Mystery of Vampires - Are they Real?

The term Vampire has macabre, occult, superstition and horror connotations. Needless to say they are fictional entities and not real. Notion of Vampirism has been there for millennia. All cultures like mesepotamians, Hebrews, Greeks and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which were versions of modern day Vampires. Idea of Vampire originates from literature of many European Countries like United Kingdom, France, Germany and elsewhere.

Originally from Folklore, Vampires are perceived to be undead creatures which feed off a living creature, generally by sucking its blood. Vampire’s diet is human blood. They are believed to be animated corpses revived from death of evil beings, witch and suicide victims to haunt the living. They can also be products of a Vampire biting a corpse or a malevolent processing of corpse.

Vampires are not in the realm of the living. They are kind of neither here nor there. They are thought to visit their neighbourhoods when they lived and brought to cause mischief, harm and death. They are depicted as wearing shrouds, bloated and purplish or dark in appearance. Existence of Vampire is a matter of belief system in various cultures, but it can cause mass hysteria and even execution of innocent people believed to be the incarnation of vampires. Ignorance of decomposition cycle after death is mainly responsible for the belief system.

Vampires also figure in the North American, South American, Indian and Asian Folklore. The commonality in all belief systems is Vampires’ thirst for blood. Sterling o Blivion a 20^th century vampire character drinks blood to become and remain young and attractive for eternity. Mr Smith of “Blood Brother” is disgusted with his compulsive blood sucking and the cruel acts he commits but says he is helpless and has an uncontrollable urge to do what he does. Count Chocula on pre-sweetened cereal or Bunnicula the vampire draining the juices from the vegetables would be Children’ favourite Vamapire characters.

 Adults might mention Count Erotica, a sexy female vampire. Count Dracula is the quintessential Vampire par excellence, dark brooding, powerful and sensual. Dracula is an attractive figure unlike the vampires in the folklore and has entered the popular imagination of people. It resembles a bat more than a human being. Mariam Beautiful, cultured and intelligent is another attractive Vampire character. From the 1981 book The Hunge, Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary. Mercy Brown of Rhode Island and Baobahn Sith of Scottish literature are also popular Vamparic names.

Vampire along with ghosts, ghouls, witches, spirits are part of the horror genre used during Halloween. Perhaps it is the thirst for dark, gory appetite of humans that has given rise to vampire.

The rational and the scientific world do not recognise the existence of Vampire. Despite this they continue to live on in artistic works and folklore. Incidentally anti drone missile of USA is called Vampire.