The Superstition of the Black Cat
There are many different superstitions in the world that are good and bad luck, however one that is very interesting and yet different than the others because it can be considered good luck and bad luck is the black cat. This superstition is very widely conservestial. Some believe that black cats can bring good luck or bad luck. In fact, almost every country and regions within those countries have a different point of view on the black cat superstition. For example, In England and other areas in Europe, a black cat on a ship can be considered lucky or unlucky. If the black cat walked on the ship and stayed, it was good luck. But if the cat walked on, then walked off, it was believed that the ship would sink.
There are many different types of cats in the world. There are persian cats, American Bobtail, American Curl, American Shorthair, American Wirehair, Balinese, Bengal, Birman, maine coons, siamese, Norwegian forest cat, Russian blue, Siberian cat, Sphynx cat, Scottish fold, Devon Rex And many more. But the one cat that almost everyone is concerned about is the black cat. There is no difference in each breed of cat, except the colors. Mostly any type of cat can be black and that makes them able to be hurt by be more cautious of by humans, which may even mistreat them. The black cat belief about bad luck started in the dark ages in about 500 to 1500 AD. In Europe and America, it was a time of many
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superstitions that resulted from early religions of the soul beliefs and a lack of scientific understanding about nature. The abuse and mistreatment of people charged with a crime of being witches is a clear example. People believed that witches and black cats worked together and some believed that black cats were witches reborn. Cats have not been so lucky in very old time in history Europe and America. Because of their night-living nature, cat’s in general were linked with witches, the supernatural and evil long before the invention of electricity, night time was a time of danger. Black cat’s suffered even more due to their color. In Christian cultures, white is generally a symbol of goodness and black is a symbol of danger dishonest actions that ruin your trust and evil. As witch hunts happened both continents, this idea you think is true led to many superstitions about black cats. Most people in these times believed that witches could turn into black cats at night, cats could roamed at night and so could supernatural servants of witches, and black cats could aid them in performing doing magic spells and using magical powers. Church people in charge tortured and killed thousands of women, and a few men, in an effort to get them to confess that they flew through the sky, had sexual relations with demons, turned into black cats, and started working at different sorts of black magic. During the Salem Witch trials, ownership of a cat was already carefully thought about and believed events or objects that prove something of worshipping the Devil, which to them, was sounding the same as equal to doing magic spells or using magical powers. So doing magic spells or using magical powers became equal to Devil Worship. Cats were believed to be messengers of evil or the Devil taking the form of a cat; and they were punished in the same
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way, in that way: by being burned alive. They also created potions and were popular for curing the sick.
The churches of christ didn’t like the idea that people were asking witches to solve their issues, and so spread gossip and information that tries to revise people’s decisions that their mysterious powers came from and was created by the devil. Almost all of the 16th Century of Europe started to think all witches were evil, and several were trialled, tortured and forced to death. Since witches believed in nature, it was ordinary for them to have a cat as a companion. Plus, the Celts that are related to Europe cultural group identified by their celtic language, believed that cats were actually humans who had been forced to return to this world after doing or performing bad deeds. Such explanations of why things work or happen the way they do, led to people making up stories of witches turning into cats.
The Black Disease, or Black Death happened in England in about 1347 through 1350 in the 14th century, murdering nearly 60 percent of Europe’s overall population. The Black Death was a wide spread disease of dangerous disease spread by fleas, a disease caused by the tiny germ Yersinia pestis that spreads among wild rodents where they live in very large numbers. Disease Among humans awakens when rodents in human place to stay and sleep, commonly black rats become infected. The black rat, also called the ‘house rat’, likes to reside near people, the very feature that makes it dangerous. During this time in Europe, witchcraft, magic, spells, and powers were very famous and popular. In the 1300s, doctors had almost no wisdom and knowledge about the results of disease. As a result, there were huge numbers of superstitions about disease. Some People from Europe blamed different groups as poor
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people who ask for money, people with a bad skin disease, people who had different religion, and and other undesirable people, while others were charged with a crime and sent to jail or killed. The best understood belief in this superstition was about the bad luck of cats and their involvement with the devil. Many cats were murdered as a effect of this superstition, which increased the issue of the terrible disease. Without cats to act as their animals who hunt and kill others, little kept the rat population under control. People in Europe continued to kill cats for another 300 years and remained able to be hurt by the terrible disease when it returned to Europe again in the 1600s. However, the disease almost disappeared during winter because fleas are mostly sleeping over the winter, or hibernating in that period. Every spring, it had a regeneration and claimed new victims. The Black Death had a harsh bad after effects related to Europe association which led to significant social and cultural changes. There is a widely spread superstitions about black cats, in spite of that, no one knows for sure where it came from. There are many ideas of where it came from. One of these central thoughts come from Egypt. One of the most long lived beliefs in the power, magic, bad luck, spirits, and other superstitions related felines date back to 3000 BC in Egypt. When the Egyptians began to study agriculture, they invited the hunting abilities of cats. The black cat’s intelligence made people believe that they were supernatural beings. Nobody else could take captive by demand as many mice, rats, and other rodents as cats could; so people said these small killers had supernatural skills. This large love of cats in Egypt came to be widely well known when, centuries ago, a Roman warrior killed a cat. The Egyptian people murdered him in the streets and his death became well known throughout Egypt.
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The thoughts that cats have superpowers lead to the creation of of one of Egypt’s idol, Bast, who had the body of a human and the head of a cat. Bastheld cats holy and untouchable and it became against the law to hurt or kill a cat and because of this, some history experts feel that these restrictions , as well as Bast’s gardiace , caused many people to fear cats. With that being said, if you harm a cat and sentenced the death penalty, for doing so, dispare would be a normal reaction. She is over all loved and thought about as a cat goddess. However, she first had the head of a lion or a desert sand-cat and it was not until the New Kingdom that she became specifically related with the tamed/controlled cat. However, even these was true, respectful, and responsible to her country. She illustrates the friskiness, beauty, care, and knowing of a cat as well as the bold influence of a lioness. She was also widely known all over Lower Egypt, but her faith was focused on her temple at Bubastis in the eighteenth name of Lower Egypt, which is now destroyed. Bubastis was the capital of very old Egypt for a time during the Late Period, and some pharaohs included the goddess in their authority names were loved and honored to Bast, and to hurt one was thought of to be a crime against her and was carefully thought about/believed unlucky. Her priests kept worshiped cats in her temple. They were thought of tobe expression or form of the goddess. When they died, they were preserved in chemicals and cloth and could be shown to the goddess as a thing that’s given work that’s done. The very old Egyptians placed a large value on cats because they shielded the crops and reduced the spread of disease by killing rats, cockroaches, and other creatures. As an end result, Bast was seen as a guarding goddess.
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In Chinese and Japanese culture, the “Maneki Neko,” inviting cat, is a common symbol of goodluck. And while the cat’s raised paw might look threatening to Westerners, it’s actually a welcoming hand and arm movement or action. One story says that a man stuck in an unexpected storm, took shelter underneath a tree. He understood an realization of a cat nearby that looked to invite him to enter a temple. He accepted the invitation, later the tree was hit by lightning.
Because the cat spared the man’s life, it was envisioned as a symbol of luck. Each cat is now thought to have different powers, depending on the cat’s color. The black cat is believed to ward off evil. While the black cat’s reputation in Europe is overall dark, there are some good points. For example, sailors from England and Ireland in the 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries thought that letting a black cat come onto a ship will bring good luck and a safe, calm, and confident trip. For this reason, black cats were often made ship’s cats where they were also helpful in protecting the ship’s stores against rats, cockroaches, and other creatures. The sailors’ family and friends also invited the black cat at their home, thinking it being there would bring their loved ones’ home safe from the sea.
In some cultures, black cats are seen as good sign of the futures for pending marriage. In Japanese culture, having a black cat was in the past thought to bring more romantic attraction to a young woman in search of a husband. And in some English culture, they gave black cats as a wedding gift in order to bring the bride luck, happiness, and a good future. In some very old stories and untrue stories, the nature of the black cat’s appearance is dependent on big picture. For example, in England and Scotland, old stories says that a black cat coming up to you was good luck, while one that walked away from you, warned you of bad luck and fortune.
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And in German cultures, a black cat that come in front of your path from right to left, created bad fortune while a black cat that crossed from left to right was a signal of good luck ahead.
On Halloween, we’ll see cards and decorations featuring vampires, skeletons, devils, spiders, or black kittens sporting witches’ hats and looking in a ghostly way at you. But there is a worst side to this superstition with black cat magic and powers. “The organization of danger to black cats on Halloween has become very common, that several shelters and community members refuse to allow people to adoption black cats during the whole month of October.” Many people, including specialists insults or makes fun of shelters that won’t adopt out black cats in
October. These “black cat policies” are “based on city-based very old stories and untrue stories and put pets at higher risk than they could ever be from people who’d adopt with ill plans and desires,” he says. This concludes to crowded buildings or, in the case of no utilization shelters, puts the cats “at large risk being killed or abandoned when the ban has ended.” Maybe so. Still, as anyone who has ever done animal rescue work knows, some truly shocking and truly terrible events of great harm and desire to hurt others can and do happen. However, there is a more difficult to notice or observation that involves great harm and desire to hurt others that goes on this time of year. It involves people adopting a black cat to that add more decoration or to set a ‘spooky setting’, then giving them back to the shelters or dumping or abandoning them. Shelters won’t adopt out blackcats at all during October because they fear that the kitties could be used as Halloween props and then left alone or, worse, that they make an easy target for Halloween attenders who play tricks
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on others or who perform violent acts against cats that don’t realize something bad will happen. Whether or not black cats face hurdles in getting adopted, they sure do make their loving owners feel blessed.
In conclusion, Even in our current world some people fear the black cat. However, most people have now come to realized that the black cat superstition has no underlying support. Unfortunately, they still have a larger risk of abuse, especially during Halloween.
