Vampires are folkloric and mythological beings who subsist by feeding on the blood of living creatures. In folkloric tales, vampires often visited loved ones and caused harm or deaths in the places they selected for their residence.

The modern legend of Vampires started in Romania around the 16th century. Many people traveling through Eastern Europe reported sightings and encounters with Vampires. Stories of the Vampire go back in the early history of civilization, back to ancient civilizations such as the Babylonians, the Aztecs and the Chinese. These stories spread rapidly throughout the entire old Europe, a continent already plagued with lots of superstitious beliefs at the time.

Different cultures have different myths about the vampires. For instance, Europeans believe that the vampire is a dead, twisted and dilapidated zombie creature. In America, it is a different story, made up directly from Hollywood. The vampire is sensual, sophisticated and desirable.

And thanks to the famous novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, today, everyone knows this vampire. The image is in the mind of every man, woman and child in the western world.

Dracula was actually based on a true Romanian Prince named Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler as people also knew him. Vlad was born in 1431 in Transylvania into a noble family. His father was called Dracul, meaning dragon or devil in Romanian because he belonged to the Order of the Dragon, which fought the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Dracula means son of Dracul in Romanian. The name Tepes is also reported to mean “the impaler” He was born as the son of the prince of Wallachia. He, as his father, spent most of his life fighting the Ottoman Empire preventing the invasion of his country. The Turks later were afraid of Dracula because the severity of his acts. Vlad III was known as the impaler because that is how he killed many of his opponents by using his favorite method of piercing them on a sharp pole. There is never any mention of Vlad the III being a Vampire, just a sadistic ruler. Vlad was a hero to his people, even though his methods of his punishment were so severe. But he helped defeat the Turks and kept them out of Romania for many years.

Even though vampires are fictional creatures, the Vampire Halloween Costume is one of the most popular costumes during the Halloween season.

The cartoon animation below “Mina and the Count” is an animated television series created by Rob Renzetti, which was never brought into development as a full-fledged series. Instead, animated shorts of this series aired on What a Cartoon! and Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Despite much demand by fans to get it shown as an official series, Frederator Studios president, Fred Seibert confirmed there is currently no development of this.

Check it out below:

Halloween Costumes

• August 25, 2010 -- Scary Halloween Costumes (0)