ORIGINS OF SPOOKY CHARACTERS:
1: BLACK CAT
SOURCE: https://www.history.com/news/black-cats-superstitions
In Ancient Egyptian culture, cats were always worshiped as god-like creatures which hosted divine beings in their bodies. But, in European culture, kitty cats, specifically black ones, were met with an unlucky fate.
In 1233, Pope Gregory IX wrote the decretal Vox in Rama in which he described black cats as the incarnation of Satan. Such accusations stemmed from early witchcraft in Germany where some practices for the satanic sect included kissing a black cat’s behind.
Since then, black cats have been fused with witches and have become a staple of the modern American Halloween.
2: WITCHES
SOURCE:https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-witches#section_1
Witches have been prevalent since biblical times. The first record of witches, depicted as mediums or pagans doing the devil’s work, are traced to the Bible in 1 Samuel 28.
After centuries of ridicule for their practices, the media took the old hags from rags to ‘witches’ in the 1900’s.
Since then, the typical witch look, a ghastly woman with a crooked nose and black cloak, has taken on a more mainstream appeal. With the media now portraying witches with a far more ‘feminist’ attitude, witches are starting to gain a new appeal.
3: ZOMBIES
Zombies were first recorded in Haitian Folklore as a product of the spells cast by a voodoo (voudou) sorcerer known as a bokor.
In times of brutal and aberrant slavery in the Americas, tales of zombis (the ‘e’ was added later) would scare people out of committing suicide for fear of becoming a walking corpse. As American culture took hold of the Haitian’s Creole lore, the modern depiction of a zombie was created.
Now, far astrayed from its origins, zombies are seen as green-skinned, slow mindless corpses that wander the earth out for the blood of the living.
4: VAMPIRES
SOURCE: https://www.britannica.com/topic/vampire
While most people think of a pale figure with fangs donning a high-collared cape, vampires have been around since ancient times. Ancient Greek mythology tells of creatures that drained the blood of the living.
In medieval Europe, during times of disease and plague, the concept of undead blood-suckers swept the lands.
As these dieases reaped more and more from the population, the vampire’s look was given its modern attributes. When people were dying of tuberculosis, they could not be in the sunlight, taking on a ghoulish pale look, and rabies, which creates sensitivity of the mouth, birthed the vampire’s repulsion of garlic.
Today, vampires are portrayed all throughout the media from Dracula to the “Twilight” Saga.
