When the nights grow darker and the evenings chillier, you know the autumn festivity season is close. Today it would be difficult to imagine a Halloween decoration without bats, but how did these creatures of the night become associated with day of the ghosts and witches?
In the Northern Hemisphere Halloween (celebrated on the 31st October) or Samhain coincides with cooler weather and bats are actually already withdrawing to hibernation. This hasn’t prevented them to be the essential decoration item for these autumn festivities.
Bats’ notoriety perhaps started in the Middle Ages, when they were considered to carry diseases and they were also thought to be the familiars of witches. As nocturnal animals they were an easy target, as little was known about bats. Bats were considered to be messengers between witches and the devil. It was also widely believed that witches could transform into bats.
Bats = Vampires?
Fuel was added to the fire when Bram Stoker wrote his novel Dracula and the vampire craze set its first baby steps in the world. Vampire bats do indeed drink blood of their prey, but they do not suck it out – they make a small incision with their sharp teeth and lap the few drops of blood produced with their tongue. Vampire bats are tiny, thus they’re not able to drain blood completely from their prey.
Symbols of Luck
Despite the sinister views the European cultures have had on bats, the other peoples of the world have had differing views. In the Asia bats are often considered lucky things and in China, if you see five bats in a group, it brings you five-fold blessing: wealth, long life, health, happy life and a peaceful death. The Chinese are not far from the truth – a group of bats living near you is a lucky sign in many ways. Bats consume huge amounts of insects and thus keep i.e. mosquitoes at bay. They also help pollinate flowering plants and fruit and their droppings – guano – is excellent organic fertilizer.
Bats in Spells
Bats have been often used in witchcraft. Their body parts or blood were ingredients in love potions as well as the flying ointment of the witches. A modern-day witch would probably reach for more humane ways to benefit from the magical forces of bats.
If you’d like to have bat energy around you, build them a bat house on your property to attract bats to live in the area. Then call upon their help to gain intuitive strength and clarity, better communication skills or ask them to carry a message for you.
If you happen to find a dead bat, dry it out and clean it profoundly and then use its wings to make a powder to keep malevolent spirits out of your house and the bones as amulets to bring good luck.
Have a very batty Halloween/Samhain!
Susan