A Deep Dive into the Black Cat Tradition of Halloween

This essay examines the intriguing tradition of black cats during Halloween, tracing its origins and evolution. It begins by highlighting the diverse cultures and traditions globally, emphasizing how globalization and the internet have facilitated the sharing of these practices. The essay then delves into the Halloween tradition, explaining its Christian origins and connections to the Celtic festival of Samhain. It focuses on the black cat superstition, explaining how the avoidance of black cats became a key aspect of Halloween, stemming from beliefs about witches and evil spirits. The essay references multiple sources to provide a comprehensive understanding of the historical and cultural context surrounding this Halloween tradition, offering insights into why black cats are singled out and how this superstition has persisted through time, concluding by emphasizing the difference between honoring saints and avoiding superstitions.

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Black Cats Tradition of Halloween
Name
School

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Black Cats Tradition of Halloween
Hello Friends,
I am ……….xxxxxxx………….,
Today, we live in a world characterized by multiple cultures and traditions spread across the
globe among over 7 billion population. Having said that, the world was always the same; the
only difference is that internet technology and globalization has made it possible for us to
witness and experience every aspect of cultures and traditions by various possible means.
When we discuss cultures and traditions, we generally mean cultures and traditions that emanate
from religious practices or beliefs shared by a group of people belonging to a particular land
area. Every culture has its own traditions that have its own sets of practice implemented by the
adherents of the tradition.
Since the turn of the 19th century, cultures and traditions that were strictly confined to a particular
religious belief have come to be celebrated in a participative manner just for fun, feast and
universal brotherhood. Christmas celebration has many traditions that are followed all over the
world. Muslim festival of Eid is regarded as the day of feast by many people all over the world.
The tradition of burning lamp in Hindu festival Diwali is now also seen in various regions of US,
especially the White House.
Some traditions attached with festive events are easy to understand and reasons for carrying out
those traditions are well known to people whereas reasons for some traditions are not known by
the people who do them. They are funny, entertaining, and awkward and have fascinating history
behind them like the ‘Black cat’ tradition of Halloween. In ‘how stuff works’ article Tom
pointed elaborated some basic traditions of Halloween along with the ‘black cats’ have also been
maintained which corroborates with the points mentioned here (Tom).

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“Halloween, the festival, in itself is filled with lots of mystery, superstition and magical things;
the black cat traditions believed and followed in Halloween adds up more superstitious spice to
the event. Black cat tradition in Halloween is more about ‘what not to do’ than ‘what to do’ in
order to avoid the harm witches can do to you. Outright funny!” We will see more of what that
famous black cat is. Nunez, in his article, titled, “Why Are Black Cats A Halloween Symbol?
Here’s Story Behind This Spooky Holiday Icon” questioned the black cats traditions in a funny
way and then provided answers by himself (Nunez).
Halloween is a Christian festival started by Pope Gregory III during his reign as the guardian of
the faith in eighth century. The pope started the event as All Saints day on November 1 to honor
all the crusaders who were martyred for the sake of faith. The evening before the day i.e. 31st
October, is observed as Halloween also known as Hallows Eve. All Saints and the Halloween
eve incorporated some of the traditions connected with the Celtic festival of Samhain of ancient
times. People of the Samhain would light up fires and wore customs to ward off the effects of
ghosts and evils that they believed roamed during the festival. We can see that Halloween is
connected with the dead and pleasing or warding off the dead souls. Over time the Halloween
event became more connected with the souls of the dead and all traditions centered on death and
the roaming of the souls. It is believed that the souls of the dead walk free during Halloween
event and must be pleased or pacified for which many traditions emerged since then. Saintly
souls are to be pleased and the evil souls are to be warded off.
Traditions like Jack O lanterns, trick or treating, donning of costumes and sweets distribution,
Black cats are common with Halloween eve. Among all the traditions, the’ black cats’ tradition
of avoiding black cats and all the preparations that people do to avoid black cats at any cost
makes the ‘black cats’ most fascinating and intriguing tradition. We have seen how people in the

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ancient Samhain’s took steps to avoid evils and ghosts during Celtic festivals. We have also seen
Halloween connection with the dead and the preparations taken to either to please the dead or
ward them off. During Halloween eve black cats are to be avoided as they are believed to be
carrier of evil souls who could do harm to people. People try not to walk in areas where cats
commonly hide themselves to avoid any encounter with black cats. They remind children of the
house and lay out special instructions on how not to encounter the black cats. All of these have
turned the act of avoiding black cats into a special set of traditions famously known as Black cats
(Kirsten).
Now, wonder why black cats are singled out for such ghostly discrimination and why not the
whites and the colored ones. This ‘black cats’ now dates back to the old times when many people
believed that witches, the female ghosts roamed around to do harm to people. People wanted to
avoid them any cost as they feared these witches could inflict severe harm to them that also
includes death and killing. Witches are believed to have special power which can kill people or
harm them. Isn’t it? People wanted to avoid these witches and these witches desperately wanted
to harm people and to do this, they had to avoid detection. Somewhere in the Middle Ages, it
became popular that witches took the shape of black cats to trick people and avoid detection and
harm people. We can see now why people avoid black cats on Hallows eve and why all the
special preparations are taken to do that. Kuiper, in an article, titled, ‘Halloween’, provided all
the details that have been mentioned in this paragraph (Kuiper).
I hope you have come to know about the ‘black Cats’ traditions during Hallows eve or avoiding
‘black cats’ traditions. It is just amazing how one superstitious belief can give rise to a tradition,
how that tradition can turn into mandatory superstitions and how they can be incorporated into
an event and blindly followed by people. Halloween black cat tradition is a perfect example of

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incorporation of various events of the past into a tradition. Likewise, other traditions of
Halloweens are also connected to some or the belief and tradition of the past. It is not only the
Halloween but many festivals have traditions that follows similar scripts which means they have
some or the story behind them.
Having said all, I would like to conclude by saying that churches only promote the All saints day
and the traditions of honoring and not any of the superstitions and we are better off knowing why
we do certain things to avoid superstition and superstitious traditions.

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References
Nunez, Kirsten. “Why Are Black Cats A Halloween Symbol? Here’s Story Behind This Spooky
Holiday Icon.” Bustle 31 Oct. 2016. Web. 26 Mar. 2019.
<https://www.bustle.com/articles/192234-why-are-black-cats-a-halloween-symbol-heres-the-history-
behind-this-spooky-holiday-icon>.
Kuiper, Kathleen. “Halloween”. Encycloepaedia Britannica 03 Dec. 2018. Web. 26 Mar. 2019.
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/Halloween>
Harris, Tom. “How Halloween Works”. How Stuff Works 05 Oct. 2017. Web. 26 Mar. 2019.
<https://www.howstuffworks.com/about-author.htm#tom%20harris>