Black cat
The witch’s cat of Halloween. In English witch lore the devil gave witches familiars, often cats; in English sailors’ lore and in Japan a black cat is a sign of good fortune.
Meaning
The black cat on Halloween decorations is the Witch’s hat and broom’s cat. Brand’s Popular Antiquities (1853) describes the familiar as an imp the devil gave a witch “in the shape of a cat or a kitten, a mole, millerfly, or some other insect or animal”, and quotes a nurse’s recipe for a witch from the tract Round about our Coal Fire: “she must have a black cat, two or three broomsticks”. James Frazer, describing Hallowe’en in the Celtic countries, has witches “galloping along the roads on tabby-cats, which for that evening are turned into coal-black steeds.” The same animal is lucky elsewhere. Ginny Roth of the US National Library of Medicine records that a black cat that came aboard an English ship and stayed meant good luck, and that in Japan black cats are believed to bring prosperity, bless a marriage and ensure good harvests.
Origin and history
Familiars appear often in witch-trial testimony. National Geographic cites Agnes Waterhouse, a widow of Hatfield Peverel, who confessed in 1566 to keeping a cat named Satan that she had used to kill and injure people. Familiars could also be toads, dogs, owls or even spiders.
Roth writes that the fear of black cats crossed to America with the Puritans, who were on guard against witches and their cats.
Did a pope condemn black cats?
Not in the letter usually cited, according to Snopes. The document usually named is Vox in Rama, a letter Pope Gregory IX wrote in 1233 to Konrad of Marburg and two German bishops about a sect of supposed devil-worshippers. Snopes quotes the passage: at the end of the sect’s meal, “a black cat about the size of an average dog, descends backwards, with its tail erect” from a statue, and each member kisses it on the hindquarters. Snopes reads this as a description of one alleged ritual, and finds no evidence of mass cat killings in the Middle Ages. National Geographic (2024), by contrast, says the letter declared black cats “an incarnation of Satan”.
Cats and the plague
Social media posts claim that after the papal letter of 1233 Europeans killed cats in great numbers, so that rats multiplied and the plague spread faster. Daniel Compora of the University of Toledo tells a version of it to History.com: “the killing of the cats helped fuel the spread of the plague”. The historian Mike Dash told Snopes the story “is almost certainly a modern internet-based fabrication”; Snopes traced it to books published in 1998 and 1999.
Lucky black cats
Compora adds that in Scotland and Japan black cats “have been known to represent prosperity”. The English ship’s cat Roth describes was lucky only while it stayed: one that walked on board and off again meant the ship would sink.
See also
Witch’s hat and broom, Spider and web, Jack-o’-lantern, Witch’s hat and broom, Bat, Skeleton and skull.
Sources
- Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 3 (John Brand, ed. Henry Ellis, 1853), John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, arranged and revised by Sir Henry Ellis, vol. 3 (London: Bohn, 1853), Internet Archive (University of Toronto copy), Sorcery or Witchcraft, pp. 6–7
- The Golden Bough, abridged edition (James George Frazer, 1922), Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, abridged edition (New York: Macmillan, 1922), chapter LXIII, section 6, The Hallowe'en Fires, Internet Archive, chapter LXIII, section 6
- How broomsticks, cauldrons, and pointy hats became essential witch gear (Johnna Rizzo, National Geographic, 2024), Johnna Rizzo, National Geographic, 25 October 2024 (adapted from The History of Witchcraft, 2024), National Geographic, section on familiars
- Did Mass Cat Killings Help Spread the Black Death in the Middle Ages? (Jack Izzo, Snopes, 2023), Jack Izzo, Snopes, 8 November 2023, Snopes, article text
- The Truth About Black Cats (Ginny A. Roth, National Library of Medicine, 2018), Ginny A. Roth, Curator of Prints & Photographs, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine; Circulating Now, 31 October 2018, US National Library of Medicine, article text
- Why Are Black Cats Considered Bad Luck? (Elizabeth Yuko, History.com), Elizabeth Yuko, History.com, published 13 October 2021, updated 2026, A&E Television Networks (History.com), article text
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Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research