Ah! Christmas time! The frantic hustle and bustle of the holidays. Parties, decorations, presents, and Santa! But there is one aspect that has been forgotten. Vampires! Long before winter was a brightly lit jolly wonderland it was eternally cold and dark. A time in which people hid behind firmly closed doors and prayed they had enough food and heat to see them through to spring. Howls of hungry wolves cut through the chill air only to be outdone by howling frigid winds. Families told ghost stories and regaled the young ones with tales of valor on the battlefield. Set against this backdrop it is little wonder that in the cold darkness, people feared the vampires who rose from their frozen graves in search of victims this time of year.
Eastern European Dark Christmas
Eastern Europe is to thank for the vampire craze that had “bitten” modern society. Their rich superstitions gave the world revenants who would rise from their dank graves to terrorize the villagers. This morphed into the modern vampire. To this day archaeologists are discovering so called vampire burials and in some locations, the tradition has not died out.
Serbian Unbaptized Days
Everyone is likely familiar with the song the “Twelve Days of Christmas”. However, in Serbia the actual twelve days of Christmas are darker as they are known as the unbaptized days. This was a time in which demonic forces were more active, and people were told to remain home at night. This was especially true for the karakondžula. They would jump on the back of their victims demanding to be carried everywhere only to release them as dawn broke. These creatures were heavy, squat, and very ugly. Luckily, they didn’t drain their victims of blood, only energy.
Albanian Undead
The Kukuth and Karkanxholji are undead corpses who rise from their cold graves in January. Early vampire legends bear striking similarities to modern zombie depictions as they are ragged starving creatures risen from graves. The Albanian undead wander the streets wrapped in chains and exhaling a deadly breath. In some legends the undead wear iron clothing. In folkloric tradition iron holds the power to banish evil so it would make sense that such creatures would have been buried wrapped in iron chains or iron clothing.
Bulgarian Demons
Like many early vampire legends, the Bulgarian karakondjul is a shapeshifter. It can appear to its victims in many different guises including animals. According to legends the demon resides in rivers, caves, or even old water mills. Like most vampire legends the creature only comes out at night. The townsfolk developed a ritual called the kukeri to frighten away the demon. The ritual takes place around the new year and participants don elaborate costumes and wear large bells around their belts.
Christmas Vampires
Vampire legends surrounding Christmas are not confined to Eastern Europe. According to some Italian myths, those born on Christmas Eve were doomed to become vampires. In Greece little demons saw the world tree all year until they get distracted by Christmas and come to the surface to torment humans only to return underground on Epiphany Day (January 6).
Humans have shared their world with vampires for centuries, or maybe it is the other way around. Such tales are not confined to Halloween but have existed as Christmas legends as well. The modern interest in “Creepmas” doesn’t seem too far off from the traditional mark. Christmas has plenty of room for spooky too.
**For more information on the history and legends of vampires please read my book Trails of Blood: Legends of the Vampire. The link for purchase is on our home page.
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