Halloween Outfits

Witches Halloween Outfits at Halloween

Common Halloween Costumes always include the halloween fancy dress of Cinderella, princesses, fairies, and witches. Many people remember reading stories of witches, including the Wicked Witch of the West or the White Witch, and so include the idea of witches in their Halloween Costumes lineup. But what is the origin of the idea of including witches in the array of costume choices?
The practice of magic or witchcraft is ancient. Early literature of the Greeks had the story of Circe, a witch who could change men into beasts, and Hecate was a witchcraft goddess whose presence was indicated by dogs barking. In some cultures, witches were not considered menacing but were the wise women who knew herbal healing remedies. It is probably from the practice of combining herbs in potions that cauldrons became associated with witches. However, Europeans had a deeply imbedded pagan culture, and the church’s tradition of baptizing infants came at the quarterly witches’ sabbath.
In the late 1600’s, witches were viewed as entirely evil by the Puritans. They believed that devout persons could discern witch activity in sickness; mysterious symptoms such as loss of sight, speech, hearing, or appetite; convulsions; and hallucinations. Many innocent men and women were accused and jailed, and 19 were convicted and killed by various means for the crime of witchcraft during the notable Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693. The Biblical injunction, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18), was justification enough for the witch hunts. Both the Salem court documents regarding Sarah Good and a later Arthur Miller play, The Crucible, are common readings of these trials in modern American high schools.
Some of the accoutrements of a witch’s halloween outfits Halloween Outfits include a pointed hat shaped like a cone and a broom. Archaeologist Margaret Murray associated prehistoric paintings of a god with horns with Satan and evil. This horned image of a devil has prevailed into modern times, and perhaps it is no accident that the Halloween costume standby for a witch’s hat is pointed as well. In a botanical sense, witches’ broom is the result of an attack of parasites on shrubs or trees. The result is an abnormal cluster of branches or twigs that grow upright to resemble a broom or bird’s nest. However, few putting together a Halloween outfit would associate the witch’s broom with an infestation of fungi, mistletoe, or mites. Most people today connect the witch’s broom with the early belief that witches flew on brooms on Halloween.
So the next time plans called for a magical Halloween Fancy dress, consider the witch Halloween Costumes with its long history of good witch, bad witch and the many symbolic accessories associated with these halloween outfits.