Vampires are very popular in our culture, in I guess just about everyone's culture, all over the world there are different variations on vampire-like creatures in mythology and superstition; but they're also very big as we all know in movies, books and even TV series'. Probably everybody in the world knows about them, and yet...what do we know about them?

We know the cliches, they drink blood, they sleep in coffins, they hate garlic, they're killed in sunlight, etc., but it turns out some of the most used of these cliches are the exception and not the rule to how vampires are supposed to be. For instance, originally it was very few ideas that vampires slept in coffins and that sunlight killed them, instead the popular idea was just that they were sensitive to the sunlight...another thing is that they cannot drink wine and whiskey, but I have still yet to hear anybody explain WHY this is, and what about beer and vodka? Another, the BIG one, drinking blood was originally supposed to be a last resort when no food was available, not the vampire's whole diet. But at the same time, I've never been able to find out what constitutes as food for a vampire.

There are other things I wonder about, I think Bram Stoker originated the line of a vampire can't come into your house without being invited first, why? I don't get that one, does anyone else?

Quote :

A person's home is his sanctuary and automatically gives him some protection against outside demonic influences, which is why the vampire cannot enter without an invitation. Once invited once, however, the gateway has been opened and the vampire is free to come and go as he pleases.
Source(s):
Spence, Lewis (1960). An Encyclopaedia of Occultism. New Hyde Parks: University Books.

Alan Smithee wrote:

A person's home is his sanctuary and automatically gives him some protection against outside demonic influences, which is why the vampire cannot enter without an invitation. Once invited once, however, the gateway has been opened and the vampire is free to come and go as he pleases.
Source(s):
Spence, Lewis (1960). An Encyclopaedia of Occultism. New Hyde Parks: University Books.

On True Blood you can rescind the invitation & they get sucked out of your house like a giant cosmic vacuum just got plugged in.

CeCe wrote:

On True Blood you can rescind the invitation & they get sucked out of your house like a giant cosmic vacuum just got plugged in.

LOL Didn't Sookie do that to Bill or Eric? Hoyt did it to Jessica too didn't he?

Ill have to do some research about what they can and can't eat. I remember Anne Rice in her Vampire Chronicles explained the whole process I just don't remember it all. In Vampire Diaries the Vampires drink alcohol all the time and they walk in the daylight because they wear a special ring that enables them to do so.

Let's face it. They can make this shit up as they go along.

Tony Marino wrote:

LOL Didn't Sookie do that to Bill or Eric? Hoyt did it to Jessica too didn't he?

Sookie did it to both. Hoyt thew Jessica out & then Jason rescinded his invitation too lol

Alan Smithee wrote:

Let's face it. They can make this shit up as they go along.

Exactly! There was actually someone on one of the True Blood boards who was complaining about the show not being an accurate depiction.

Who cares we still enjoy the shows as they are written, gives them a different twist from what is considered the norm.

In Romania vampire legends became popular when someone would "see the walking dead" and relatives would go and open the the casket. The gasses in the stomach would bloat the stomach and blood would spew out of the mouth. Making it look as though the corpse had just eaten something bloody. The nail beds would decay and retreat looking like claws that had grown. The natural decomposition process caused this fear. So relatives would stake the body into the coffin in an attempt to nail the corpse down and keep it from getting up again. This is the true story of the romanian vampire

There's also an actual condition some people are born with that makes them HIGHLY allergic to the sun. I can't remember the name but it goes by XP - it's some latin name or something like that. Children who are diagnosed with it can get severe sunbruns from only minimal exposure and will often have to stay out of the sunlight. They can come out at night. I remember reading a book years ago that said this disorder might also have contributed to the vampire legends.

TSJFan4Ever wrote:

There's also an actual condition some people are born with that makes them HIGHLY allergic to the sun. I can't remember the name but it goes by XP - it's some latin name or something like that. Children who are diagnosed with it can get severe sunbruns from only minimal exposure and will often have to stay out of the sunlight. They can come out at night. I remember reading a book years ago that said this disorder might also have contributed to the vampire legends.

The kids in The Others were supposed to have that condition... i remember what ur talking about. also anemics would look pale... cause they didnt have the vitamin or always have meat available to give them the iron they needed

wants2laugh wrote:

The kids in The Others were supposed to have that condition... i remember what ur talking about. also anemics would look pale... cause they didnt have the vitamin or always have meat available to give them the iron they needed

I thought the kids in the Others were only supposed to be photosensitive.

Anyway, I've heard of that condition, don't remember the name, I remember it was mentioned in an episode of SVU, but it also kind of sounds like being an albino.


Oh, and in response to the post about how they dealt with the corpses...I read in a book at the library that scientists recently found a skeleton from about the 1500s, of a woman, who died and people thought she was a vampire so they jammed a BRICK in between her jaws so she couldn't bite her way out of the grave, can you believe it?

Oh, but have you heard the story of Mercy Brown? Or maybe it was Mary Brown, the name changes so much...she died and people thought she was a vampire and somebody she supposedly attacked was sick, so they dug up her grave, cut out her heart, cooked it into ashes and had the guy eat them because that was supposedly supposed to heal him, but he still died anyway...it's amazing the things people believed in times past, to say nothing of frightening.