Vampires

Vampires are this week's theme! Most teenage girls, if asked, would say that they want to meet a vampire and fall in love. That's just today's messed up society. In the 1920's, this was what a vampire looked like:

I wouldn't want to date that. . .seriously, who decided whether vampires are drop dead gorgeous or ugly corpses? Technically speaking, the original myth says reanimated corpses that must drink blood to live. Demons are mentioned, but the bodies are always dead. Why is that? Another thing that has changed in the myth is the traits of vampires. Pale skin, no reflections, fangs, allergy to garlic --- I'm not even sure what would kill a vampire now. Stakes are always a good choice though. Sadly, vampirism isn't real. In the fourteen hundreds, plague was a big issue. Anyone with Porphyria, a blood disease, could be considered a vampire because the disease paled their skin and made them sensitive to light. Rabies was also a major issue back then. This caused insomnia, strange behaviors, and delirium. Conveniently enough, a rabies epidemic broke out around the time of Dracula.

I'm going to tell you a short version of Vlad Tepes's (Dracula) life. Everyone thought he was a vampire because of his torturous ways. I think he honestly loved to kill people or watch them suffer. His favorite way to kill was by impaling his victims on stakes. That's how he received the nickname "Vlad, the Impaler". He also used methods of killing like skinning, boiling, decapitating, blinding, strangling, hanging, burning, roasting, being hacked, nailed, buried alive, and/or stabbed. Not the best ruler, but his kingdom followed the laws extremely well. He ruled until his death at the age of 45.

"Vampire legends have existed all around the world. Granted, in different forms and shapes and ways, but it can be expected that different vampires from different regions differed in their appearances. For example, vampires from Bulgaria had only one nostril; whereas, those from Transylvania were pale and were said to have long fingernails. In Chinese Culture, it was believed that if a cat or dog jumped over a dead body, the body would turn into an undead. In Russian folklore, vampires were witches who once rebelled against the church, when they were alive. In Egyptian mythology, Goddess Sekhmet was said to be blood thirsty, which could be a possible relationship to vampirism."
The first account of a blood sucking creature was from Persia. The vampires would visit their living relatives and cause mischief around their old home and neighborhood.

I think people are drawn towards vampires because we all fear death. Even if you are saved and going to heaven, you don't want to die. Vampires are immortal and never have to face the uncertainty that comes to most people when presented with death. Our society promotes beliefs like this when they reshape myths and release them to the younger, susceptible generations.


*I don't believe real vampires exist, there are crazy people out there though. Next week is Zombies!!!