 Look into my eyes. What is that smell? Oh! Ah, garlic! Ah! Get it out of here! Can't I Night Vodka get a nice clean drink of blood these days? Oh, God. These teeth are just so freaking awkward. The mythology surrounding how garlic is good for fending off vampires goes back to around the birth of Jesus. So, why do vampires hate garlic? How did this belief get started? I'm going to tell you all about it today on eccentric nature. To really look at where the belief about vampires hating garlic began, we need to go back to the ancient Egyptians who were the first civilization to recognize garlic's amazing healing powers. But more importantly also starting around this time was the widespread belief that garlic fended off evil spirits. This was especially prevalent in the early Slavic people of Eastern Europe who also believed that garlic stopped demons and witches, too. In fact, this links directly to the origins of the word vampire itself which is believed to have come from the old Tartar term ubyr which actually means witchcraft. Writings from ancient Greek healers Malampus and Theophrastus mention how garlic is good at stopping supernatural creatures that feed on blood. And this is only part of the story as there are many different tendrils that led to garlic becoming vampire's most feared vegetable. There are several specific characteristics of garlic that make it particularly ideal as a vampire repellent. Among its benefits, garlic is a blood purifier and a blood thinner which was the start of the myth if you ate garlic and a vampire attacked you you wouldn't actually come back as a vampire because you protected yourself by purifying your blood. In several cultures we find the belief that if you stuffed garlic in the mouth of a vampire after they've been killed it will prevent them from rising again. Because of garlic's blood purifying power stuffing the mouths of the recently deceased with tasty clothes would prevent them from even turning into a vampire in the first place. People also believed it worked because by stuffing garlic in the mouth it prevented evil spirits from entering the body. In some places they went as far as stuffing garlic into the mouth, nose, ears and smeared it on the eyelids to make sure no evil was getting into the body. Wait a second, does that mean that they stuffed garlic into every orifice? Oh my. So what's the problem with it being a blood thinner then? Well, why would you want to drink weak blood? I mean come on, get real. There's so many better vintages out there. Being a blood thinner is also one of the main reasons that people would eat tons of garlic in order to make their blood totally uninviting to any nearby vamps. Another contributing factor to how garlic is bad for vampires is the disease known as porphyria. And this particular disease makes people sensitive to light. Causes an erosion to the lips and gums which of course causes a fang-like appearance. And most importantly causes people to have an intolerance to high sulfur foods like garlic. There's also another well-known disease that causes hypersensitivity to light can cause bloody frothing at the mouth and can make people want to bite others. Anyone know what it is? That's right, it's rabies. And of course rabies causes people to be very sensitive to foods like garlic especially because people with rabies have a heightened sense of smell that is quite averse to garlic's strong scent. There's even an old legend that says people with rabies can't look at their own reflection. Uh oh. Another very viable reason of why vampires hate garlic comes from the world of insects. There are all manner of blood-sucking insects found across the globe and most of them track their prey by scent. Garlic not only stops this scent trail but is known to repel most blood-sucking insects like mosquitoes and ticks and diseases caused by mosquito bites actually used to be known as the touch of the vampire. Of course a mosquito isn't as big as a vampire though Alaskan and other mosquitoes can get pretty freaking big and scary. Though if you use enough garlic it's easy to understand how people thought the bigger bloodsuckers could be stopped by garlic just like the little bloodsuckers. Although oddly leeches have been known to move to a hand covered in garlic faster than a clean hand even though garlic can kill leeches. Can you say death wish? That brings us to the Christian Saint Andrew. He's the saint who's commonly believed to have brought garlic to humanity. Not only that but Saint Andrew's Eve, November 29th, is known as the Night of the Vampires because it's believed that the barrier between the real and spirit world is supposed to be super super thin at that time. In Romania they still celebrate this day and have a big party known as the guarding of the garlic party. During this celebration the host family smears tons of garlic all around their windows and doors and every young woman who attends needs to bring three cloves of garlic with them. The garlic is then placed in a pot and guarded by the oldest woman in the house. Then everyone eats tons of garlic, dances and parties till dawn and in the morning the protected garlic is given out and taken home as a symbol of protection against evil and vampires. And these aren't necessarily just outdated superstitious beliefs either. In 1970 a Romanian church gave out garlic to the people in their order and then observed the order to see if they wouldn't eat the garlic in order to find out if they were a vampire. As recently as 1989 during the Romanian Revolution people feared that because Nikolai Ceausescu didn't receive a proper burial he might turn into a vampire. So the revolutionary leader Gelu Voitkan carpeted the dead dictator's house with loads of garlic. Now St. Ancho's Eve isn't the only event linked to vampires and garlic. There are also garlic protection rituals built around St. George's Eve, Pentecost and even New Year's Eve. But let's go back in time to look at one final link between garlic and vampires, the plague. Outbreaks in vampire hysteria in Europe often coincided with outbreaks of the plague. And this was because people just didn't have any idea what was killing their friends and family. So as the people's imaginations started running wild they began attributing the deaths to supernatural beings such as witches, werewolves and of course vampires. And so people turned to garlic and other things to help protect themselves from these nasty creatures. While the primary folklore is believed to have migrated out of places like Transylvania and Romania and made its way across Europe thanks to gypsies and other travelers it was of course garlic's depiction in Bram Stoker's Dracula that solidified its place in vampire lore. In the book Van Helsing asks for garlic flowers to be placed around the room after Lucy is first bitten. He also weaves a necklace of garlic for her protection. When Lucy ends up becoming a vampire anyways he gives her the old wooden stake through the heart, chops off her head and then fills her mouth full of garlic. Now many other countries develop their own garlic traditions to ward off vampires too like in China and Malaysia where they would rub garlic on kids' foreheads or in the Philippines where it's rubbed under the armpits. As if armpits aren't smelly enough. And though there are a few odd beliefs around the world it is the ones that came from Eastern Europe that are still the most well known today when it comes to vampires aiding garlic. Nowadays many films and books have abandoned the use of garlic against vampires but its legacy still endures for when it comes to vampires it's better to be safe than sorry lest the vampires come for you. Those are all the reasons garlic is used against vampires or are they? Did I miss any other ones? Please let me know in the comments down below. If you want to see more crazy interesting folklore about plants then please watch the mythology of Basil next or the history of dandelions next. Please be kind, take care of each other and go ahead and spread a little bit of garlic around the house to keep those malevolent vampires obey. Just in case.