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The Truth Behind Halloween Legends

© Debbie St. Germain

Last week we talked about vampire bats and how their name originated from the vampire legends in Europe. Legends of vampires have been circulating for thousands of years, long before Bram Stoker created Count Dracula. You may be wondering, "What does this have to do with science?"

Several legends and myths are based on real scientific events. For instance, people have reported seeing ghosts roaming the local graveyards. Many of these graveyards were built in or near swamps. The "ghostly" lights people saw in the graveyards are known as will-o'-the-wisps. These lights are actually produced by methane, given off by bacteria and microorganisms as waste. To a person walking past a graveyard in the dark of night with an overactive imagination, these lights may appear as ghostly apparitions.

One of the first accounts of vampirism came during the great plagues. Early medicine was not an exact science. Physicians had no real way to tell when a person was dead, except that they looked dead. They had no knowledge of comas or narcolepsy, diseases that can cause people to fall into deep periods of sleep. To an untrained person, this would look like death.

When rumor of vampires would start to circulate, the suspected person would be unearthed. Finding the person with long, bloody fingernails and their clothes and position altered was enough to confirm the villagers' believe in vampires. In fact, it is possible these poor people had been buried while in a coma.

During these times many people were impoverished, leading to homelessness. A lot of these people took sanctuary in graveyards and crypts, only coming out to beg for money or food. Picture that scene: people coming out of the cemeteries, their arms outstretched, walking slowly towards you, ( Poverty also led to deficiencies, which led to deformities and crippling ). That scene was more than enough to lay the foundation for myths about the undead.

One explanation for why people believed in the myths of vampires and werewolves are the diseases in the porphyria family. People with this disorder suffer excessive redness of the eyes, skin, and teeth; along with a receding upper lip, cracking of the skin which leads to bleeding on the mouth area, and severe blistering of the skin when it is exposed to sunlight. To treat the disorder, some physicians would advise patients to stay indoors during the day. Others had their patients drink blood to replace the blood lost from bleeding. Another problem for people with certain types of porphyrias is that they must avoid certain chemicals, including the ingredients in garlic. You can see how a person with these symptoms would be a great cause of fear to the medically ignorant, who watched in horror as the person's skin, "melted right before their eyes from exposure to the sun," and why garlic was thought of as a charm against vampires.

The copyright of the article The Truth Behind Halloween Legends in Science for Kids is owned by Mary M. Alward. Permission to republish The Truth Behind Halloween Legends in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.