Vampires in Slavic spiritism

The existence of superstitions is not common in any culture. Consequently, superstitions about vampires are also not uncommon. Superstition about vampires mainly originates from Slavic spiritism. The roots of this belief in vampires are based on pre-Christian practices and the concept of life after death. The practices would include ancestral worship and belief of the soul after death. The complex spiritualism so practiced by the Slavs actually gave rise to the idea of ​​ghosts and spirits after death. The mere existence of the spirit after death would lead to the belief that the spirit can return to haunt the living.

Spirits were part of the Slavic spirit systems. And vampires would take a shape from that. These spirits were part of the procedures that living human beings would undertake to maintain peace with evil spirits. Benevolent spirits would help humans and also protect them against evil spirits. Evil spirits took the form of vampires in later mythology. These spirits would be mostly deceased ancestors and needed to be appeased and had the power to cause harm to humans and livestock.

Slavic belief distinguishes very categorically between the human body and souls. Vampires originate from these souls. It was believed that when a human being died the soul would live the body and roam the town for 40 days. During this period the soul had the ability to re-enter the body and can also cause harm to humans within the locality or to family members. To ensure unrestricted movement, it was suggested that the windows be kept open to allow the soul to move freely. Also, to ensure that the soul does not turn into vampires, the funeral rites were performed correctly.