In this installment of Practical Magic, Lisa Stardust explains the history behind popular halloween myths. Always remember that magic is for believers, but this column can also simply serve as a guide to getting in touch with yourself — magically or not.
When spooky season rolls around, we tend to conjure up all kinds of images of the season — many of them tropes we learned from Hollywood. But there's more to Halloween than witches with pointy hats. For instance, did you know that zombies are based on the experience of enslaved people in Haiti, who imagined being trapped in their bodies for lifetimes? From zombies to werewolves to vampires, prepare to learn the truth about the roots of these mythical creatures — some of which have persisted for thousands of years.
The Walking Dead
According to The Atlantic, the modern cultural obsession with zombies is a whitewashed version of how it originated. In the publication, Mike Mariani reported that zombie myths originated among enslaved people in Haiti in the 17th and 18th centuries, who believed that death was the only way they would ever achieve freedom. Death, they believed, would return them to lan guinée, which means Guinea, or Africa in general. But, if they died by suicide, they wouldn't be allowed that freedom and instead would be confined to the plantations where they were enslaved for all eternity.
According to NPR, the idea of being a zombie didn't just come in death. Working day after day under brutally abusive conditions and with no control, “zombies” represented a human without a soul. Today, the idea of zombies is still well believed in Haiti.
Stories of humans morphing into werewolves under the light of the full moon have been around seemingly since the beginning of time. It's hard to say exactly where this myth originated, especially since there are so many different beliefs surrounding werewolves. Some think you become a werewolf by being cursed, while others say it happens when someone is conceived under a full moon.
The tale of a human becoming werewolves may have started because of real health conditions that either make people appear how we consider werewolves, or believe they are animals. According to LiveScience, hypertrichosis is a medical condition that causes excessive hair growth on the face and body, causing a “wolf-like” appearance we've come to associate with werewolves. On the other hand, lycanthropy is a condition in which people believe they are animals — and there's been at least one case where someone has claimed to be a werewolf.
So, while werewolves aren't real, the conditions that might have started the belief in them very much are.
You’ve likely heard the gory tale of Dracula from the infamous novel by Bram Stoker. But the truth is that the tale of vampires originated well before that classic novel made them even more popular. In fact, Stoker apparently based his story on Vlad the Impaler, Romanian ruler originally from Transylvania who liked to kill his enemies with a wooden stake to the heart. And, rumor has it that he likes to dip his bread in the blood of his dead. Eek!
But according to LiveScience, the idea of vampires might even date back as far as ancient Egypt. The ultimate fear is that vampires are beings that can harm the living from beyond the grave (by, you know, feasting on their blood). This idea was popular back in the Middle Ages, particularly during the Plague epidemic according to history.com, when anyone with an unfamiliar illness might be labeled one.
These fears didn't just manifest overseas. Fast forward to the late 1800s in Exeter, Rhode Island when Mercy Brown died of tuberculosis, as did many members of her family. While Mercy's brother was sick, some in her town went to the graveyard and exhumed her and her family's bodies, believing that one of them was harming the rest of the family from beyond the grave. Since Mercy's body was more recently buried in cold months and still contained her blood, while her family members (who died before her) had decomposed, she was considered a vampire as she was seen as being undead. They burned her body and fed the ashes to her sick brother in hopes that it would cure him, but he died shortly after.
So, as we head into this Halloween, it's helpful to know what's going on behind the so-called “spooky” ideas we've come to associate with season.