Why do vampires despise garlic?


The reason vampires hate garlic is simple: we make them. In the course of centuries, we decided that they hated the sun, the cross and the garlic. Historians can't give clear answers to why we developed this folklore, but by observing the myth of vampires, we can create some grounded guesses.

First, it's important to note that almost every major culture has a vampire legend, but the description of a vampire varies from culture to culture. Our modern conception of vampires is largely due to the 1894 Bram Strucker's Dracula and its adaptation in the film.

Stoke was the first to use garlic as a vampire deterrent, but the author is unlikely to actually add it; garlic has been used to fend off evil for centuries. For example, the ancient Egyptians believed that the herb had a strong magical effect, and the Romans had been addicted to garlic for centuries. When Stoke put his story in Transylvania (a region of Romania), he might borrow local legends when building the idea of ​​a vampire.

Why is garlic?

Well, some researchers believe that the myth of vampires comes from real diseases. For example, rabies makes victims violent and enthusiastic; for an uneducated observer, a crazy person seems to be owned by evil forces. Rabies can also lead to aversion to strong odors.

National Geographic historian Mark Jenkins wrote: "Affected people show very sensitive reactions to any apparent olfactory stimuli, which naturally include the aroma of garlic."

At some point in history, someone may have noticed this effect - and began to squeeze garlic cloves at home to defend against evil diseases.

This is a possibility, but as Kelsey Kennedy pointed out in Atlas Atlas, vampire myths do not necessarily require these medical explanations. Sometimes people only make stories, and these stories get new details because they are passed down from generation to generation.

Kennedy believes that the simplest explanation is the most accurate: people have realized that garlic can prevent vampires, and they have already told the story in a convincing way. Repeated by others and eventually became part of the vampire myth.

Of course, we don't know that vampires hate garlic because we can't interview someone accurately. Because garlic can increase blood flow and improve blood circulation, you think vampires like it - but may prefer their food.

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