Thousands of years ago, the pagans considered most of the Halloween symbols that
are commonly associated with witches and wizards or evil entities to be sacred.
When Christianity adopted Halloween as one of their own festivals, they started
interpreting these symbols as signs of wickedness, devil or associated to
Satanism, so that people turn away from paganism and its practices. We are
discussing some of these symbols that are still used on Halloween, but the
legends of their origin are faded by dust of time. Explore the article to know
about the traditional Halloween symbols.
Symbols of Halloween
Cats
Egyptians considered cats sacred and their Goddess Bast was considered the
divine Mother of all cats. This Goddess was believed to live in the city of
Bubastis, which was also considered sacred and was well known for its elaborate
festivals and joyous festivities. Greek Goddess resembling Bast was known as
Artemis, while the Roman Goddess with similar traits was known as Diana. In the
Middle Ages, Diana was thought to be the Queen of Witches and thus, cats were
thought to be related to witchcraft and considered as common pets of the
witches. Today, cats have become one of the popular emblems of Halloween and
black cat is often associated with misfortune and ill omens.
Masks
In the ancient ages, Egyptians often used masks to impersonate their deities.
Their art included elaborate masks that cover the entire face of the wearer, who
were believed to embody the deities and divinities and anyone who wearing such a
mask was believed to manifest these pagan deities in human form. Mask was known
in Teutonic as 'Grim', which was also a common part of the names of the deities.
In Medieval ages, Christian churches forbade wearing of masks, to avoid such
practices, but people continued to wear them on pagan festivals and the
celebrations adopted in Christianity, such as Halloween and Carnivals.
Owls
Owl represents the Wise Woman of the village, also known as cunning healer and
Herb mother or Crone of the village. It had once been associated with myriad
forms of Goddess of Wisdom and Mortality, such as Athene, Anath, Blodeuwedd,
Lilith, Minerva and Mari (the Goddess having eyes like an owl and who seems to
stare). Mari could take the shape of the owl at will too. Today, owls are
associated with witches, especially at Halloween. Harry Potter's world created
by J. K. Rowling also portrays owls being the pets of witches and wizards and
used by them as means of communication.
Triangular Cakes
In English Witchcraft, it is believed that the ceremony of Cakes and Wine is a
must after every meeting, where the high priestess distributes crescent or
triangle-shaped small cakes and biscuits to the communion. As recently as in the
20th century, people from rural Scotland used to bake triangular cakes for
Halloween and the woman who baked these cakes were called 'the Bride.' Next
year, an old woman known as 'Caillech' or 'Auld Wife', who was believed to be an
incarnation of the Crone, replaced the Bride in baking these magical cakes.
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