Facts About Vampires – History And Myths

Vampires have the privilege, though younger than many natural and supernatural creatures in cryptozoology, are the most widespread and most represented creatures of the night. Stories about them are found in almost all cultures, including the oldest.

They are mythical creatures that feed on human and animal life force, usually with blood. In the folklore of Eastern Europe that are usually deceased people who get up during the night and drink the blood of their victims, but there are other things depending on the culture, such as bats, dogs, spiders, and most recently Chupacabra.

Cultural differences also define the differences in the characteristics of these creatures, lifestyle, and even the time when they feed. The most widespread is the belief that they feed on the blood of the victims biting in an artery, usually one on the neck, and that they are active only at night, because the sun kills them.

The belief that drinking the blood of an animal takes its strength or other characteristics is as old as man and still be retained in some tribal communities in Africa. On the other hand, the thought among the ancient peoples that the enemy drink your blood, or eating your meat, can detrimentally affect morale in the fight. There are many records about it around the world, whether it’s a heart, liver or blood itself, so it is no wonder that vampires feed the same matter since the blood is a symbol of life.

The oldest record of the bloodsuckers is in the Sumerian culture, about beings Akhkharu, female demons who at night attacked infants or pregnant women. In India, there are stories about Vetal, beings who dig up the graves and take possession of the bodies and terrorizing a nearby village. They are lifeless creatures similar to modern vampires who prefer to hang upside down near the cemetery or crematorium.

In ancient Slavs is most ingrained myth of vampires, where they are the spirits of suicides, criminals and evil wizard, who can sometimes transfer their balances to an innocent victim. They killed their victims by drinking bloodbut also by asphyxiation or sitting on their chest in order to prevent breathing.

They could be killed by beheading, or through the heart with wooden stakes or burning a corpse that has become a vampire. Evidence of vampire act old Slavs saw in the death of cattle, sheep, neighbors and relatives, after someone death were checking dead body searching for signs of the existence of vampires: increased hair or nails (medically proven that they grow, and after the death of a man), the body of the deceased swell up like a drum (also medically proven) and the presence of blood on the lips of the deceased. Then they accessed to breaking the hearts with wooden stakes or beheading.

During the 18th and 19th centuries in New England have appeared documents about families that have excavated their loved ones and burned their hearts because of their belief that they are dead blamed for disease and death in the family.

However, has never used the word vampire for the dead, but deadly tuberculosis or “consumption”.
The most famous and the last recorded case was death of nineteen Mercy Brown, from Rhode Island in 1892. Her father two months after her death, with the help of family doctor has unearthed Mercy, took out her heart and burned it. This event is found later in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.

The belief in vampires is there today, in some cultures preserved in its original form as undead creatures, and in most cases influenced by films and literature. Individual cases which have provoked public attention were recorded in 2002 in the African country of Malawi when the rebellious crowd attacked and stoned four people on suspicion of collaborating with vampires. In Birmingham, England, in 2005, an assailant bitten several people on the street, but the police strongly denied any connection with vampirism.

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