Origins of Common Superstitions

Photo and Pumpkin by: Bill Chaltraw

Jessenia Olascuaga ’23

Staff Writer

As Halloween gets closer there is much excitement and even paranoia. For some people, Halloween is a time when superstitions play into how they go about the Halloween season. Two common symbols of Halloween have more than what meets the eye.  These symbols are black cats and Jack-o-Lanterns.

Dating back to the Dark Ages there has been a widespread belief that black cats are bad luck. This is because when witches were being hunted, those women sometimes had feline “sidekicks.” The cats that accompanied these “witches” were believed to be demonic and even given to the witches by the devil himself. However, while some people may see cats as a symbol of bad luck, in other places stumbling upon a black cat is good luck.

Jack-o-Lanterns have become part of many family Halloween traditions, however, the odds are they have no idea where the idea even came from. Jack-o-Lanterns are said to come from Celtic folklore where a farmer named Jack was tricked by the devil resulting in him being rejected from heaven and hell. Jack was left with nothing but a turnip lit by a lump of coal to guide him through the darkness of purgatory. Due to that fact, Celts began to use turnips as lanterns to help guide Jack and other lost spirits home. When the Irish potato famine happened and many celts went to North America, pumpkins were easier to come by and therefore led to what we now know as pumpkin Jack-o-Lanterns.

With that being said, while many superstitions are especially highlighted around Halloween, some of them have a deeper origin story or even a deeper meaning than what we may think. Happy Halloween!!