Lunar | Squid Game may be this year’s Halloween costume fad, but here’s why witches remain a favourite
- While dressing up as a witch is a perennial Halloween choice, the reason may not be the one expected
- Witches have been symbolising powerful and independent women since at least the 16th century
Usually portrayed with a large unflattering black dress, a hooked nose and a few warts, these sorcerers are associated in the collective psyche with being old, hideous and fairy-tale villains.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a witch is also “an ugly or unpleasant woman”. The term is used as an insult to highlight a woman’s jealousy, repulsiveness and loneliness. Unlike its male equivalent “wizard”, the word “witch” has a negative connotation and witches are still represented very unfavourably in today’s folklore.
Nevertheless, witches have become modern feminist icons – because they have been symbolising powerful and independent women since the 16th century.
The word “witch” derives from the Old English words “wicca” and “wicce”. In Europe, these women were healers capable of treating villagers using their knowledge of nature, as well as assisting with both childbirth and abortion. For centuries, they embodied medical knowledge.
Finding themselves in competition with the medicinal compounds produced by monasteries and Christian authorities in Europe, they became excluded from, rather than celebrated by, society. These women were independent, knowledgeable and powerful within male-centric societies. They were thus nonconformists, threatening the moral and social order.
