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Oct. 29th, 2007 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivienDay 29 - What is Halloween without black cats?
From the BBC Wiki:
Black Cats in Every Culture
One of the earliest associations of black cats with bad luck perhaps comes from ancient Babylonian and Hebrew mythologies. These myths compare the black cat, coiled in a circle as it dozes on the hearth, to a serpent. The serpent in most cultures was considered a purveyor of evils and misfortune.
The Celts thought black cats were reincarnated beings who were able to divine the future and the Normans believed that if a black cat crossed your path in the moonlight, you would die in an epidemic. During the Middle Ages the Germans believed that if a black cat jumped on the bed of a sick person it meant death was approaching and in Finland, black cats were thought to carry the souls of the dead to the other world.
Black Cats and Witches
Cats are often believed to be the familiars of witches, because of their purported supernatural abilities and black cats, because of their ability to remain unseen in dark places or at night, were considered especially desirable partners for witches. Black cats were sometimes thought to be the Devil himself, and on Easter and Shrove Tuesday during the Middle Ages, black cats were routinely hunted down and burned. A witch that had a black cat was therefore said to be in league with the Devil!
In witch trials, ownership of a cat was taken as evidence of witchcraft. Cats, believed to be evil in their own right, were often punished as well as humans during these trials, often burned at the stake with their owners. There are also accounts of townspeople harming a black cat and then later finding wounds on a village woman (usually a suspected witch) that matched the cat's injuries.
From the BBC Wiki:
Black Cats in Every Culture
One of the earliest associations of black cats with bad luck perhaps comes from ancient Babylonian and Hebrew mythologies. These myths compare the black cat, coiled in a circle as it dozes on the hearth, to a serpent. The serpent in most cultures was considered a purveyor of evils and misfortune.
The Celts thought black cats were reincarnated beings who were able to divine the future and the Normans believed that if a black cat crossed your path in the moonlight, you would die in an epidemic. During the Middle Ages the Germans believed that if a black cat jumped on the bed of a sick person it meant death was approaching and in Finland, black cats were thought to carry the souls of the dead to the other world.
Black Cats and Witches
Cats are often believed to be the familiars of witches, because of their purported supernatural abilities and black cats, because of their ability to remain unseen in dark places or at night, were considered especially desirable partners for witches. Black cats were sometimes thought to be the Devil himself, and on Easter and Shrove Tuesday during the Middle Ages, black cats were routinely hunted down and burned. A witch that had a black cat was therefore said to be in league with the Devil!
In witch trials, ownership of a cat was taken as evidence of witchcraft. Cats, believed to be evil in their own right, were often punished as well as humans during these trials, often burned at the stake with their owners. There are also accounts of townspeople harming a black cat and then later finding wounds on a village woman (usually a suspected witch) that matched the cat's injuries.
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Date: 2007-10-30 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-30 01:18 pm (UTC)Sadly, there is still a small group of people who hunt down and kill black cats today. A neighbor of mine from many years ago had a black cat, and she told my family she had to keep her cat well hidden in the home because of these people. It's sad. Black cats are beautiful. Halloween wouldn't be the same without them.
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Date: 2007-10-31 12:08 am (UTC)