Yep pigs are what I’m going to talk about today.
Killing a pig on October 17 -the feast day of St. Ignacius- and smearing the pigs blood on your body will keep vampires away from you.
Smearing pig lard on the corpse is believed to keep it from becoming a vampire.
Why?
Wallachian lore says vampires prefer to shape-shift into a pig.
According to eastern European folklore a vampire’s blood is magically potent and very dangerous.
When vampires were exhumed to be staked or cut up, the living had to be extra careful not to get sprayed.
It was believed that the living would go insane or die instantly.
Vampire corpses were covered, before staking to protect the living. On lookers stood at a distance.
Vampire blood would be used as a charm or amulet, and as a curse.
A common belief was a vampire’s blood could heal. Vampire victims would cover themselves with a vampire’s blood or drink it. To be released from the curse.
Yes! Drink Vampire’s Blood.
According to accounts this remedy didn’t work. Those who tried this remedy only became vampires themselves.
Another way to cure vampirism is with ashes.
Commonly found in Europe and Asia. Dog rose is a bushy plant with pink or white flowers and thorny branches.
The area has added dog rose into its vampire lore. Gathering the petals and throwing the blooms and at a vampire will force it to stop and count them.
You can also string the blooms up and wrap the garland around a coffin to keep a vampire from rising.
What does a butterfly have to do with vampires?
Well not a lot, but they are connected.
In Slavic lore the soul takes the shape of a butterfly when it leaves the body. Not only during death, but also during sleep, and out of body experiences.
The soul can also take the shape of a moth, fly or bird.
When vampire corpses are staked, onlookers watch for the butterfly or moth to escape. If a butterfly is seen it must be captured. The captured butterfly is thrown into a bonfire; this will completely destroy the vampire. If the butterfly escapes, seven years of vengeance awaits the villages.
Most Slavic vampires hold grudges!
Australia’s Aboriginal people have a vampire creature in their lore. This vampire spirit is called a Mrart. It believed the mrart is a restless spirit of a community member.
Their powers are strongest at night. It goes to campfires and pulls its victim from the light of the campfire.
Aborigines believe the mrart and other spirits can pocesses a body, even while the body’s original spirit still resides within. To make sure the body of a deceased person never rises again, Aborigines tie rocks to the corpse when placed in the grave. Sometimes the limbs are broken.
The deceased’s belongings are destroyed and their personal campsite is never used again.
German Vampire lore has an evil vampire spirit, The Unholde, which translates to mean “the one that is not good or beautiful.”
The Unholde acts out against mankind, especially Christians.
It abducts its victims, cuts out their hearts, then cooks and eats it. A new heart is made of wood, and its placed inside the corpse.
A magical ceremony is preformed to reanimate the corpse. The Unholde was traditionally considered to be a magical practioner- or hexe. The word hexe come to mean a human magical practioner in the late 17th century, by the early 18thcentury it was used to mean witch.
In Ancient Hebrew Aluka meant leech (Haemopsis Sanguisuga). In Proverbs 30:15, it’s translated to horseleech. In Arabic (Aluka) means to hang to. In Syria and Israel there is a leech that attacks to a horses neck while it drinks from a stream.
The Aluka is known for attaching to the skin and not being removable until death. Some Bible scholars in the 19th century offered the interpretation of Aluka being a mythological vampire creature a Hebrew version of Arabia’s ghoul, which sucked blood and dined on the flesh of the dead. Contemporary scholars don’t believe this as a viable option.
Mari Wells 