sally_point_zero | Aug. 24th, 2007

Trannsylvanian landscape (photo from Google)

The talk by Benjamin Davies, a young guy who actually grew up in Trannsylvania and travelled with the gypsies there, was fascinating, lively and vivid.
I expect y'all want to hear about The Vampires. Well its much as I thought, with one surprising twist...YES they exist among the lexicon of demons (headed by 'The Night') but are of extremely minor import to the ordinary folk who don't cater for tourists and NO they are not intelligent bat-fanged characters but zombies!
In this respect the Trannsylvanian vampire is much like the ressurected dead of Haiti.
Oh and another subject debunked was tarot cards. The gypsies use an entirely different deck (made of only 'face' cards) and treat them with scant reverence. In fact they use the same deck of cards to um, play cards with.
Western imagination via novels, film and rampant tourism has thoroughly warped historical reality for the thrill-seeking majority.
As I myself adore thrills and imagination....guilty as charged!
However, I think its of paramount importance to keep a firm grip on fact whilst enjoying the fiction.

late 19th C. photograph of Trannsylvanian gypsies (tho by Benjamin Davies' account this might have been taken last week...clans of gypsies are still making a months' trek on foot-there is no other way- to celebrate the Easter-time festival Punkist (pheonetic sp)