Spooky Season Post # 22: Vampire Hunting.

These interesting objects, courtesy of the Vampa Museum of Paranormal Antiquities, are wooden stakes, blessed by a priest, that were used for vampire hunting. Really. I recently learned that there were periods of "Vampire Hysteria" in Europe and New England (not unlike the infamous witch hysteria), whereas if the deceased was suspected of becoming a vampire, the heart was either removed and staked or burned before interment, or exhumed after burial. According to the lore, if the heart had blood in it, that was further proof that the deceased had vampiric tendencies.