If you have been thinking about a mid-term break in
Santorini, then you are probably expecting the leisurely pace of life, the pretty old main town with its whitewashed buildings and blue domes, the stunning sunsets over the sea that are taken in daily by wowed crowds of tourists, days spent by the sea and on boats, delicious local foods, cute little boutiques, and other such charms. However, if you find a
vacation rental in Greece and head there in the next few weeks, you might be glad to find out that it has an appropriately spooky past that perfectly suits this time of year, in the run up to Hallowe’en.
Santorini actually once had the reputation of being the most vampire-infested place in the world and is steeped in legends of ghosts, ghouls, and other creepy creatures. The biggest concern among these shadowy figures was the dreaded
Vrykolakas, or Vyrkolatios, a type of vampire. These creatures were said to have been born when babies were stillborn or people died without receiving their final rites, if a person was conceived or born on a Holy Day (which was considered a great blasphemy), if someone ate the meat of an animal that had been accidentally killed or not properly slaughtered, if a person didn’t have a proper burial, if someone died who had had a sinful life, if a body was passed over by an animal before burial, if a person was killed by a vampire, and in many other circumstances.