Vampire pumpkins and watermelons
Vampire pumpkins and watermelons
...this transformation occurs if these ground fruit have been kept for more than ten days: then the gathered pumpkins stir all by themselves and make a sound like 'brrrl, brrrl, brrrl!' and begin to shake themselves.
The More You Know
Firstly, that's hella interesting.
Secondly, I did not realize that the Roma were (are? Some are/were?) Muslim. I associated the Roma with Catholicism and Hinduism.
Thirdly, how the fuck does one use a pumpkin as a syphon?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people#:~:text=Belonging and exclusion
I was interested in Romani religion too... Check it out.
Most Romani are Christian,[277] but many are Muslims; some retained their ancient faith of Hinduism from their original homeland of India, while others have their own religion and political organization.[278] In parts of Southeast Europe, particularly in Bulgaria, some Roma who are Muslim identify as ethnic Turks, and over generations have adopted the Turkish language.[279] Theravada Buddhism influenced by the Dalit Buddhist movement have become popular in recent times among Hungarian Roma.[71][72] Some Roma practice witchcraft and palmistry.[280]
Elsewhere it states this is because the Romani often chose to convert to the major religion of the area, as many other peoples did.
Went on a deep dive last night (well, as deep as one can in a night) on this. Super interesting! Found the Romani subreddit, and there's ton of really cool information on there from actual Romani people. Mentioned to my mom what I was reading, and she informed me that her dad's mother's family were Romani, but she doesn't know anything about them. Had several TIL moments last night! Lol
Edit: never did find out how you use a pumpkin as a syphon, though. That's gonna haunt me.
Curious what exactly they get up to...
These pumpkins and melons go round the houses, stables, and rooms at night, all by themselves, and do harm to people. But it is thought that they cannot do great damage to folk, so people are not very afraid of this kind of vampire.