Friday, October 26, 2007

Spooky Friday

Our Mommy and Daddy are not normal humans. Most humans only celebrate Halloween one day - on October 31. Our parents start early with the biggest celebrations starting the weekend before Halloween. We have decided to be like our parents and start our Halloween celebrations today!

Today, we will begin our Halloween weekend by telling you about black cats!! Did you know that some humans are silly enough to actually be afraid of black cats - just because of their furrs? Yep! Here are some other human black cat folklore that you might find interesting!

In Bengali folklore women could change their soul into a black cat and that any harm brought to the cat would be suffered by the women.

The Celts thought black cats were reincarnated beings able to divine the future.

German folklore believed that if a black cat jumped on the bed of a sick person it meant death was near.

In Finland it was thought that black cats were thought to carry the souls of the dead to the other world.

In China it is thought the presence of a black cat foretold of poverty.

In Russia, there is still a popular belief that if a black cat crosses a person's path in the street, that person should either choose a different direction in order to walk around the cat's path or cross it holding a button in his/her fingers (it could be a button on a person's jacket, pants, or shirt).

In Romanian and Indian culture, especially in the historical region of Moldavia in Romania and everywhere in India, one of the strongest superstitions still feared by many people is that black cats crossing their path represents bad luck, despite the fact that these regions were never affected by witch hunts or anti-paganism.

During the catholic inquisition when millions were killed, innocent people were tied to a stake and set aflame with often a black cat was thrown into the fire with them.

Black cats, because of their ability to remain unseen in dark places or at night, were considered especially desirable partners for witches. Some witches were purported to have the ability to shape-shift into a cat nine times, hence the archaic belief that cats have "nine lives."

Black cats were sometimes used in magical rituals, sometimes as purported participants, other times as sacrifices.

In witch trials, ownership of a cat was often taken as "evidence" of Satanic association and witchcraft. Cats, believed to be evil in their own right, were often punished or burned alive along with humans during these trials.

Many modern witches keep black cats as pets, and view them as sacred.
Some of those facts are interesting and some are just plain wrong - hurting black kitties all because they are black. HUMANS!

We would like to dedicate this post to One Who Came Before - Mommy's cat Midnight.

Midnight was actually found on Halloween Night by Mommy's sister when Mommy was just a little girl. He lived with Mommy and her family until he was roughly 20 years old and every Halloween they celebrated his Purrthday. Now every Halloween Mommy and Nana think of him and miss him lots. Wasn't he gorgeous?

19 comments:

Fat Eric said...

Midnight was a furry handsome kitty.

In Britain black cats are believed to be lucky.

Hallowe'en is not that big a deal here though, not like in Mericky. You won't see many pumpkins here!

Forty Paws said...

Hi Midnight!

Those are very interesting facts. When Maw used to volunteer with the rescue group, she found out that it is very very hard to adopt out black cats. People are THAT superstitious of them!

Luf, Us

ANGEL ABBYGRACE said...

Midnight was furry gorgeous...I bet he was a furry sweet kitty too. We always like the remembrances of the ones who came before us. Maybe sometime your Momma will tell us all about Midnight.

Stories we love stories.

Purrs and Happy Halloween
Abby and Boo

LZ said...

Halloween is a big thing in our family too because its my Grandpaw's birthday. He lives in Maine though but we celebrate anyway.

Chase

Diamond Emerald-Eyes said...

There are many good things about black cats too. Black was one of the natural occuring versions of tabby and they were considered the sacred cat of Bast in Egypt. I blog about black cats earlier this year.

Mr. Hendrix said...

aw stunning Midnight. Humph, humans, imagine being afraid of a kitty simply because of its color. Mommy says she is very lucky to have found me and that I'm her little angel (I won't tell you what she calls Bendrix)
I'm not scary at all!

We'd like to hear more about Midnight. Remembering is always nice.

Tybalt said...

Awww . . . Midnight was a lovely kitty.

People often make mommy mad. I hissed at all the bad stuff they did to black cats! Holly is mostly black and has her extra toes. I'm sure people would have been very scared of her.

The Crew said...

Very handsome, indeed! Mom had 2 black cat sisters before us who lived to be 14 years old each, so they weren't unlucky!

Gaius said...

Aww Midnight was a gorgeous kitty! Humans and their weird thing about judging things on colors... just silliness I tell ya. Everyone knows you have to judge someone with a good sniff... that's the right way to do it.
Happy Halloween!

Sunny's Mommy said...

Midnight was very handsome. That's wonderful that your Mommy and her family had him for so long.

Zippy, Sadie, Speedy and M'Gee said...

Dis is weerd, mom and dad were talking about mom's kitty from when she was waaaaay younger. He was black and lived to be 22 years old! Dey was talking about da fakt dat he gots arthuritis, went def, was blind in one eye and still catched mouses! He went to sleep on his pillow one night and did not wake up! Gramma was so upset she called mom and coodent effun get da words out, dad went to her house cuz dey thawt somefing awful happened to gramma.

Daisy said...

Midnight was very, very beautiful! I think black cats are lucky.

At the shelter where my Mommie volunteers at, they do not adopt out black cats until after Halloween. Because sometimes bad people want to adopt black cats on Halloween.

Jimmy Joe said...

Midnight was a very handsome kitty. I bet your Momma really misses him. My momma had a black cat once named Stumpy, because he had a stumpy ear. She said he was a "grizzled" old guy.
Your buddy, Jimmy Joe

Mickey's Musings said...

He is a Black Cat ,naturally he was gorgeous! Heehee Mind you I'm a little biased ;)
Some beans are very stupid.You cannot adopt a black cat around Halloween even if you wanted to.
It's for the safety of the cats!

The Misadventures Of Me said...

Midnight is beautifuls! Dantè I likes how you always wink. :)

Angel MoMo and Charlotte said...

There used to have a black cat called Midnight in the family but he passed away a few months back and we all miss him.
MoMo

Anonymous said...

I think your humans celebrate Halloween more than one day because of Midnight. Found at Halloween and for so long your Mommie's furrriend it is good to think of him these days. He was a beautiful black boy!

~Ruis

Parker said...

Midnight was very good looking!

Laura W said...

Gorgeous, indeed! And we like to hear 20 years of life around this geriatric ward!

I, personally, think this is the truest thing in your post:

Many modern witches keep black cats as pets, and view them as sacred.

That is why Mosaic Lady kept me and did not let me get adopted by other mere mortals. Plus, like Fat Eric said, I'm lucky!!!