Abruzzi

Abruzzi is a name of a town, a vampire spirit and also the festival that is being celebrated on that town to honour the spirit of the dead every November 1.  It is a town located in Central Italy.

Families of the deceased will leave candles on the tomb of their loved ones believing that they will rise up from their grave.  They also place lighted candles on their window to help them track their way home.  They will leave bread and other consumable materials on the table as a form of offerings to the dead.  The town believed that during a certain time, all the spirits in the grave will rise up.  The spirits will all gather in one place and start to march leading to the town and into the house where they used to reside.  The lines are lead by the good souls, next in line would be the souls of the bad people, then the soul of the murdered and last but not the least would be the spirits of the condemned.  They will return home just to consume the offerings that their family left on the food table.

Someone who understands magic and incantation claimed that there is a complicated ritual that one can perform in order to see the procession of spirit.  But they also claimed that this ritual is very dangerous since it can lead to insanity and eventually to death.

Interesting to know that Italy does not have the entire concept of a vampire, the closest idea they have about the rising of the dead is through this festival and probably to the witch whom they called striga.  These witches are known to attack children, a traditional ritual is executed in order to drive away the evil spirit but most of the time people will seek the help of the church in order to keep them safe from this entity.