Zombies

Zombies have become a more recent staple of Halloween folklore, but their origins are far from new.

Belief in zombies originated from the voodoo religion, which is a blend of West African religious cults, Catholicism and texts from French grimoires of the 18th century. Zombies were real to many people in Haiti, who believed that magicians had restored the dead to life as slaves. But authorities in the area thought that these “slaves” were actually people who had been drugged into a coma, Zombie by Federico D’Allesandrothought dead and brought back to life with other drugs, to be used as workers in Haiti’s sugar plantations. Their tongues were often cut out in order to keep them from seeking help or contacting law enforcement. The Haiti government made the practices illegal and several so-called sorcerers were tried and executed for creating such slaves.

Today zombies can only be seen in the movies, where they roam the streets in droves, looking for flesh to devour. Like ghosts, they often haunt the places they frequented in life, sometimes mocking the actions they performed often while alive.