Vampires in Bulgarian folklore - protective rituals and precautions

Everyone in Bulgaria has heard scary stories about dangerous vampires since childhood. Today, these dark spirits are familiar to us mainly from the way they are recreated by the authors of novels and especially popular titles in the cinema. However, we must not forget that many scholars and researchers of folklore are researching the appearance of vampires as folklore characters. According to their studies, vampires first appeared in the beliefs of the Slavic peoples, long before Western Europe learned about the existence of Count Dracula.

There have been diverse notions of vampires in Bulgarian lands ever since the 9th century. According to the most common beliefs, vampires live in the grave, leaving it after sunset through an open hole. Since a vampire has no bones and is a spirit, he can enter through any crack, even a door lock. Most often, he returns to the house he lived in during his lifetime, doing various mischief - knocking on the ceiling, breaking dishes, spilling pitchers, killing livestock and drinking their blood.

Today, the belief in vampires still exists and in some places in Bulgaria one can even hear stories from older times about rituals and experiences related to the expulsion of vampires. Dr. Viktoria Basham, an ethnographer from Salisbury University, USA, has returned to Bulgaria especially to study the topic of vampires in Bulgarian folklore.

Dr. Basham arrived in Bulgaria at the beginning of this year with a scholarship under the Fulbright program to collect and systematize all sources on the topic.

"The Bulgarian Folk Vampire" is also the focus of many lectures and presentations, which bring together the researcher from the USA with her colleagues from the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. According to her, the exorcism of vampires is a very important part of Bulgarian tradition, but it is already forgotten and quite distorted in people's minds. And the reason lies in the influences coming from the West, which recreate the idea of fearful creatures. In an interview for Radio Bulgaria the young researcher shared more about the huge interest that the "folklore vampire" attracts both here and around the world:

"I covered a wide range of characteristics of the Bulgarian vampire - what it does, what it looks like, why it becomes a vampire, how we can protect ourselves from it. I worked actively with the archival materials of the Folklore Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and mainly with the archives of Georgi Bonchev. I collected 396 records and primary sources for the "Bulgarian folklore vampire". There are many stories of the so-called eyewitnesses, stories of beliefs, folk tales, we have folk songs, many interesting oaths related to the topic. The final part of the project is a fact, a digital platform is already created which gives an extensive description of the Bulgarian folklore vampire. It is in Bulgarian and English and gives those interested in the topic a link to many useful sources. There are 12 original illustrations made by the artist Miroslav Bonov (Mibo), created based on real stories and descriptions of vampires."

On this digital bilingual map, Dr. Basham has marked all the geographical locations from which she drew sources and records. They are accompanied by useful information that the reader can access with just one click on a marked location on the map. Dr. Basham discovers that people in the past did believe in vampires, they were afraid of them, and one of the main reasons was to protect themselves from dangers. And more from the ethnographer's observations:

"One of the main reasons that led to a person becoming a vampire was that people who lived immorally, who had irregularities in their lives, become like that. Who are these bad people and what punishment follows for them, this is a question that is answered in our folklore and thus the moral values and traditions in the folk psychology of the Bulgarians are established. Also, limits and norms of behavior are set to protect the living from vampires. For this purpose, prohibitions were created not to go out late at night and to go to deserted places, not to answer if someone calls your name in the dark and a number of other similar things that served as a compass for society, so that they knew what was right and protected themselves from dangers. So the vampire also performs this protective function."

"The Bulgarian folklore vampire" is one of the most resilient, multi-layered and interesting creatures in the entire folklore tradition. The image of the vampire here reveals the worldview, beliefs and ritual practices of our people. Until the middle of the 20th century, people very strictly observed rituals to protect themselves against the possibility of someone turning into a vampire after the end of their days. What does this suggest to scientists? - more from Dr. Basham:

"We have a huge variety of preventive measures so that the dead body does not become a vampire, and precautions in case we already have a vampire. In many parts of the country, these rituals continue to be observed to this day, even if they are not directly related to the topic of vampires. So the image that shows us not only the worldview of the Bulgarian people, but also combines interesting facts, views and trends related to the history, culture and beliefs of the different ethnic groups in our country, this is the vampire in Bulgarian folklore."

Photos: Gergana Mancheva, bnt.bg
English publication: R. Petkova

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Vampires in Bulgarian folklore - protective rituals and precautions

Dr. Basham from the university of Salisbury, USA, is looking into the topic

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