The vampire myth originated in the Baltic States, what are now known as Romania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. The actual basis for this myth is unknown, but the consensus is that, like many legends created in pre-industrial Europe, the vampire myth was the result of a fear of death. The original Romanian myth was that after a person had died from a strange or undetermined cause, their body was thought to be possessed by the vampire demon. Thus, after the victims burial the demon would become restless and the victim would rise from their grave and seek out human blood. Belief in the vampire carried well into the 19th and 20th centuries, and in some isolated villages the idea still exists today.

It is popular myth that the vampire had an immortal life. Garlic, crucifixes, and mirrors supposedly repel them. Whether these aspects were taken from traditional legend or not is unknown. It is possible that they originated with the novel, Dracula, by Bram Stoker.

In the district of Teleorman in Romania, the vampire myth caused citizens to perform specific death rituals in order to prevent a presumed vampire from rising. It is said that three days after the victim’s burial, friends and family will go to the grave and stick nine sharp spindles in the soil. If the vampire should rise, it will be pierced by the spindles and confined to the ground. The vampire is said to be ’pinned’ if a steak is driven into the victim’s body. Some societies would stab a stick of wood through the heart of a presumed victim before burial. Fire is another deterrent for the vampire spirit. The family would sprinkle tow on the grave of the deceased and light it on fire. The vampire would be afraid of the flames and stay underground.

In the district of Romananti, the rituals are considerably different. There it is said that after death the vampire is stripped and the body is put into a bag. The clothes are then sprinkled with holy water and returned to the coffin to be buried. The body is taken to the forest where the heart is removed and the remaining body is hacked to pieces and burned. If the entire body, bones and all, is not consumed by the flames completely, the vampire can rise again. The heart is then burned and its ashes can be mixed with water and used as a healing potion for the sick.

In Zarnesti, another Romanian province, when a female vampire is found, she is exhumed after burial and iron forks are driven into her heart, chest and eyes. The body can then be buried again safely, but only if it lays face downward will it cease to rise. There are many other varying rituals, some of which include decapitation and certain exorcisms from a priest to subdue a vampire.