In Russia, masks were worn by mourners in funeral processions, devious routes were taken on the way back home, and the mourners did not look back as they traveled away from the grave, all in an effort to keep any body that might turn vampire from coming back to town and finding people it recognized.
Another simple way to avoid vampires was to bury the body in such a way that it would become disoriented and have a difficult time finding its way out of its grave or into the village.
The way that a person is buried was very important and could mean the difference between everlasting death and eternal damnation. A person buried face down could not become a vampire because it could not chew through its burial shroud.
Being buried face down also confuses the vampire so that it doesn’t know which way to dig out of the coffin. In order to prevent vampires from chewing out of their death shrouds people would fill the corpses mouth with dirt, coins, garlic, and sew the mouth shut. In Romania, people buried a candle, a coin, and a towel in with the corpse to prevent vampirism.
It was a Romanian tradition to carry bread and wine to the fresh grave site. Many times the corpses would be buried with food so that the vampire could have something else to feed on besides human flesh. Of course, garlic has always been a natural source thought to prevent and protect people from vampires. The garlic would be stuffed into the nostrils, ears, and eyes or hung around the neck.
Preventing the vampire from moving from his grave will render him harmless. The Greeks would bury corpses wrapped in fishing nets. The net would keep the corpse tightly secure so that the vampire could not break free of its coffin.
Sharp thorns, briers and other spiky objects were used to obstruct the vampire from walking. By putting wooded stakes into the dead body the devil could not reanimate the corpse.
In some cultures the stakes were large enough to impale the vampire to the ground so that it could not escape. Sharp objects were also put under the corpse’s tongue to keep the vampire from sucking blood.
Binding the hands and feet of the corpse tightly was very important. Binding the corpse impedes a vampire’s efforts to rise from the grave.