drink from them again, repeating the cycle.

While the humans protect them, a Vampire will sleep in its casket in order to rest and regain its strength. The reason for the use of the casket is unknown, but the idea of its use was introduced in Bram Stoker's famous novel, Dracula, and other authors followed his lead. Also introduced in this novel was the idea that a Vampire must rest in the soil from its homeland or a graveyard. This idea is upheld in many Vampire novels and movies, but in some the Vampire posseses the ability to walk in daylight, the only drawback being a reduction in its powers. There is one movie which I know of, however, where the Vampire can walk in daylight, but only with the help of a special cross; this movie is John Carpenters Vampires.

 

The Vampire and the Bat...

How did Vampires and bats become linked? There are no vampire bats in Europe. Well, bats are associated with night just like vampires, and Vampire bats are marvelously versatile. They fly, walk, swiftly dodge and turn somersaults. The Vampire Bat usually attacks animals rather then people, and it knows how to not wake its victim. The vampire bat exists solely on blood. It licks a spot on the flesh and inserts its two fron incisor teeth and licks up the blood as it spurts out. It sounds just like Dracula when he drains the blood from his victoms.