multicultural

DANCING

Posted on by vlaw759

One of my favorite books is Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) and in one famous scene, Sir William is extolling dance as an exemplar of culture and elegance. Darcy observes that every savage can dance.

10,000 year old painting of dancers, Bhimbetka, India

To put it more elegantly: Dancing has always been a part of human culture, rituals, and celebrations. It promotes creativity, as well as healthy minds and bodies.

Many belly dancers perform in restaurants and at parties.

According to a friend of mine who belly dances, that form of dancing does all of the above. “Belly dancing has historic roots in fertility rites or celebrations in some areas. I’ve performed at baby showers and bachelorette parties. It’s so much fun, and I’ve met so many friends through dancing. It also helps me stay in shape and keep flexible. I get to design costumes, learn music, and create choreography while learning this amazing art form!”

Obviously, any given dance might serve multiple purposes. For this blog, I’ll focus on three categories.

Ceremonial Dance

Since humans formed societies, social groups have created or performed ceremonial dances for rituals or celebrations. People use ceremonial dances all over the world for worship, or to celebrate life events. The unique British tradition of Morris dancing, for example, is performed at seasonal festivals and holidays to banish the dark of winter, celebrate the warmth and fertility of summer, and bring in autumn’s golden harvest. The category of ceremonial dance also includes classical Indian dances, war dances, corroboree, Căluşari, and dances of Native American and West African culture.

Adumu, the Maasai jumping dance, forms an important part of coming of age ceremonies, weddings, and celebration rituals. Participants dress in colorful garments and traditional jewelry and often carry spears. Individual dancers compete with each other to jump as high as possible while maintaining a straight and upright posture. Dancers are judged on the height of their jumps as well as their grace.

Marinera Paso is a Mestizo dance that mimics courtship rituals in Peru. The female dancer, accompanied by Spanish, African, and Creole instruments, marks the rhythm and leads her partner on horseback.

Dancing the Haka involves a combination of stamping, chanting, showing the whites of the eyes, and rhythmically slapping body parts with the hands. Maori people perform various Haka forms to welcome guests, issue challenges, and mourn loved ones. Recently, the Te Pāti Māori party went viral for performing a Haka in the New Zealand Parliament to express their opposition to a proposed bill.

Young women in Bali perform the Rejang Adat to welcome the gods during Kunnigan. They do not train or practice before the ceremony. Instead, they rely on their ngayah (dedication) to allow the gods to inspire their movement and harmony.

Rain Dances

Many agricultural societies have a tradition of rain dances. These dances ask the gods or spirits to send water for crops during the planting season. Other rain dances ask for rain during long periods of dry, hot weather. In Romania and Moldova, a young girl dresses in a skirt made of corn husks and dances through the village streets while people splash water on her. In 2022, the Dumagat tribe performed a rain dance during a drought in the Philippines. They claimed success as it rained three days later.

In the Southwestern United States, many tribes, including the Pueblo, Hopi, Zuni, and Apache, have elaborate rain dance traditions. The specifics of the dances vary from tribe to tribe. Most tribes have unique rituals and costumes, with some tribes wearing headdresses and others wearing masks.

In the early 19th century, the United States government banned certain ceremonial dances. To bypass these strict laws, tribal members would mask their ceremonial performances as “rain dances.”

Dance for Recreation and Community

This is any form of dancing that is for entertainment, fitness, fun, or strengthening community ties. Also known as social dancing, it uses dance without too much structure, as a way to let loose and express one’s own individual personality. Dancers focus less on form and technique and more on the joy they feel from dancing. Examples of recreational dancing include ballroom, line dancing, aerobic dance, or dance as a hobby.

Gumboot Dance evolved from mines in South Africa. Workers unable to communicate verbally developed a system of stomping signals to pass messages.

Ballroom Dance

Like many forms of dance, dancesport has been adapted for a range of abilities.

Historians trace the history of ballroom dance back to the 16th century in Europe, where it was primarily a social activity for the upper classes. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century that participants began to formalize and standardize ballroom.

Commonly used as shorthand for any partner dance, ballroom has today evolved into two main sub-genres: standard/smooth and Latin/rhythm. Dances within these categories include the waltz, tango and foxtrot, and the pasodoble, bolero, and samba.

Ballroom is a popular form of competitive dance, or dancesport, with dancers participating in competitions all over the world.

Who can think of ballroom dancing without envisioning Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? Well, certainly not people of a certain age or old movie buffs.

The duo made 10 movies together in the 1930s and ‘40s. Their unique style was graceful and complex, while looking effortless. Perhaps the clearest legacy today are Fred Astaire Dance Studios, such as this one near Richmond, VA.

Community Dancing

People in many Eastern European communities celebrate by dancing the hora. As there are no formal steps to learn, it is common for newcomers to be welcomed in, like these American servicemembers invited to join their Romanian colleagues.

Community dancing often requires no formal training, choreography, or practice. It is sometimes completely spontaneous, such as mosh pits at rock and heavy metal concerts. Though communities often dance together at celebrations, such as weddings or birthdays, the dancing is not necessarily part of the ceremony.

There are many benefits to dancing in a group. Dancing together creates the same sense of group identity as singing or chanting in unison. Participants experience a reduction in stress and a release of endorphins.

In some instances, a Master of Ceremonies calls out steps for the group to follow. A dancemaster sometimes calls Irish céilí steps at social dances. The Electric Slide and the Cha-Cha Slide, popular at American weddings, feature a singer directing the participants in a simple choreography.

Some dances, like the Macarena, permeate society so thoroughly that it seems everyone knows the choreography. Other dances, like Armenian group dances, are simple and repetitive enough for beginners to follow the steps of more experiences dancers.

At Drag On Ball, 2018

Within marginalized communities, dancing is often a way of finding community and demonstrating belonging. Ballroom culture (not to be confused with ballroom dancing) in the United States grew from the gatherings of LGBT+ African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Participants combine recreational, community dancing with dancing for artistic expression. Dancers vogue, strut, and catwalk in elaborate choreographies and costumes to represent their “houses” and found families. Depending on one’s definition of ceremony and ritual, participating in these events could also be seen as modern cultural rites for people who have been denied acceptance in the cultures they were born into.

Dance for Artistic Expression

Shosogatsu dance theater
Shosagatsu, a form of Japanese Kabuki, blurs the line between dance and narrative theater.

Many artists dance with the primary intent to express or communicate emotion, feelings, and/or ideas. These dancers, including ballet, tap, and modern dancers, often perform in a concert or theatrical setting to an audience. Using rhythmic, patterned, or improvised body movement, it’s one of the oldest art forms found in every culture around the world.

For many people, artistic expression conjures images of ballet. Ballet developed during the Italian Renaissance, before evolving in France and Russia into concert dancing meant for public performance. Ballet choreographers often use classical music.

Harlequin Floors—a purveyor of dance floors—lists what they call popular types of dance on their blog. Ballroom and ballet are perennial favorites, but dancing doesn’t stop there!

Contemporary Dance

Developed during the mid-twentieth century, contemporary dance is now one of the most popular and technical forms of dancing studied and performed professionally, especially in the US and Europe. Drawing on classical, modern and jazz dance styles, contemporary dance has evolved to incorporate many characteristics of a broader range of dance forms. Known for its emphasis on strong torso and legwork, contract and release, fall and recovery, and floor work, it often features unpredictable and disordered changes in speed and rhythm throughout a performance.

Alvin Ailey Dance Theater
As a cultural ambassador, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater showcases a blend of American and traditional dance styles to audiences worldwide.

Hip Hop Dance

Hip hop dance
B-Boys and B-Girls combine hip hop dancing with acrobatics and rhythmic freezes, as demonstrated by this breakdancer in Union Square.

Hip-hop dancing refers to a range of street dances that developed in relation to hip hop music and culture. Hip-hop dancing dates back to the early 1970s in New York and California, evolving out of Funk and the development of break beat. Main styles of hip-hop dancing include Breaking, Locking and Popping, with derivative styles emerging out of these including Memphis Jookin’, Turfing, Jerkin’ and Krumping. These were often popularized and made mainstream after being featured in music videos of the time.

Today, hip-hop is performed in outdoor spaces, in dance studios, and competitively. Unlike many competitive dance styles, hip-hop is often improvisational with dance crews challenging each other to dance battles.

Jazz

Bollywood dance
Bollywood dancing (the style often showcased in Bollywood movies) feature a combination of Indian classical and jazz styles to create a uniquely recognizable form.

Jazz dancing has its roots in seventeenth-century African traditions. People brought to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade continued dancing traditions in Brazil, the US, and elsewhere in North and South America. Known for its improvisational and dramatic body movements, jazz dancing grew in popularity in early twentieth-century jazz clubs.

Today, jazz dancing builds on African American vernacular dance styles that emerged along with jazz music in the United States. Swing, the Lindy Hop, the Shimmy, and the Charleston are popular kinds of jazz dances.

Tap

Zapateado dance
Zapateado dancers in Mexico combine Spanish and Indigenous South American dance elements with percussive shoe rhythms.

Tap dancing is a type of percussive dance characterized by the “tap” of shoes hitting the floor as the person dances. Tap dancers often wear metal “taps” on the heel and toe of a shoe to accentuate the sound. Frequently performed as part of musical theater, tap dancing often focuses on choreography and formations, with more than one tap dancer performing at once.

Tap dancing characterizes a range of dances including flamenco, rhythm, classical, Broadway, and postmodern tap.

Folk

Modern Samoan knife dancers often wrap their knives in burning cloth for extra pizzazz when performing Siva Afi, the traditional victory dance.

Folk dancing is celebrated worldwide. People of different cultures and religions use various forms of folk dance to portray emotions, stories, historical events or even aspects of daily life. Some well known types of folk dance include: Bharatanatyam (India), Samba (Brazil) and Hula (Hawaii). Some cultures may even perform multiple variations of folk dances, with countries like South Korea performing individual dances for key events such as victories in war, farming, music and religion. Folk dances are commonly held at public events, where people can participate regardless of whether they are professional or complete beginners. Such dances are often accompanied by traditional music to further enhance the cultural experience.

Irish

Irish dance
Irish dancing features jumps and leaps so high that dancers seem to have the temporary ability to ignore gravity.

Traditional Irish folk dance has been popular for hundreds of years amongst Irish people and other countries worldwide. The first recording of the rinnce fada (long dance) in Ireland was in 1689, when James II first came to Ireland. Popularized by shows such as Riverdance, Irish dancing is famously known for its fabulous display of footwork and dance formations. Most Irish dancing events are traditionally accompanied by signing and music. During festivals, dancers compete for trophies or medals to showcase their talents. While most people may recognize Irish dancing as being a group performance, there are many well-known forms of  solo Irish dances, such as the stepdance.

Modern

Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” was such a departure from the formal ballets of the time that it caused a riot in the audience at its premiere in 1913.

Modern dance, a broad genre of dance, primarily arose from western countries such as the USA and Germany during the late 1900s. While most forms of dance feature set steps and formalized structure, the purpose of modern dance is to rely on the dancer’s interpretation of the music and feeling to guide movements. Modern dance was initially born out of dislike for the limitations of traditional dances such as ballet, which enforced rigid rules and techniques. Currently, modern dance is enjoyed across the world with participants having the ability to practice ballet-like dancing without having to place strict focus on their techniques or turnout. Instead, dancers can choose a piece of music and use unconventional movements to convey emotions or to tell a meaningful story.

Swing

Jitterbug dance
“Jitterbug” was originally a derogatory term for a swing dancer, in the 1930s. As Big Band music and swing dancing became more popular, people came to use jitterbug interchangeably with swing dancing and Lindy Hop.

Swing is a variation of jazz dance. It developed during the 1920s to the 1940s as a response to the growing popularity of swing jazz music in America, encouraging faster, more rigorous movements. The Lindy Hop was the first form of swing, stemming from variations of the Charleston perfected by Black dancers in Harlem. Other popular forms of swing dance include the Lindy Charleston, the Jitterbug, and the Balboa, many of which are still performed today. Big Band music, whether live or on a recording, commonly accompanied swing dancing events.

Swing dance gained huge popularity in England thanks to the influence of American servicemen stationed there during World War II.

Pacu Jalur

And then there’s an annual dance event reported on in the Wall Street Journal (8/19/25). Where would you include this dance?

Pacu Jalur dance
Team Panglima Rimbo Piako

Kuantan Singingi, Indonesia holds an annual boat race, called Pacu Jalur, dating back to a 17th century celebration commemorating Queen Wilhelmina’s birthday during the Dutch rule. Today, it coincides with Indonesia’s Independence Day. Some 200 boats compete in a series of races, culminating in the main event, six-tenths of a mile long and lasting approximately two minutes. The hull of the jalur (boat) is usually 100 feet long, made from a single tree. Each boat is powered by 40 to 75 male rowers.

So where does the dancing come in? Each boat also has one dancer (anak joki)—always a boy for minimal weight and ability to balance while dancing on the bow, which is less than 1 foot wide! He wears traditional Malay outfits, cheers on the rowers, and performs 20-second dances to signal to bystanders when his boat is ahead. Each boat dancer has his own routine.

Today the most famous dancer is Dikha, whose dance—appearing effortlessly cool, smooth, and easy to copy—has been mimicked in celebratory dances by a football star, a soccer player, an F1 driver, as well as miscellaneous people at the office, on their cars, and inside Costco. Dikha’s dance mimics fanning air, flying, and shooting guns.

Bottom Line: “Dance”—for a plethora of reasons—has always been with us. Dare I predict it always will be? Enjoy!

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW

Posted on by vlaw759

My oldest daughter was born bald as a billiard ball and stayed that way for more than three months. My cousin left the hospital with his black hair combed into an Elvis Presley pompadour, but after several weeks he began to lose it. Head hair goes through three stages: growth, resting, and shedding, in that order. At birth, babies’ hair is in the “resting” stage while bodily resources are devoted to more vital functions, like lung development and temperature regulation. After the resting phase, hair sheds. It goes into a growth phase again after three to seven months. From then till puberty, it’s a matter of gaining more head hair. Hair color and/or texture often goes through many changes in the first several month or years. 

Bottom line for writers: Your young characters’ hair is pretty much up for grabs; except for the stage of “baby-fine,” hair tells us little about age or health of young children.

Puberty

  • Males start growing body hair: face, underarms, chest, arms and legs, public area. This can be any time between 9 and 14.
  • Females grow hair in adult female patterns: underarms, legs, genital area. Usually starts between 8 and 13.
  • Following puberty, hair growth patterns are fairly steady for the next couple of decades.

Bottom line for writers: Hair can be used in a number of ways, but between puberty and 30 or so it isn’t an age marker. 

Hair Sculptor Laetitia Ky from Ivory Coast
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Adults shed hair regularly, perhaps 80-100 hairs a day. Shedding hair is not the same as thinning hair or going bald. Babies are born with all the hair follicles they will ever have. When hair follicles shut down, thinning hair or baldness result.  And why would writers care?

Why Hair Follicles Shut Down

  • Age: Both males and females typically notice some thinning or loss of scalp hair as they age, usually starting in the 50s and progressing in 60s, 70s, and 80s. 
    • A good way to show rather than tell that a character is a “mature” adult
  • Genetics: Both thinning and pattern badness tend to run in families for both females and males.
    • An unacknowledged family connection could be inferred by similar patterns and ages of onset
  • Alopecia: An autoimmune condition that attacks hair follicles leading to hair loss on the scalp as well as other parts of the body. Symptoms usually start in childhood. 
    • Good for adding stress and tension.
  • Side effects of medication/treatment: Think chemotherapy, but also vitamin deficiencies, some antibiotic, some antidepressants (4 to 6 months after starting treatment), some anticonvulsants for epileptics (dose dependent). Hair usually regrows when/if the treatment ends.
    • A clue to unacknowledged/undiagnosed medical issues
    • Maybe someone introducing unneeded treatment in order to produce the side effects of hair loss/thinning
  • Hormonal changes: For women, pregnancy and/or menopause; high cortisol levels and thyroid imbalance for both women and men, insulin resistance and estrogen dominance. Deficiencies in vitamin B12, biotin, and zinc can worsen hormone based hair loss.
    • Maybe the hair changes/losses create emotional stress during pregnancy or menopause
    • Maybe a character is so upset that a major life goal is to find a “cure” through hormone and/or nutritional therapy
    • A good hairstylist may notice an illness or pregnancy before the patient simply by observing changing hair
  • Certain hairstyles: High ponytails, cornrows, braids, and pigtails if they are too tight and these styles are worn too long.
    • Consider a character whose self-concept and/or identity is connected to hairstyle and appearance

How Hair Changes Over Time

  • Growth: Scalp hair grows an average of half an inch a month. And a single hair can last up to six years. Consider hair length as an indicator of age.
  • Color: Chances are, when you think of an old person’s hair, you first think gray.  Graying hair can be brought on or accelerated by stress, and unhealthy diet, lack of sleep, or serious illness.
    • Generally, the lighter your skin, the sooner your hair will turn gray. Caucasians usually start to turn gray in their early 30s, those with darker skin generally start to go gray in their 40s.
    • Hair often grays first at the temples; sometimes it’s throughout the head hair.
    • Body hair usually turns gray later, but sometimes not at all.
    • When eyebrows gray, the individual brow hairs are long and coarse. 
    • Is your character embracing gray, or fighting it every step of the way? 
    • What is your character willing to do to hide gray hair?
    • And N.B.: there are far more than 50 shades of gray. Be precise when you describe your character. Think silver, iron, lead, clouds, snow—or that old standby, salt-and-pepper.
  • Thickness and texture: Over time, hair becomes rougher and more prone to break, and each hair itself becomes thinner and smaller. Give more depth to your descriptions of old hair, perhaps through touch.
  • Thinning hair and baldness by sex: 
    • By age 60, two-thirds of males exhibit male-pattern baldness. Hair loss occurs first on the top or at the temples. 
    • Female-pattern baldness is typically exhibited as thin hair and visible scalp. 
    • Consider a man who shaves his entire head rather than exhibit graying hair and balding. 
    • What might a woman with thinning hair experience? Feel? Do?
Some women can create rather impressive facial hair.
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  • Facial and body hair: In general, facial and body hair also change with greater age. Women and men have less hair on arms, legs, underarms, chest, stomach, and in the genital area
    • Women’s remaining hair may get courser, usually around the lips and on the chin.
    • Men are likely to grow ear and nose hair.
    • Both men and women are likely to lose hair on the outer third of the eyebrows and to get long, coarse eyebrow hairs.
    • Older women may grow too much hair, hirsutism, showing hair in places usually associated with male bodies (face, neck, chest, thighs, back).

Using Hair To Distinguish Your Character

Face it, many people spend time on hair in one way or another. Except for haircuts, and maybe hair color, these are activities that tend to happen in private if not in secret. What your character does, how, and how often gives your reader a private, intimate view of your character.

  • Women
    • Changing hair color, either DYI or at a salon
    • Removing hair
    • Underarm, leg, eyebrow, face, genital area, around nipples
    • Via tweezing, depilatory, waxing, or shaving
  • Men
    • Changing hair color (scalp or facial)
    • Shaving
      • How often?
      • Using what instrument?
      • Beard?
      • What length?
    • Remove, trim, or shape body hair
  • Aging Athletes
    • Those who removed all hair to improve performance: swimmers, cyclists, runners, etc. Do they continue their old habits? 
    • Female athletes who train intensely throughout puberty often stop mentstruating temporarily, which can have a long-term effect on hair growth, texture, and color.

Hair Politics

Hair is so closely connected to personal identity and image that controversy is more or less inevitable. For more specifics on these issues, I advise you to visit the resources linked.

  • Religious direction at odds with uniform or dress standards
    • Royal Canadian Mounted Police recently changed their facial hair requirements, allowing Sikhs, Muslims, and members of other religions to serve as officers.
    • The US Air Force has made similar changes.
      • (Unrelated but still really cool – the Air Force has also started making uniform shirts that allow women to breastfeed while in uniform!)
    • British Royal Navy uniform regulations now allow Rastafarians to maintain their long hair and beards so long as safety (such as face mask seals) is not compromised. Uniform regulations may be adjusted further to allow turbans.
    • Many private religious schools in the US require specific hair lengths for boys and girls; boys cannot have long hair, and girls cannot have short hair.
    • Similarly, many schools have specific regulations forbidding cornrows, dreadlocks, box braids, and other hairstyles primarily worn by students of African descent.
  • Opposing cultural pressures on women (and men) to change the length, color, texture, or style of their hair
    • Society defines the ideal of beautiful hair ideal is silky smooth, blond or brunette, and as soft and fine as a baby’s – in essence, Caucasian.
      • Many of the products used to achieve these results are extremely caustic if not toxic.
    • Women who relax, color, heat, and style their hair to meet this ideal sometimes face push-back from within their own communities.
    • Military regulations, school dress codes, athletic associations, etc. often prohibit hair styles favored by women of African descent as well as “natural” hair styles; effectively, this forces women to cut their hair very short or use extreme treatments to mimic Caucasian hair. It is still legal in the United States to fire or refuse to hire an employee who has deadlocks, even if they are not a safety concern.
    • Both men and women are pushed to remove all traces of gray from their hair, along with masking crows feet, laugh lines, age spots, and so on from skin.
    • Men with long hair are told that only short hair is sufficiently manly.
    • Women with short hair are told that only long hair is sufficiently feminine.
      • Historically (and currently, in some parts of the world), women have been punished for various transgressions by having their hair cut very short.
    • Hair texture and color has been used as a marker on the scale of race differentiation in apartheid South Africa, by Adolph Hitler to determine Jewish ancestry, discriminating against “Catholic” redheads during the Great Famine in Ireland, while separating Aboriginal families in Australia, and in many other periods of history.
      • Czar Peter the Great of Russia decided that long beards were old-fashioned and not Western enough and forbade them in his court, going so far as forcibly cutting off the beards of his courtiers.
  • The dubious world of hair extensions
    • Hair extensions are primarily marketed to women trying to achieve the ideal set by society and hair product companies.
    • The hair to make the extensions is often sourced from women in dire situations.
      • Venezualan women have created a black market selling their hair and breast milk, which is the only way many of them can afford food.
      • Rural Indian women, whose long hair is often a traditional class or culture marker, have their hair forcibly shaved off by men in their families desperate for income.
      • Khmer women sometimes have their extremely long hair cut off by police as punishment for dubious charges or by family members desperate for food.
      • Northern Russian women with blond hair are particularly prized by buyers because of the versatility of naturally light hair. Several buyers make routine circuits through isolated areas and pressure women (and young girls) to sell their hair repeatedly, paying only a few dollars for hair they sell for hundreds of dollars.

Miscellaneous Hair Facts That May or May Not Be Useful to Writers

  • Regardless of location on the body, hair goes through the stages of growing, resting, and shedding.
  • Trimming does not affect the growth cycle of hair.
  • Head hair can continue to grow for 3-7 years for each follicle, at the rate of 6 inches per month.
  • Chest hair doesn’t grow beyond a certain length, often about 1 inch.
  • Armpit hair can be longer than chest hair and may grow outside the bounds of the armpit.
  • Pubic hair is often trimmed, shaped, or completely removed.
  • Eyebrow hairs stop at about 1 centimeter until they go rogue during older age, sometimes reaching an inch or more untrimmed.

Bottom bottom line for writers:  Use hair more in your characterizations and plots. It is less common and will make your work fresher.

SALT

Posted on by vlaw759

It’s everywhere!  And surely anything as ubiquitous as salt has a place in your writing. The English language is sprinkled liberally with salt.  The following phrases are so common that they are clichés, and writers note: as such these may have a place in dialogue but seldom, if at all, in narrative. No doubt most if not all of these are familiar, so take this as a nudge to use them.

Basamaci Restaurant in Shiraz is made entirely of salt.
Wieliczka-Zwiedzanie Salt Mine in Krakow, Poland
  • Rub salt into the wound: make a painful experience worse
  • Salt a mine: bring in ore or something else to make the source seem rich
  • Salt the books: inflate receipts to falsely show more money 
  • Salt of the earth: a really good person
  • Salting the earth: victors sowed salt to prevent the growth of plants on enemy land
  • Worth one’s salt (or not): has earned his money (or not)
  • Take something with a pinch/grain of salt: view skeptically, think something is exaggerated
  • Salt away: save for the future
  • Old salt: old seaman
  • Above/below the salt: above is closer to the seat of power, indicating the diners’ relative status
  • Salt mine: figuratively, work, especially a difficult job or task
  • Salty language: somewhat rude or shocking 

Writers: Consider building a scene or a plot around one of these

Salt Mines in India

Salt in Religion 

As valuable as salt has been, finding it used in religious ceremonies is only to be expected.

Different types of salt can make a rainbow of flames
  • In Hittite rituals, during Semite and Greek festivals at the time of the new moon, salt was thrown into fire where it popped and crackled.
  • Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans made offerings of salt and water to their gods.
    • Some historians think this may have been the origin of Holy Water in Christian rituals.
  • In Aztec tradition, the fertility goddess (Huixtocihuatl) presided over salt and salt water.
  • Hindus consider salt auspicious and use it in weddings and house-warmings.
  • Devotees of Jainism lay an offering of raw rice with a bit of salt before a deity to symbolize devotion.
    • Salt is sprinkled on cremains before they are buried.
  • Mahayana Buddhists use salt to ward off evil spirits.
    • After a funeral, a pinch of salt is thrown over the left shoulder to prevent evil spirits from entering the house, a practice that is also copied by superstitious people of many cultures.
Shinto Priestess
  • In Shinto Buddhism, salt is used for ritual purification (people and places).
    • Small piles of salt are placed at the entrances of shrines to ward off evil and attract patron spirits.
  • In Judaism, salted bread is recommended for passing around the table after the Kiddush.
    • Sabbath bread is dipped in salt, as are the bitter herbs at Passover.
  • Both Jewish and Muslim dietary laws require removing blood from freshly slaughtered meat; salt and brine are used for the purpose.
  • In Wicca, salt is symbolic of the element Earth; it cleanses harmful or negative energy. A dish of salt and one of water are nearly always present on an altar, and salt is used in many rituals and ceremonies.

What if a character not of a particular culture or religion learned something about the rituals and decided to practice them?

Catedral del Sal, Colombia

When most people think “salt” they think of seasoning food.  In fact, only 6% of salt is consumed by people.  Even so, gourmets identify at least 12 salts used in food preparation. Also, salty is one of the five basic tastes (along with sweet, bitter, sour, and umami). In addition, salt releases food molecules into the air, giving food an aroma. And FYI, apart from the basic tastes, almost all other tastes are actually smell. In small amounts, salt curbs bitterness and enhances sweet, sour, and umami. In higher amounts, it reduces sweetness and enhances umami, great for savor and meat dishes.

  • Table salt: most common, from underground deposits, highly refined and finely ground, usually treated with an anti-caking age. Often iodine is added to prevent goiter.
  • Kosher salt: flakier and coarser grained than table salt, good for sprinkling on food and cooking. Does not have additives. Not kosher itself, it’s used in the koshering process
  • Sea salt: from evaporated sea water, usually unrefined and coarser grained than table salt. Contains minerals (e.g., zinc, potassium, iron) and flavor from where harvested.
  • Himalayan pink salt: purest salt in the world. It contains the 84 elements found in the human body.
  • Celtic sea salt (gray salt): harvest off the coast of France, mineral rich, chunky grains.
  • Fluer de sel (flower of salt):delicate, paper-thin crystals, harvested by hand with wooden rakes, the most expensive of all food salts
  • Kala namak (black salt): it’s Himalayan, with a faint sulfur aroma that goes tofu (for example) the taste of eggs
  • Flake salt: harvested by boiling sea water, thin irregular crystals, very low mineral content
  • Black and red Hawaiian salt: both coarse-grained and crunchy, great with seafood and meat.
  • Smoked salt: slow smoked up to two weeks over a wood fire (e.g., hickory, mesquite, apple, oak, alder); varies in flavor
  • Pickling salt: used for pickling and brining, no added iodine or anti-caking agents, not many base minerals

Consider a character who has 5 or 6 types of salt on hand: which kinds and why?

Salt Mine in Belarus

Myriad Uses for Salt 

In researching this topic, I read that there are more than 14,000 uses for salt. Searching online for uses for salt turns up lists of all sorts of lengths—6, 12, 20, 55—more than enough to establish salt’s place in the life of your character.  Is your character thrifty, and thus finds salt a less expensive alternative to cleaning, medical, or beauty products? Does your character strive for simplicity, and want to purge as many products as possible? Here are a few examples. Each bigger topic could be researched separately.

  • Around the home
    • Keep wicker looking new
    • Put out a fire
    • Deodorize shoes
    • Prevent new towels from fading in the wash
  • Health and beauty
    • Alternative to mouthwash
    • Exfoliate your skin
    • Dandruff treatment
    • Gargle saltwater for sore throat
  • Cleaning with salt
    • Remove tea and coffee stains from mugs and carafes
    • Clean a dirty room
    • Refresh chopping boards
    • Get rid of watermarks on wood furniture
Pickled Lemons
  • Salt in the kitchen
    • Quick and easy nut shelling
    • Test the freshness of an egg
    • Extend the life of cheese
    • Whip egg whites and heavy quicker
    • Keep sliced apples and potatoes from browning
  • Salt outside
    • Keep car windshield frost-free in winter
    • Pain relief from a bee sting
    • Keep stains from setting in clothing
Salt Flats in Bolivia

Importance of Salt—Past and Present

Or you could go to a salt cave in Minneapolis and sit
  • It is essential for human and other animal life.
    • At the same time, excessive salt consumption is related to high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases.
  • Salting food is one of the oldest methods of preservation, along with drying and smoking, dating to at least 6050 BCE in Bulgaria, 5400 BCE in Romania, and 6000 BCE in China. It’s still used as a preservative in processed foods.
  • Other uses include water conditioning (12%)
    • De-icing highways (8%)
    • 68% of world-wide salt production is used for manufacturing and industrial processing (PVC, plastics, paper pulp, aluminum, soaps, glycerine, synthetic rubber, and firing pottery, drilling, to fix color in dying textiles, tanning hides)
  • Salt was used for barter pretty much world-wide:
    • Moorish merchants in the 6th century traded salt for gold, weight for weight.
    • Salt was traded like gold or silk everywhere along the Silk Road and throughout Europe.
  • Salt has been used as money in Ethiopia, other parts of Africa, and Tibet.
    • An allowance of salt was made to officers and soldiers in the Roman Army.
The Road (2009) from the novel by Cormac McCarthy

Writers: Consider an apocalyptic story in which the basic necessity of salt returns.

The Lasting Stamp of Salt 

In many places, in many forms, the historical significance of salt continues to reverberate today.

サラリーマン !
  • Naming rights:
    • One of the oldest roads in Italy is Via Salaria, salt route
    • The river Salzach in Austria translates to salt river
    • Salzburg means salt castle
  • The Roman allowance of salt turned into a monetary allowance to buy salt, and this salarium gave rise to the English word salary 
    • In Japan, a person who works a M-F office job is often referred to as a salaryman (サラリーマン )
Gandhi led people on a march to the sea to distill salt after British salt laws were imposed.

Salting the Dead—and Not Dead

Somehow, I don’t think salt water is going to help alleviate torture…
  • Salt accelerates the process of decomposition of the body.
  • It helps to prevent bad odor from leaking out of the soil where the corpse is buried, so dogs and other predators don’t dig up the body.
  • If someone is buried in salt up to his/her neck: the salt would start to draw water out of the body slowly. The skin starts wrinkling and drying as time goes by, mouth becomes parched and eyes become irritated because of the loss of moisture. It becomes harder to breathe as water leaves the body and the blood becomes thicker and more coagulated. The terrible thing is that unlike being buried alive, the person would likely remain conscious and eventually delirious before dying a long time later.  The corpse would be dehydrated and preserved by the salt and thus become a mummy.

Writers: consider the dark possibilities of torture and/or murder.

Cristal Samana Salt Hotel in Uyumi, Bolivia

Bottom line for writers: sprinkled throughout!

No discussion of salt is complete without mentioning legendary musicians Salt N Pepa!

GOOD FEET, BAD FEET

Posted on by vlaw759
Red feet, Blue feet!

How much thought have you given to your characters’ feet? And shoes? Feet and shoes tend to go together, and both can be valuable as character details, plot devices, and sources of conflict. But let’s start with the basics. Are bare feet good or bad? Yes!

Health Concerns

The Upside of Bare Feet: 

  • Uninhibited flexibility, greater strength, and mobility of the foot.
  • Some research suggests that walking and running barefoot results in a more natural gait, allowing for a more rocking motion of the foot, eliminating hard heel strikes, generating less collision force in the foot and lower leg.
  • Many sports require going barefoot: gymnastics, martial arts, beach volleyball, and tug of war.  Rugby in South Africa is always played barefoot at the primary school level. Other sports have barefoot versions: running, hiking, and water skiing.
  • People who don’t wear shoes have a more natural toe position, not squished together.

The Downside of Bare Feet:

Hallux valgus, bunion
  • Losing protection from cuts, abrasions, bruises, hard surfaces, and extremes of heat or cold.
  • Constantly being barefoot increases likelihood of flat feet, bunions, and hammer toe.
  • Because feet are so sensitive, toe locks and striking the bottoms of the feet are often used as punishment.

Climate and Weather:

  • With no environmental need for shoes, Egyptians, Hindus, Greeks, and various African nations have historically gone barefoot.
  • Even when it isn’t necessary, people in such climates often wear ornamental footwear for special occasions.

General Symbolism

  • Baring one’s feet shows humility and subjugation.
  • Going barefoot symbolizes innocence, childhood, and freedom from constraints .
  • Bare feet are often a sign of poverty.
    • The assumption of ignorance and poor hygiene often accompanies the poverty of bare feet.
  • From Roman times on, footwear signaled wealth, power and status in most of Europe and North Africa.Shoes that are impractical or inhibit movement often signal enhanced status, such as Italian chopines, Chinese “Golden Lotus” bound feet, armored German sabatons, Polish crakows, and everything worn by Victoria Beckham.
  • Forbidding shoes marks the barefoot person as a slave or prisoner under the control of others.  Keeping prisoners barefoot is common in China, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Uganda, Iran, Pakistan, India, Congo, Malawi, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, and North Korea.

Cultural Aspects

Religion:

The Auspicious Lotus Feet of Lord Vishnu
  • Some religious sects take a vow of poverty, including obligatory bare feet.
  • Many Buddhists go barefoot as a reminder to be concerned for Mother Nature, to lead people in the path of virtue, and to develop the Buddhist spirit.
  • Roman Catholics show respect and humility before the Pope by kissing his feet. 
  • In Judaism and some Christian denominations it is customary to go barefoot while mourning.
  • Anyone entering a mosque or a Hindu temple is expected to remove his or her shoes. Stealing shoes from such a place is often considered a desecration.
    • Hindus show love and respect to a guru by touching his bare feet. 
    • Lord Vishnu’s feet are believed to contain symbols such as conch, fish, and disc.
  • In many spiritual traditions, body and soul are connected by the soles of the feet.

Europe:

  • Wearing shoes indoors is often considered rude or unhygienic in Austria, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, and Belgium.
  • In Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, wearing shoes indoors is expected.

Asian Countries:

  • Showing the soles of the feet is seen as an insult because the feet are seen as unclean (“You are lower than the soles of my feet”).
  • Shoes are seen as dirty and so are removed before entering a mosque, temple, or house.

China:

  • Take your shoes off when entering a house.
  • The practice of foot-binding began in the 10th century as a sign of wealth and beauty. It was outlawed by Empress Dowager Cixi in 1902 (though this was largely ignored) and successfully outlawed by Sun Yat-Sen in 1912.

Japan:

  • Never cross your feet in Japan.
  • Students take off their street shoes when entering school and wear uwabaki, soft-soled clean shoes, to the classroom. Street shoes are stored in special lockers by the school entrance.

Thailand:

  • A prisoner must be barefoot in court during penal proceedings.
  • Because the feet are the lowest part of the body, they are considered filthy.
    • Showing the soles of your feet is extremely rude, a big taboo at any time.
  • Remove your shoes before entering a school, temple, or home.
  • In some houses or schools, inside slippers (never worn outside) are allowed.

India:

  • Shoes are considered impure, so it is customary to remove footwear when entering a home or a temple.
  • Charanasparsha is a very common gesture of respect and subservience made by bowing and touching the feet of the (always superior in age and position) person being honored.

Australia:

  • It’s common for people, particularly young people, to go barefoot in public. In some regions, students attend school barefoot.

New Zealand:

  • Many people, of all races and cases, conduct daily business barefoot.
  • Barefoot is more common in rural areas and some seasons.

South Africa:

  • Walking barefoot in public is common among all ethnic groups, in rural and urban areas.
  • The National Guidelines on School Uniform lists shoes as an optional item.
  • Barefoot people are common in public, shopping malls, stores, and events.

Canada:

I assume everyone in Canada wears these all the time.
  • Take off shoes when entering a home.
  • Elementary schools require students to have indoor shoes and provide a place to store outdoor footwear. Outdoor shoes are worn in high schools.
  • Some medical facilities require patients to remove shoes for reasons of cleanliness.
  • Office workers usually wear indoor shoes in winter, outdoor shoes in summer.

United Kingdom:

  • Mostly in rural areas, children and teenagers are accepted.
  • Some schools encourage barefoot participation in indoor and outdoor physical education.
  • The National Health Service encourages people to go barefoot or wear open-toed sandals in hot weather to avoid sweaty, smelly feet.

United States:

  • Many children in rural areas, and/or those in poverty go barefoot.
  • More commonly, people wear shoes both outdoors and indoors.
  • Businesses that don’t prepare or serve food can determine dress codes that prohibit or allow bare feet.

Miscellaneous:

  • Fairies and magical creatures in several cultures leave no footprints. Checking for footprints is a common method of identifying supernatural creatures and avoiding mischief.
  • Before a baby learns to walk, stroking the bottom of their foot will cause their toes to curl up. After the baby learns to walk (and for the rest of their pedestrian life), stroking the bottom of their foot will cause their toes to curl down.
  • Ancient Egyptian believed that stepping forward with the left foot trod out evil so the heart could proceed.
  • The foot chakra is one of the most important, as it helps pass the Divine Energy to Mother Earth, making powerful grounding .
  • Having a foot fetish or kink means being sexually aroused by feet or certain parts thereof, such as toes, arches, ankles, etc.

Bottom line for writers: What are your characters’ attitudes and behaviors regarding feet and shoes? And why?

BRACE YOURSELF! IT’S FRIDAY THE 13TH!!

Posted on by vlaw759

Every year has at least one Friday the 13th, but more often two or three. The longest possible interval between Friday the 13ths is fourteen months, the shortest is one month. Today is the second in 2019. Interestingly, the 13th of any month is slightly more likely to fall on a Friday than on other days of the week.

Superstitions about Fridays and 13s emerged centuries ago, certainly by the Middle Ages, maybe even in Biblical times. The Biblical connection is the belief that there were 13 people present at the Last Supper. According to the Hebrew calendar Passover began on the 14 of the month of Nisan that year, meaning the seder (the Last Supper in Christianity) was held on the 13 of Nisan; Jesus was crucified the next day, which was a Friday. Since then, bad things that happen on Friday the 13th have garnered particular attention.

Friday the 13th is widely considered bad luck in Western superstition. According to The Sun, UK Edition

  • 55% of Brits consider themselves superstitious. 
  • 1 in 6 believe those days pose the greatest risk of bad luck striking.
  • 22% worry what might befall them on these days.
  • In the U.S., 25% are superstitious, with younger people being more so than older people.
  • According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, NC, 17 to 21 million people in the. U.S fear this day.

The Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has held kansallinen tapaturmapäivä (Accident Awareness Day) on Friday the 13th every year since 1995. Public awareness campaigns encourage people to pay more attention to their surroundings and fix potential hazards around the home, workplace, and on the road.

The fear of Friday the 13th is paraskevidekatriaphobia. The word was coined by Dr. Donald Dossey who told his patients that “when you learn to pronounce it, you’re cured!” Of course, people are superstitious about many things. Suffice it to say, any of the bad happenings are worse on Friday the 13th.

  • Walking under a ladder
  • Breaking a mirror
  • Having a black cat cross your path
  • Spilling salt
  • Opening an umbrella inside the house
  • Stepping on cracks
  • Lighting three cigarettes with one match
  • Leaving a white tablecloth on a table overnight

Superstitions about Fridays and about the number 13 long preceded the connection of the two, which dates from about 1869.  Fear of the number 13 is “triskaidekaphobia.”  The ancient Code of Hammurabi omitted a 13th law from its list of legal rules. Many hotels have no floor labeled 13, ditto seat rows in airplanes.

In Hispanic and Greek cultures, the bad luck day is Tuesday the 13th. On the other hand, in Italy the bad luck day is Friday the 17th.

My relatives sometimes said, “If I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all!” Not that that’s particularly relevant, but it’s been running through my thoughts as I wrote this blog.

Bottom line for writers: create your own Friday the 13th disaster, or a character who is irrationally fearful of Fridays, 13s, and Friday the 13ths.

THE JOYFUL SIDE OF THE SEASON: TRADING HALLOWEEN FOR THE DAY OF THE DEAD

Posted on by vlaw759

For more than a month, people have been bombarded with ads, displays, and commercials about things to buy for Halloween: costumes, candy, house decorations, yard displays, etc., etc., etc. Indeed, more money is spent on Halloween than any other holiday except Christmas—which I find pretty horrifying in and of itself. 

This insanity is what inspired Tim Burton to write Nightmare Before Christmas.

But that’s just the tip of the horror: evil witches, vampire bats, the walking dead, haunted houses, werewolves, and not-nearly-as-friendly-as-Casper ghosts. The scary side of the season is why the previous four blogs on this website have been about evil twins, being buried alive, satanism, and vampires.

Hard on the heels of Halloween comes Dia de Muertos, The Day of the Dead (though it seems to me it ought to be Days, plural). It begins at midnight on October 31 and continues through November 1 and 2.

  • Writers please note:although November 1 and 2 coincide with the Catholic holidays of All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day, respectively, the Day of the Dead is not now tied to any particular religion. It is more of a cultural holiday than a religious one. 

Scholars have traced the modern holiday back hundreds of years, particularly to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. People can, and have, personalized it, integrating elements into their own cultural and/or religious practices. It is nearly opposite of all that Halloween stands for.

A representation of Mictlantecuhtli, also known as the Divine Mother or Santa Muerte Narco

In Aztec mythology, Mictlan was the underworld and after-death destination for the majority of people. The ruler of Mictlan was
Mictlantecuhtli, who held the bones used to create all of humanity.
Mictlancíhuatl was his wife, who watches over the souls of the dead.

A popular costume is La Catrina, a character that was created by Mexican lithographer and illustrator Jose Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913). La Catrina is a female skeleton who is dressed in the style of upper-class women of the period.

Dio de Muertos is celebrated throughout Mexico, especially the central and southern regions. It is also celebrated by people of Mexican heritage worldwide. Although the details of the celebration vary by location, the central elements are the same: celebrating the lives of those who have died with feasting, parties, costumes, and activities the dead enjoyed in life.

October 31 is usually devoted to preparing to welcome the souls of loved ones. A home altar is created, decorated with candles and lots of food and drink: fruits, peanuts, turkey mole, tortillas, and Day of the Dead breads (pan de muerto) ; sodas, cocoa, and water. These offerings are called ofrenda, though that can also refer to the altar itself. The breads often have icing that resembles and bones across the top. Buckets of flowers, especially wild marigolds (cempasúchitl), are used as well.


Copal incense was burned in Mesoamerica in ancient times.
The word copal is derived from the Nahuatl word copalli, which means “incense.”

Traditional altars include very specific elements, each with a distinct purpose.

  • A candle for each relative remembers, so that the light will guide them.
  • Flowers to represent the fleetingness of life.
  • Salt and water to purify and refresh the souls tired from the journey.
  • Copal incense to raise prayers to God.
  • A photo or drawing of each relative, often with a favorite piece of clothing or toy.
An ofrenda for a young child

The holiday begins when the souls of dead children and miscarried babies are allowed to return to their families for twenty-four hours, on Día de los Inocentes. Toys, candies, and miniature skulls are added to the home altars for these angelitos.  On November 2, the spirits of adults arrive. The miniature skulls are replaced by full-sized ones. For adults, the altar includes cigarettes, shots of mezcal, and/or the favorite drink of the dead person(s).

A small
calavera de azucar (sugar skull) for a small child’s ofrenda

Sugar art was learned from Italian missionaries in the 17th century, who made sugar lambs and angels to adorn altars in Catholic Churches at Easter. Clay molded sugar skulls, angels, and sheep date back to the 18th century. As described on mexicansugarskull.com, “Sugar skulls represented a departed soul, had the name written on the forehead and was placed on the home Ofrenda [altar] or gravestone to honor the return of a particular spirit.”  According to the same source, “Sugar skull art reflects the folk art style of big happy smiles, colorful icing and sparkly tin and glittery adornments.”

Now they are represented by jewelry and masks.

Typically, the holiday activities includes a trip to the cemetery/graveyard where loved ones are buried. Besides clean-up and maintenance of the gravesite, these visits include a party, often with local music, games, card playing, feasting, and decorating the graves.

Families at a cemetery in Oaxaca

Although a Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead is celebrated worldwide. In the United States, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona feature pretty traditional celebrations.

These Catrinas dressed like Adelitas, women who fought in the Mexican Revolution.

California, too, has strong historical ties to Mexico and Dia de Muertos is celebrated widely across the state—though the celebrations sometimes add a political element, such as an altar to honor the victims of the Iraq War.

The parade in Mexico City this year honored migrants who have died.

Virtually every big city has a festival and events. For example, the historic Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood hosts an annual festival celebrating the cycle of life and death. People bring food, flowers, pictures, and mementos to add to a huge decorated altar. It includes traditional music and dance.

Jamaica Plain, Boston

Bottom line for writers: consider a scene involving Day of the Dead celebrations. Perhaps it is a tradition for one or more characters, or perhaps the protagonist just happens to be in a city where the celebration is taking place. Think broadly!


OCTOBER IS FOR HORROR: VAMPIRES

Posted on by vlaw759

Drawn by shamad

A friend recently told me that the horror villains we fear are subconscious stand-ins for things we’re afraid of in real life.  Vampires stand for a fear of change; zombies for a fear of crowds or strangers.  Fear of clowns is a sign you’re a normal, well-adjusted, perfectly rational person.

 

The anthropomorphic personification of EVIL!

Inquiring minds want to know!  I started with vampires—and I never got past vampires!

 

When I went online to learn what it means if we fear vampires, what popped up was an article by Ralph Blumenthal, “A Fear of Vampires Can Mask a Fear of Something Much Worse.”  He was writing in 2002 about villagers in Malawi believing that the government was colluding with vampires to collect human blood in exchange for food.

 

Mobs of vampire hunters killed dozens in Malawi

At the time, Malawi was in the grip of starvation, a severe AIDS epidemic, and political upheaval.  He cited Nina Auerbach, author of Our Vampires, Ourselves, to the effect that stories of the undead embody power ”and our fears of power.”

David J. Skal, author of The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror claims that a fixation on demons often accompanies periods of national stress.  “In times of social upheaval, the vampire asserts itself.”

 

 

In nearly every culture in the world, there is a legend of some variation of vampire-like creatures—the dead who reanimate and come back to feed on the living.  And there is general agreement that the roots of vampire legends are in the misunderstanding of how bodies decompose and of how certain diseases spread.

 

The Chinese Jiangshi hunts by “hopping” because of rigor mortis.

In an October 26, 2016 article in National Geographic titled The Bloody Truth About Vampires, Becky Little wrote, “As a corpse’s skin shrinks, its teeth and fingernails can appear to have grown longer.  And as internal organs break down, a dark ‘purge fluid’ can leak out of the nose and mouth.  People unfamiliar with this process would interpret this fluid to be blood and suspect that the corpse had been drinking it from the living.”

Paul Barber, author of Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality, made several telling points in the introduction to his book.  One is that there is little similarity between the vampires of folklore and the vampires of fiction.
Modern images of vampires are pretty stereotyped: fangs that bite the necks of victims; drinking human blood; can’t see themselves in mirrors; can be warded off with garlic, killed with a stake (or silver nail) through the heart; are aristocrats who live in castles and may be sexy.  This image was popularized by Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of Count Dracula in the 1931 film adaptation of the Broadway show of the same name.  Unlike Bram Stoker’s description of the monster in the 1897 novel Dracula as a repulsive old man with huge eyebrows and bat-like ears, Lugosi showed audiences a mysteriously elegant gentleman in evening dress.

 

 

The 1922 film Nosferatu (on left), though an unlicensed adaptation, portrayed the vampire as described in Stoker’s novel.

 

In European folklore, vampires typically wore shrouds, and were often described as bloated, with a ruddy or dark countenance.  Specific descriptions varied among regions: sometimes male, sometimes female, might have long fingernails, a stubby beard, the mouth and left eye open, a permanently hateful stare, red eyes, no eyes, etc.  Fangs were not always a prominent feature, and blood was generally sucked from bites on the chest near the heart rather than the throat.

Polish strzyga

But perhaps the most important theme of Barber’s book is that, lacking a scientific background in physiology, pathology, or immunization, the common response of ancient societies was to blame death and disease on the dead.  To that end, the interpretations they came up with—while wrong from today’s perspective—nevertheless were usually coherent, covered all the data, and provided the rationale for some common practices that seemed to be otherwise inexplicable.

 

A manananggal from the Philippines will send its detached head and torso to hunt.

Should you ever be pursued by a vampire, fling a handful of rice, millet, or other small grain in its path.  The vampire will be compelled to stop to count every grain, giving you time to escape.  I found no information on how vampires came to be associated with arithmomania, but it endures: remember The Count von Count on Sesame Street?

 

He’s the color of a rotting corpse, but cloth fangs are pretty harmless.

At this point, I realize that getting into methods of identifying vampires, protecting against vampires, ways to destroy vampires, and cross-cultural variations on vampirism is way beyond the scope of this blog.  Instead, I refer you to books such as this:

 

 

And should vampires show up in your dreams, according to DreamBible: the answers to all your dreams, pay attention.  Their appearance could mean many things.
  • Seeing a vampire in your dream symbolizes an aspect of your personality that is parasitic or selfishly feeds off others.
  • Alternatively, a vampire may reflect feelings about people you believe want to pull you down to their level or convert you to thinking negatively in a way similar to theirs.
  • To dream of being a vampire represents a selfish need to feed off others.
  • To dream of being bitten by a vampire represents feelings about other people using you or feeding off you and being unable to stop it.
  • Vampires may be a sign of dependence, problems with addiction, social pressure, or ambivalence.
  • A dream vampire might be telling you that you need to start being more independent and relying less on others resources or accomplishments.
  • To dream of killing vampires represents overcoming dependence on others.
  • Repeated dreams of vampires hovering over your shoulder and correcting your spelling or suggesting topics for research and expansion is almost certainly a sign that you are writing a blog entry about vampires.

The yara-ma-yha-who in Australia drains a victim of almost all blood before swallowing and regurgitating the body, which then becomes a copy of its killer.

Bottom line for writers: consider whether a vampire is a fit metaphor for your character.
 

The soucouyant appears in the Caribbean by day as a harmless old woman, but she sheds her skin at night to hunt as a ball of fire.