Halloween's Cat Through the Ages

The moon rises high this Halloween night, casting expansive obsidian shadows across the Earth. A black cat slips past unseen, its coat devouring the darkness, while its eyes gleam like embers in the glow of jack-o'-lanterns.

Step back in time to ancient Egypt, where black cats were revered as sacred companions. Cats received their nourishment in golden bowls. When a cat passed away, it was wrapped in fine linen, preserved with resin, and lovingly buried alongside offerings of milk and incense.

Celtic lands held similar reverence for the black cat. Scottish folklore tells of the Cat Sìth, a fairy creature as dark as night, with a white patch on its chest. On Samhain, bowls of milk were left on doorsteps to win the spirit's favor.

Go north to the frozen lands where Norse people told stories of Freyja, the goddess of love and war, who rode across the sky in a chariot pulled by two massive black cats. Farmers left gifts of milk and bread to be blessed with fertility and abundant harvests.

Moving east to Japan, the land of the rising sun, homes displayed white and calico Maneki-neko as symbols of good fortune. White beckoned purity and happiness, while calico was treasured for prosperity and exceptional luck. The black Maneki-neko stood watch, warding off spirits and misfortune.

Then came the dark times. In 1233, Pope Gregory IX issued Vox in Rama, a decree that would link cat imagery to darker forces and sow seeds of suspicion. Black cats became associated with malevolent magic. Women who fed stray cats were often accused of being witches, while the cats themselves were labeled as demons and slaughtered by the thousands.

Persecution of black cats has taken many forms throughout history. During medieval festivals across Europe, cats were often hurled from church towers or burned in wicker cages as part of religious celebrations. French builders would entomb cats within the walls of new structures as grim sacrifices meant to bring good fortune.

European superstitions crossed the Atlantic to colonial America. Puritan judges viewed women with black cats as followers of the devil. During the Salem witch trials, wild testimonies claimed that cats could speak in human voices. Fear took root in the New World. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, black cats were sometimes killed on sight in rural communities, shot by farmers who believed the animals brought disease to livestock or stole the breath from sleeping babies.

Sailors have woven black cats into maritime lore, viewing them as bringers of good fortune at sea. Japanese sailors believed that cats could sense approaching storms, although they preferred tortoiseshell-coated cats over black ones. British sailors viewed black cats as omens of luck and often welcomed them aboard their ships. The U.S. Navy carried cats aboard ship for practical and mystical reasons.

Today, the superstition persists in forms that remain damaging. Black cats are adopted from shelters at significantly lower rates than other cats. Dark fur makes black cats nearly invisible in photographs, and in the age of social media, an unphotogenic animal becomes an overlooked one. Walk through any shelter and you will see cats with orange stripes, calico patches, and white paws chosen first, while black cats press against cage bars, waiting. Weeks turn to months.

Some shelters completely stop allowing the adoption of black cats before Halloween due to safety concerns. Each year, there are reports of black cats being harmed or killed as a result of harmful misconceptions, cruel religious or cultural practices, and outdated biases.

This Halloween, should a black cat cross your path, look closer. Perhaps it is not the cat that embodies the darkness, but the weight of history that shadows its steps. The black cat is a sentient soul that has witnessed humanity at its most devoted and its most cruel.