Discussion: Tradition and silver

"Hi everibody!
First of all, I introduce myself: I'm from Italy, I love fangs and I'm a fan of this series, but I didn't read the books (and I don't want to).
Did anybody knows about vampires' fear of silver? Can you tell me in which tradition that is a characteristic of the vampires?
Can we make a map of all the elements of the literary and cinematographic tradition about vampire's properties? "

"Thank you! :-)
Do you think we could list all the occurences of traditional vampires' characteristics in TB? This coul create a precise vampire mithology in TB"

"Silver is traditionally believed to be solidified moonlight. Just as the full moon brings out creatures of the night, silver has the power to repel and control them. This is why pentacles worn by Witches are almost always silver - it's powerful protection.

The idea that vampires don't have a reflection is because mirrors used to be backed with silver, which wouldn't reflect their image. Most mirrors now are backed other substances, so a vampire would have a reflection in most mirrors today. They wouldn't show up in photos taken with silver nitrate film, but would show up in modern digital images. Silver Bullets are believed to kill all of the undead - vampires, werewolves, etc.
"

"if vampires can only survive at night, why would concentrate moonlight be a repellent?"