By: Megan Lawrence
Copy Editor
Halloween is this Saturday, but many animal figures closely associated with it have deep histories and misguided rhetoric. To quell some of the falsehoods surrounding them, here are some superstitious creatures and deceitful attributions to them throughout folklore and history.
Bats (and Vampires)
Through the spread of what was most likely a combination of rabies, porphyria, and tuberculosis, European folklore began to revolve around bloodsucking creatures. Catholic influence in the area at this time promoted the use of crucifixes and holy water drew in more people to the church in search of defensive measures, believing it could protect them from what they either knew was a real disease or saw to be a demonic force possessing people. These fears evolved into accounts of what are now known as vampires.
While the most famous piece of vampiric literature is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, John William Polidori’s The Vampyre predates it by 78 years with its release in 1819. While visiting Lord Byron in Switzerland, Polidori and Percy and Mary Shelley engaged in a writing contest with Byron, inspiring not only the progenitor of vampiric fiction with Polidori’s story, but also the progenitor of science fiction with Mary’s Frankenstein.
Since this, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, Florence Marryat’s The Blood of the Vampire, and Stoker’s Dracula have become the most popular and influential pieces of fiction depicting vampires.
Inspiration for Dracula connects back to Vlad Drăculea, who was Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia, Romania for many years. Called Vlad the Impaler, he was best known for driving a stake through enemies’ hearts to kill them and, according to local legend, dipping bread in his victims’ blood.
While the term vampire dates back to the 1700s, it wasn’t initially associated with bloodsucking creatures in folklore, but rather the real-life, bloodsucking vampire bat.
Along with the sanguivorous (blood-eating) nature of vampire bats, bats in general are prone to carrying a host of diseases, especially rabies. Accounts of vampire bats and their disease-carrying nature most likely led to the belief they were demonic, though human-like creatures that had taken bat form to suck people’s blood.
While rabies is closely associated with bats, symptoms of porphyria note sensitivity to the sun, and tuberculosis likely gave weight to accounts of pale skin and blood-stained lips from coughing up blood in the lungs.
In Stoker’s novel, Count Dracula turns into a wolf and a bat, paralleling myths of the forms vampires could take to prey on their victims and taking inspiration from werewolves. The association of vampires with bats was not only given credence through the aforementioned symptoms of porphyria, but also bats’ nocturnal nature, creating even more fear around them and those privy to the night.
Because bats can still carry diseases, though there’s not a huge risk, they are best left alone. Nevertheless, they are still instrumental to the environment, especially cave ecosystems. You can learn more and support bat conservation at merlintuttle.org.
Black Cats
Initially, Halloween was All Hallows’ Eve, the day before All Saints’ Day. November 1 was dubbed by the Catholic Church in the 700s as the day celebrating spirits and saints who had made it to heaven. The dead are often honored by the church for 3 days straight, those being October 31 to November 2, the latter of which is known as All Souls’ Day. This celebration is the root Mexico’s Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), in which the dead are also remembered from October 31 to November 2.
Given witchcraft is attuned to the spiritual and divine, the supposed disruption of natural life through spiritual contact and the raising of the dead became yet another source of the condemnation of witches.
History.com cites a 1233 document issued by Pope Gregory IX as the first known connection of cats to Satan, with the church deeming them as evil creatures. They later became associated with witches, being depicted as their animal companions; some even claimed witches could turn into black cats to escape conviction. This lines up with the initial hunting and burning of supposed witches around Europe at the time, long before the 1690s’ Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts.
Cats becoming familiars, which are spiritual guides in the form of animals to aid magic figures, lent credence to supernatural accusations against women. In pop culture, the relationship was documented in 90s sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, with a human-turned-cat familiar named Salem as Sabrina’s companion.
Greek Titan and goddess of witchcraft Hecate was often depicted as Selene, goddess of the moon, due to the amplification of her powers at night. Hecate, Selene, and Artemis, goddess of the hunt and the moon, gave witches, the moon, nighttime, and wild animals a natural association with each other. Human fear of the night in general is the root of dark magic and myths of evil, magical creatures, leading to 12:00-4:00 am, depending on definitions, being dubbed the witching hour, when spirits would come out to haunt or kill people late at night.
While Hecate was depicted as a witch, her ironic association with dogs likely led to tellings of werewolves. The natural connection of cats with the nighttime, however, came from their hunting habits, and further fear was likely propelled by their ability to blend in with the darkness, making them threatening predators.
In my experience, especially in owning one myself, black cats tend to be incredibly sweet and loving. Ironically, we found my cat 10 years ago on another holiday that’s even scarier than Halloween for animals: the fourth of July. Most cats are often lost and scared, especially around fireworks. Because of false superstitions, black cats are treated even worse, so much so that they are far more likely to wait longer in animal shelters compared to their lighter counterparts and to be euthanized, while also being less likely to get adopted at all.
Spiders
Admittedly, we have genuine reasons to fear spiders, so their association with Halloween only seems natural.
Initial fears of spiders came from evolutionary instinct, as their small and aggressive nature posed them as a threat. Today, many people still think of spiders as “poisonous,” when in reality, they are venomous, meaning they create a natural venom to kill their prey. Almost all spiders are venomous, but because they often only use their venom on small bugs, only a select few actually pose threats to humans. Across more than 52,000 species, less than 30 can severely harm or kill humans; nonetheless, these myths have persisted.
an early depiction of spiders in myths IS the Greek story of Arachne, in which a young girl and expert weaver defeats Athena at a tapestry weaving contest. Athena, out of jealousy, tears the tapestry up and beats Arachne in a rage, later causing the girl to commit suicide. Using juice of an herb from Hecate, she turns Arachne into a spider so she can continue to weave by creating webs.
As this story stands, it is supposed to act as the origin story of spiders, though clearly fictional, with Arachne being the first. Before this story, the name’s etymological origins point to it meaning spider in Greek, later forming into the blanket term arachnid that refers to spiders and spider-like creatures.
While the evolution of spider superstitions comes from European myths, other cultures depict spiders as powerful or lucky, and they may even eat them as a delicacy. One example of this is Cambodia, the people of which turned to eating tarantulas to not suffer from starvation under the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s; after the regime, the habit continued, and tarantulas are still served today.
Many myths of crossing paths with spiders often pose them as fortune tellers, in which they weave webs to tell your future or signify positive financial outcomes ahead; ones on the small side are even termed money spiders. Due to their nature of hunting and weaving webs to catch prey, they have also been seen as symbols of protection, especially in China. Predictions from spider sightings often range from good luck to omens of death, especially after killing one.
The next time you’re about to crush a spider, instead of believing myths involving luck, consider how your action would impact the environment. Spiders can create up to 2,000 eggs depending on the species, so killing a spider with babies could set back your local environment enormously, or it would at least lead to the consequence of having a gaggle of baby spiders crawling around your house. Spiders can be very useful in your house or around your garden to trap and eat pests, combatting infestations. To deal with a spider, grab a cup and a piece of paper to scoop it up and toss it outside.
Many people, perhaps unconsciously, believe in superstitions, even ones involving mirrors, ladders, or numbers. While you’re fine to knock on wood to not jinx something or avoid stepping on cracks in the pavement, it’s best not to give any belief to superstitions or myths that influence malicious treatment of animals.
Happy Halloween from the Pioneer Press.
All photos courtesy of thegraphicsfairy.com
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