Is it true that if u see a vampire, and u drop grains of rice. The vampire has to count every grain b4 he can pass that area or something?

where did you hear that from? no i do not think that is true and there are no real vampires any way , not living dead type, a few cult believeing praticeing types yes but none of the Ann Rice type.

Haha ok thanks for confirming it.

actually, it is true, to a degree.

In Romania, the 'Stigra Morte' - the Living Dead, or the 'Stigra Nocte' - the 'vampire' can be sidetracked into counting the crumbs of a wafer that is broken up in front of him. He has to count every last crumb before he can move on, regardless of whether 'lunch' was nearby. It was thought that this would sidetrack the vampire long enough that the first rays of dawn would finish him off.

A very good friend of mine goes to Transylvania quite a lot on those organised tours which takes you to Draculas castle, his impaling tower at Tirgoviste, as well as Countess Bathory's castle too. He is an old school goth and has long black hair and wears the top-hat, tailcoat and all the other stuff, and he actually had a peasant villager do that to him with the wafer, and apparently got a little worried when he just carried on walking, and did'nt count the crumbs...

He was also offered a pristine condition horse-drawn hearse for a very reasonable price, I am sure if he could have got that thing on a plane somehow he would have bought it...

I woner this is where they get the Count character idea for Sesame St.

Wow thanks for confirming this

ONE! one wafer crumb, ah-ah-ah-ah!
TWO! two wafer crumbs, ah-ah-ah-ah!

*rumble of thunder*

Doesn't this originate from the fact vamps are supposed to be obsesive compulsivs?

vampire hunters log...

garlic: check
holy water: check
silver: (just in case of werewolf company) check
wooden stick: check
my will: check
rice: check

ready to roll

lol

I've never heard the counting thing before, see you learn something new on UM everyday!

same here, i watched sesame street when i was a kid, but a turkish version , i dont remember the count though..weird, i remember this bird supposed to be small , literally =)

Yes, actually, this is exactly where The Count comes from.

It all traces back to legends of Pluto / Hades, who was the Roman / Greek god of the underworld. He controlled the fates of all the souls in his domain. He was also what we would call a "bean counter" (hmm.... where did that phrase come from... wait, didn't they throw beans at vampires in the Altaic and Balto-Slavic regions? Why, yes, they did! )

Hades was almost obsessive about the tallies of souls in the three regions of the underworld. If someone tried to "rescue" one of the dead, Hades didn't care as much if another soul stayed in place, and the counts of souls remained constant. In fact, he would regularly count the souls just to make sure no one had left or was in the wrong area.

So, that belief carried over, and the undead (and even demons) were eventually viewed as being just as obsessive compulsive as Hades. In many cultures through Europe and Asia (up through Mnogolia), a handful of seeds, grains, crumbs, grains of salt, grains of sand, etc. were used against such creatures. In one book on amulets I have, it has pictures of an amulet worn by people in a region of the Ukrane (don't have time to get book... too lazy....) which contain a mix of salt and sand. The belief is that "witches" (the kind that rise from the dead to cause suffering and drink blood) must count the two totals of grains before they can harm the wearer. The mix of white sand and dirty salt only makes keeping the totals that much more difficult.

Which rice, white or pilau?

That's what I have heard too, though I have never believed in real vamps. Oh and Ann Rice's house is freakin' just nuts. She knows how to keep people from spending the night. To a degree, her house is similar to the Winchester home...with doors leading into brick walls and stuff like that. She Lives in Louisiana. I have also gone to the French Quarters and the cemetery....way freaky. especially how they were buried due to the Sea level floating the coffins back up. Now eveyone is buried above ground there. i have also seen the tomb of Marie Laveau...the New Orleans VooDoo Princess/Queen. Very eerie.

Just got back from N.O. Took one of the Ghost Tours in the French Quarter, Friday night. The particular guide we had wasn't very good, but one of the things he commented on was rice counting by vampires. There was a vampire tour, but we didn't have time to take it. The guide said throwing rice was a diversion against a vampire, because the vampire had to count every grain of rice. He referrenced The Count of Sesame Street counting rice. He mentioned something about throwing rice, and I thought he said something about weddings, but was too far away at the time to hear it all.

ive heard of this as well and i feel sorry for the vampire that has to count the rice grains and doesnt finish before sunset. lol that would be funny

I think the original item that was supposed to be counted was poppy seeds (which is abundant in transylvania and parts of russia). the rice throwing at weddings was supposed to stand for prosperity,abundance and fertility for the newlyweds, but a friend of mine told me it was originally supposed to symbolize a new life together, exorcising their demons on the way out of the Church ( the "supposed" demons" are left at the grounds, counting the rice grains,as to distract them where the newlyweds was supposed to go)