Bat
A bat in flight, the night creature of Halloween decorations. Two explanations are given for it: the vampire legend, and bats drawn to the insects around Samhain bonfires.
Meaning
The US Fish and Wildlife Service puts the Halloween bat down to “a near universal myth: the vampire”, though only three of the more than 1,300 kinds of bat feed on blood. Bat Conservation International offers another explanation: the bonfires of Samhain drew moths and other insects, and the insects drew bats. Bat Conservation International finds the bat on Halloween decorations wherever the holiday is kept today, including Japan, Korea, South America and India.
Origin and history
Legends of blood-drinking beings are far older than Europe’s knowledge of blood-drinking bats. The Fish and Wildlife Service explains that vampire bats live only in Central and South America; stories of them spread around the world after Europeans arrived there, and the bats were named after the legend, not the legend after the bats.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) put the two together. One character remembers a mare he lost on the Pampas: “One of those big bats that they call vampires had got at her in the night”, and there “wasn’t enough blood in her to let her stand up”. Later the count is said to take the shape of a wolf, a mist or a bat, “as Madam Mina saw him on the window at Whitby”.
The bonfire explanation
Bat Conservation International’s account of bats at the Samhain bonfires is an explanation, not a record: the organisation itself says “much is conjectured as to what the Celts believed about bats.” It suggests that bat spotting has faded from Halloween because there are fewer bats than there were. The Owl, the other night creature of Halloween, has an older written history as an omen.
See also
Owl, Bonfire, Jack-o’-lantern, Black cat, Witch’s hat and broom, Skeleton and skull.
Sources
- Bats in the Night: Unraveling the Ancient Connection to Halloween (Paul Hormick, Bat Conservation International), Paul Hormick, Bat Conservation International blog, Bat Conservation International, article text
- Wings, Whiskers, and Webs (US Fish and Wildlife Service, 2025), US Fish and Wildlife Service, story, September 2025, US Fish and Wildlife Service, section on bats
- Creepin' it Real: Why Bats Don't Suck (US Fish and Wildlife Service), US Fish and Wildlife Service, story, US Fish and Wildlife Service, article text
- Dracula (Bram Stoker, 1897), Bram Stoker, Dracula (first published London, 1897), chapters XII and XVIII; Modern Library edition, New York, Internet Archive, chapters XII and XVIII
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Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research