Date: July 31st, 2010
What’s worse than having a birthday during the Christmas holidays? If you live in Greece and your birthday falls between Christmas and New Year’s Day you are ‘feast-blasted’ which is a fancy word for predestined to become a vampire. A callicantzaros is a Greek vampire who tears his victims apart with long fingernails. He can only indulge in his vampire ways during the twelve days of Christmas. Children born during this time are looked upon with fear because they are likely to become creatures who roam the darkness and plague other children unfortunate enough to be born at Christmastime. When American Christmas babies complain that one gift has to do double duty because their birthday is too close to Christmas, make sure to remind them that the consequences of such an untimely birth could be far worse.
Posted by: Kate Jonez
Date: May 5th, 2010
In Hindu folklore, the vetala is an evil spirit who haunts cemeteries and takes demonic possession of corpses. They can drive people mad, kill children, and cause miscarriages. Even though they are primarily evil they also do some good. They fiercely guard their villages.
Posted by: Kate Jonez
Date: March 3rd, 2010
The ubour is a Bulgarian vampire who unlike many of his Hollywood counterparts has some disgusting habits. The ubour has only one nostril and a long, tongue with a barb on the end. In his native Bulgaria he is blamed for freeing cattle and throwing household items. The ubour also has a mean streak. He chokes the living in their sleep and smears dung on everything. He’s been known to eat regular food, but manure is his favorite. The ubour only drinks blood when no other nourishment is available.
Posted by: Kate Jonez
Date: February 16th, 2010
Although it seems strange to us today, in the 18th Century, no one in the West had heard of vampires. Their discovery led to a tremendous uproar in Europe. Early in the century Austria annexed Serbia and much of what is now Bosnia. The people in this foreign land spoke with unusual accents. They had odd customs and strange looking clothes. But strangest of all was their stories. The inhabitants of this mysterious land told tales of corpses that rose from their graves and fed on the living. They told of eating dirt from the vampire’s grave and smearing themselves with its blood to prevent becoming vampires themselves. To European ears this sounded grim, gruesome, and horrific. So of course stories of vampires became all the rage.
In life Arnold Paole was not a remarkable man. He lived along the Turkish border. By the Spring of 1727 he had finished his military service and returned home to his family farm. He worked as a farmer until he fell to his death from a hay wagon. In life Arnold didn’t attract much attention, but in death he became a celebrity of monumental proportions. Arnold Paole was the very first vampire recognized as such by European authorities.
Shortly after Arnold was buried his neighbors began to complain that he visited them in their homes late at night. No information remains about what Arnold did on his nocturnal visits but within a few days the neighbors were dead. These victims too rose up and began to annoy their neighbors. In no time at all, the village was overrun with the undead. The situation grew so dire that the remaining villagers summoned the Austrian authorities.
Five years later the Austrian’s sent Johannes Fluckinger to investigate. He sampled the graveyard dirt, and poked around in the graveyard in search of signs of undead activity. Finally, prodded by the hysterical encouragement of the terrified townspeople, he disinterred the suspected vampires. His findings shocked the world.
Fluckinger with the help of a team of investigators and a a pair Austrian medical examiners opened the coffins of suspected vampires. The first suspected vampire was a woman named of Stana who died in childbirth. She had been buried for two months. Fluckinger found her body complete and undecayed. In his report he claimed – there was found in the cavitate pectoris a quantity of fresh extravascular blood. The vessels of the arteries and veins, like the ventriculis ortis, were not, as is usual, filled with coagulated blood, and the whole viscera, that is, the lung, liver, stomach, spleen, and intestines were quite fresh as they would be in a healthy person. The uterus was however quite enlarged and very inflamed externally, for the placenta and lochia had remained in place, wherefore the same was in complete putredine. The skin on her hands and feet, along with the old nails, fell away on their own, but on the other hand completely new nails were evident, along with a fresh and vivid skin.
The investigators made a similar find when opening the coffin of the 60 year old woman Miliza who had been dead 3 months. The found fresh blood in her chest cavity. Her other viscera were, like Stana before her, in a good condition. During her dissection, all the locals who were standing around marveled at her plump and perfect body. They said that in life she had been thin and dried up but now… she was a corpse hottie?
In opening coffin after coffin the investigators found similar circumstances – fresh blood – plump bodies – nice skin – new fingernails. Vampires every one. The proof was irrefutable. With the blessing of the Austrian government the local authorities hired gypsies to cut off the vampire’s heads and burn their bodies. They then threw the vampire ashes into the Morava river.
Arnold Paole the instigator of all the vampire trouble received extra special treatment. When his coffin was opened investigators found that he was complete and undecayed. Not only did fresh blood flow from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, but his shirt, the fabric he lay on, and the inside of the coffin itself were covered in blood. No doubt – here lay a vampire. Locals drove a stake through Arnold’s heart. At this he groaned and bled copiously, Once their heart rate slowed to a normal tempo the townspeople burned his body and buried his ashes.
The story of Arnold Paole and his minions spread quickly. Before long outbreaks of vampirism cropped up all over Eastern Europe. At every turn a revenant was rising from the dead and creating turmoil. The outbreaks grew to unmanageable proportions. Hoards of vampire slayer roamed the countryside overturning coffins and staking the undead.
The practice of killing vampires became so widespread and disruptive that Empress Maria Theresa of Austria became personally involved. She sent her royal physician to investigate the claims of vampiric activity. In spite of a great deal of evidence to the contrary the doctor concluded that vampires did not exist. Empress Marie Theresa forbade the opening of graves and desecrating of bodies. This proclamation effectively ended the vampire epidemic in Europe. And from the middle of the 18th Century onward vampires have been able to roam the countryside freely no longer impeded by pesky vampire hunters.
Posted by: Kate Jonez
Date: February 3rd, 2010
According to Malaysian folklore a women who dies in childbirth is in danger of becoming Pontianak. (Pontianak means child-bearing ghost). The Pontianak haunts graveyards or old trees. She lures her victims by crying like a baby. At first she appears as a beautiful woman or a lost child, but once her victims are close she transforms into an ugly crone with fangs. Sometimes only her head appears, with entrails dangling from her neck.
The Pontianak is one of the most violent spirits in folklore. Motivated by jealousy, she tears her victims apart with her sharp claws and devours their entrails. Her favorite prey is pregnant women or babies but she occasionally takes her revenge out on men. When attacking men she rips out their sex organs with her hands before slashing them open.
The spirit announces her presence with a cloud of fragrance from the kemboja flower followed by the stench of the grave. She can be tricky though. If her cry is loud she is far away, but if it’s soft she is close by. Pontianak locate their prey by sniffing laundry left outside to dry. Some Malaysians refuse to leave clothing outside.
A sharp nail helps to fend off Pontianak attacks. When a nail is plunged into the back of a Pontianak’s neck, she turn into a beautiful woman. She stays this way until the nail is pulled out.
With the Pontianak prevention is often the best medicine. When a woman dies in childbirth some Malaysians believe in taking precautionary measures to prevent her from turning. Glass beads are placed in the corpse’s mouth to prevent shrieking. Eggs are placed under her armpits and needles in her palms to prevent her from flying.
Should you ever find yourself faced with a Pontianak and all else fails, try reciting this charm.
“O Pontianak the Stillborn,
May you be struck dead by the soil from the grave-mound.
Thus cut the bamboo-joints,
the long and the short,
To cook therein the liver of the Jin Pontianak.
By the grace of ‘There is no god but God,
…etc.
note: I find the etc. at the end of the charm a little troubling and can’t guarantee it’s effectiveness.
Posted by: Kate Jonez
Date: January 19th, 2010
The nora is a Hungarian sprite or imp. When not invisible, he appears as an unusually small bald man who runs on all fours. The nora sucks the breasts of women who are of less than perfect moral character. The nora’s attack makes the women’s breast swell painfully. Covering the affected breasts in garlic cures the swelling and prevents the nora from attacking again.
After an extensive search I was unable to find an image of the nora. If anyone has one, please let me know.
Posted by: Kate Jonez
