Since Halloween is coming up and all that I decided to do my usual vampire article. Partly because that they are the easiest for me to type up. In southern European countries it was believed that Saturday was the most likely day to trap vampires. One way was to send a young boy on a black horse and the horse will avoid the grave of a vampire, usually the burial site of someone excommunicated or that of a suicide. To find the footsteps of a vampire one must toss ashes or salt on the ground which will reveal the footsteps of the undead. To see a blue light may lurk near a vampire’s grave. In some folklore the vampire will change into a blue orb or dancing or a dancing light. But to be fair fairies are said to change into a blue light and ditty bop about in the Halloween night or Christmas. In Greece painting the doorways and windows was believed to keep out vampires and other evil spirits out. Similar practices can be found in Brazil. Then that old standby of vampires casting no reflection and sometimes no shadow. With the more physical nature of the vampire in mainstream entertainment So modern vamps usually have shadows or cast reflections. Lesser known is the casting of seeds and grain on a grave which would force the vampire to count each granule and distract it long enough till the sun wouild rise. Then the undead would be forced to jump back into it’s grave. In some parts of the world, notably in the Caribbean, the grain ritual had the rice and other grain was tossed in front of the front door challenging the vampire to count each piece of grain again distracting the undead till sunrise and then forcing it tojump back into its grave. Tie knots in a rope or string will also confuse the dead and they will spend all of their precious time trying to un-tie the knots. Makes vampires seem a lot less scary then their cinematic counterparts. And on a similar note, the latest issue of Night til Dawn is available. http://www.bloodredshadows.com . And so it goes.
