HORA: Romanian Monsters and Undead Myths

Join us any Sunday in October to learn about strigoi, varcolaci, moroi, and vampires. All these creatures fill the rich Romanian folklore with beliefs and stories: born from the power of ancient memories and the fear of the unknown in the face of death, disease, illnesses, and events that change the life of people in major and unexplained ways, these beliefs have constituted a complex culture meant to empower the Romanian villager against unexpected odds. People invented many ways and means to “ward off” and protect themselves from the ills of evil forces that even though the Romanian villager is very religious, the religious festivals are surrounded and interspersed with pagan rituals meant to “complete” the instances when prayer didn’t seem to do the job. Pagan in origin, the belief in evil beings and the protection against them is still – even in these modern times – present, even though not always acknowledged. It is easy to understand why people needed to give explanations to catastrophes, disease, and adverse natural phenomena that changed their lives for the worse.