Why are Black Cats a Symbol for Halloween?
The longstanding relationship between Halloween and the black cat may very well have started with the very fact that it is black. Black has long been associated with evil, due to the human’s primal fear of the night. Traditionally, white has been a symbol of goodness and purity while black represents danger and evil. But there is more to it than the color
of the cat. A black cat’s fur blends with the night, but its eyes are specially adapted to collect available light, making them glow, particularly at night-time, and giving them a mysterious, not-of-this-world look. Being primarily nocturnal, cats have plenty of opportunity to show that peculiar, scary look. For centuries, black cats have played a major role in folklore, superstition, and mythology.
Pagan religions such as witchcraft originally identified with the animals of nature, including the cat. However, after the rise of Christianity, the church decided witchcraft was evil, and cats, since they were associated with witches, were deemed evil by proxy. Some thought that witches had the ability to change shape into a cat, and cats were often tortured and killed by Christian puritans along with the accused witches.
In many cultures, bad luck was attributed to cats. Supposedly, King Charles I of England owned a black cat and the day his cat died, he was arrested. It was an old sailor's legend that encountering a cat in the shipyard meant a stormy voyage or other bad luck. In Babylonian folklore, a curled-up cat on the hearth was a symbol comparable to that of an
evil serpent.
Still, not every culture thought that black cats were bad luck. In ancient Egypt, cats were held in very high esteem. To kill one, even accidentally, was punishable by death. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that when a cat died, the household would go into mourning as if for a human, and family members would often shave their eyebrows to signify their grief. Ancient Egyptians often mummified their cats so that they could accompany them in the afterlife.
Remember, cat lovers--especially on dark and stormy nights--what cats have been through to get to the place they hold in our hearts today!
The longstanding relationship between Halloween and the black cat may very well have started with the very fact that it is black. Black has long been associated with evil, due to the human’s primal fear of the night. Traditionally, white has been a symbol of goodness and purity while black represents danger and evil. But there is more to it than the color
of the cat. A black cat’s fur blends with the night, but its eyes are specially adapted to collect available light, making them glow, particularly at night-time, and giving them a mysterious, not-of-this-world look. Being primarily nocturnal, cats have plenty of opportunity to show that peculiar, scary look. For centuries, black cats have played a major role in folklore, superstition, and mythology.
Pagan religions such as witchcraft originally identified with the animals of nature, including the cat. However, after the rise of Christianity, the church decided witchcraft was evil, and cats, since they were associated with witches, were deemed evil by proxy. Some thought that witches had the ability to change shape into a cat, and cats were often tortured and killed by Christian puritans along with the accused witches.
In many cultures, bad luck was attributed to cats. Supposedly, King Charles I of England owned a black cat and the day his cat died, he was arrested. It was an old sailor's legend that encountering a cat in the shipyard meant a stormy voyage or other bad luck. In Babylonian folklore, a curled-up cat on the hearth was a symbol comparable to that of an
evil serpent.
Still, not every culture thought that black cats were bad luck. In ancient Egypt, cats were held in very high esteem. To kill one, even accidentally, was punishable by death. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that when a cat died, the household would go into mourning as if for a human, and family members would often shave their eyebrows to signify their grief. Ancient Egyptians often mummified their cats so that they could accompany them in the afterlife.
Remember, cat lovers--especially on dark and stormy nights--what cats have been through to get to the place they hold in our hearts today!