Silver, Vampires and Werewolves!
Tip: Halloween Tips for Silver
Written by Jenny and Rene Venegas
Our silversmith, Rene Venegas, enjoys making beautiful jewelry pieces out of silver. At this time of year, silver also comes in handy to help identify vampires and kill werewolves.
In 1897 Bram Stoker published Dracula and in the book we find reference to vampires avoiding mirrors. Why? Well, aside from trying to figure out what Mr. Stoker’s reasons were, (or maybe he was copying Alexandre Dumas’ vampire traits which were published 50 years earlier….but that is for another conversation another day) we do know that up until recently mirrors were backed with silver. And silver, (along with garlic, wink, wink) has antimicrobial properties, which means they have healing properties. And we all know vampires do not want to be cured, in fact, it is the opposite, they want to infect everyone. The same reasoning could be used to explain why silver bullets are used to kill werewolves.
In addition, there were strong superstitions in Europe at the time that silver repelled evil spirits. Perhaps because of its healing properties? Who knows? No soul, you say? My chair does not have a soul, but I see it in mirrors. Another reason for mirror avoidance could also be that years ago, people that had diseases, like rabies, had their appearance changed which they wanted to avoid seeing. Rabies can be spread through bats which, in turn could be actual vampires, for all we know. Hence, vampires stayed away from mirrors to avoid seeing how their appearance had changed. But then vampires have no reflection to be seen, so that argument becomes mute point. (And I find myself confusing myself while trying to explain it.) However, since they have no reflection, using a mirror is an easy way to identify a vampire.
Regardless, one should check their mirrors to verify they are silver backed, especially around Halloween, for, you know, just in case.
