From vampires to werewolves and zombies: the myths that come back to haunt every Halloween

Newsroom 26/10/2018 | 09:27

Various superstitions and fantasies can be found across the world,  but have you ever wondered about the origin of the scary characters you meet each year around Halloween? The team at momondo.ro has selected six of the world’s most celebrated characters, whose scary looks make their way around the world every Halloween, and revealed their history.

Vampires: Dracula – Romania

Legends of vampires that suck people’s blood have survived over thousands of years as they were passed from generation to generation, but none of these legends is as well-known and ancient than that of the noble Count Dracula. Most of the popularity can be credited to Bram Stoker, the author of the novel Dracula in 1897, because he created the artistic expression of the medieval myth of the non-earthly aristocrat in Romania.

Stoker was inspired by the story of Vlad Dracul, the ruler of Wallachia in the 15th century. He lived in the Bran Castle in Transylvania for a while, and his cruel practices of impaling prisoners of war gave him the reputation of “The King”.

Although Bran Castle in Moeciu is the place where most travelers go to feel the spirit of Count Dracula, there’s another place in Brasov county where you should stop on the way to Bran, Urlatoarea Waterfall, from the Bucegi National Park. It is said that Urlatoarea was once the most beautiful girl in the region, whom two brothers fell in love with. As she couldn’t decide, the young woman fled to the mountains, letting the two handsome men wrestle to death. When she heard the news that both had died, the girl dropped from a cliff and turned into what we now know as the Urlatoarea Waterfall.

Moreover, the legend also refers to the bodies of the two brothers, who turned themselves into the mountains Jepul Mare and Jepul Mic.  

Frankenstein’s Monster – Switzerland

The strange beast revived from the dead by Doctor Victor Frankenstein is another character in classical literature, authored by 18-year-old Mary Shelley in 1816.

Shelley confessed that the idea of ​​the novel, considered the first to open the way to science fiction (SF), came to her in a dream she had spent a rainy summer on the banks of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. It was not until 1931 that the film by director Boris Karloff gave the monster the grotesque and bloody face we know today.

Mummies – Egypt

There is nothing supernatural about the mummies of ancient Egypt. In fact, the pharaohs considered death as the Great Passing, not something you should be afraid of, and hence the whole suite of rituals and ceremonies. However, the idea of ​​cursed mummies is rather the obsessive culture of Victorian Occultism.

In 1922, near Luxor in Egypt, explorer Howard Carter discovered the tomb of the martyred pharaoh Tutankhamun, along with gold objects over 3,000 years old. When he returned home to the UK, the press and public opinion exploded.

Later, the sponsor of the expedition, Lord Carnavaron, fell ill and died. So the rumors about a supposed curse have spread, turning fire to articles in newspapers and publications. The myth of the pharaoh’s curse perpetuated even though Carter himself lived to deep old age.

Though nowadays we believe that the mummies are ambulatory corpses of the pharaohs, who rise from the dead and walk with their arms stretched forward, the real mummies were so well wrapped that they would even wake from their sleep of death, hinder or roll, under no circumstances could he walk in the streets.

Werewolves – Greece

Surprisingly or not, the first written mention of werewolves dates back to the 1st century AD. The ancient Greeks wrote allegorical stories of men who, either because of a curse or affinity, changed their human face.

The official term for the change of form is licantropia, from the Greek word lykos (wolf) and anthropos (man). The most famous story is the mythological King Lycaeon, who, doubting Zeus’s all-powerful power, brought him meat-tasting dishes to test his divine powers. As a punishment for his blasphemy, the king was condemned to a solitary and cannibal existence as a werewolf.

Mount Lykaion, from the Arcadia region of Greece, was named after the unfortunate king and means Wolf Mountain.

Witches – United States of America

Belief in magical rituals has grown as part of human existence since the times when our ancestors gathered around the barely discovered fire. In the struggle between good and evil in Christian religion, witchcraft was seen without the right to appeal as being in connection with the worship of the devil, and it did not take too long since the West has widespread a true witch hunt.

The fiercest place of the persecutions was Salem, where in the seventeenth century true trials and condemnations against witchcraft were held. It all began in this Massachusetts colony when a community girl presented symptoms of violent twitching and screaming, and doctors rushed to give her the diagnosis of witchcraft. Other victims soon followed. Finally, before admitting in the community that the trial was a mistake, over 200 people were accused of practicing black magic and twinning with the devil.

Today, Salem is a city worth visiting for witchcraft-related things. In spite of its dark past, the Salem police car logos are also represented by witches riding on broomsticks.

Zombie – Haiti

Named after creole people (zonbi) in Haiti, this character has roots in African-Caribbean folklore. It was believed, and still is believed, that the zombie is a man who rose from the grave. The supposed magical return to life of a corpse was considered a punishment, for which it was not given free will or ability to speak.

However, today’s zombies – the terrible people eating out of cemeteries – are rather the result of Hollywood culture, not that of Haiti. George A. Romero, horror director of Night of the Living Dead, is considered the father of the modern zombie character. Today we are a little bit more accustomed to the look of these terrifying creatures awakened from the dead, but when the film was released in 1968, the audience was really shocked.

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