A pointed hat, a broomstick and perhaps a suspiciously cooperative cat. Few Halloween characters need so little introduction.
But the familiar witch did not arrive fully dressed from an ancient Celtic festival. Her appearance combines centuries of frightening beliefs, artistic invention and seasonal entertainment.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Witches became associated with Halloween because the festival’s traditions of supernatural encounters, disguises and fortune-telling provided a natural setting for an already familiar figure of dangerous magic.
European witch imagery supplied much of the visual vocabulary. Later Halloween illustrations and party culture helped turn that feared figure into a recognisable seasonal character.
The association is well documented by the early twentieth century. There is no securely established moment when witches first “joined” Halloween, or evidence that the modern costume survived unchanged from ancient Samhain.
WHAT WE KNOW
The witch’s equipment predates the modern Halloween costume.
A 1489 illustrated book about witchcraft, De lamiis et pythonicis mulieribus, depicted figures flying on a pitchfork and women around a cauldron. These images belonged to a world of religious argument and accusations, rather than children’s parties.
In 1565, an engraving after Pieter Bruegel the Elder showed a witch travelling up a chimney on a broom. The British Museum identifies it as an early example of this familiar motif.
Neither image establishes a Halloween connection. They show that flying implements and sinister domestic scenes were already part of European witch imagery.
For the seasonal association, later newspapers offer clearer evidence. A Halloween page in the Salt Lake Herald on 21 October 1906 includes a pointed-hat witch riding a broom with a black cat. The accompanying material describes a witches’ dance at a party.
By then, the ingredients were recognisably familiar.
HOW IT BECAME A HABIT
Halloween gave these older images a seasonal home.
Its history brings together the eve of the Christian feast of All Saints, traditions associated with Samhain, and later local customs. Those strands developed through different places and periods; they should not be treated as one unchanged ancient celebration.
Fortune-telling was part of the later festive mixture. The Library of Congress’s historical newspaper guide highlights a 1907 account of Halloween customs that included predicting lovers’ matrimonial futures.
Trying to discover a future spouse was not necessarily understood as becoming a witch. Nevertheless, such activities placed mysterious knowledge alongside the festival’s ghosts, pranks and disguises.
The witch fitted that atmosphere. Illustrations and organised parties made her both a decoration and a role someone could perform.
THE STORY EVERYONE TELLS
A common explanation runs like this: at Samhain, the boundary between the living and the dead weakened, witches became especially powerful, and people dressed as supernatural beings to protect themselves.
It is an appealing story because it explains the whole evening at once.
But it also bundles several separate claims together. Evidence for seasonal supernatural beliefs does not automatically establish ancient witch costumes, pointed hats or broomstick processions.
“The Celts invented the Halloween witch” is much tidier than the surviving record.
WHAT THE EVIDENCE ACTUALLY SAYS
The evidence label is WELL SUPPORTED for the later association, with no single origin established.
We can document older European images of witches and later Halloween celebrations using familiar witch figures. The connection between them is best understood as a gradual cultural development, rather than a securely dated invention.
We should also distinguish the imaginary character from people accused of witchcraft. Accusations could have devastating consequences. A surviving petition from prisoners caught in the Salem prosecutions of 1692 records people pleading for a trial because they feared dying in confinement.
Those people were not evidence that a fantasy population of broom-riding witches existed.
Nor does folklore everywhere describe the same witch. Research presented by the American Folklife Center includes African American stories of witches changing shape and attacking sleepers. In one account, the suspected witch is male.
The Halloween silhouette is therefore a selective version of a much wider collection of beliefs.
WHY IT STUCK
The witch is unusually easy to recognise and reinvent.
A broom and hat can make her frightening, comic or glamorous. She can belong to an old ghost story or a new film, while still looking immediately at home beside a jack-o’-lantern.
Her familiarity now does much of the work. Halloween returns each year, and the witch has become one of its most economical visual signals.
The broom may be centuries old. Its annual appointment with the costume cupboard developed later.
RELATED CURIOSITIES
Why Do We Dress Up in Costumes at Halloween?
Why Are Black Cats Considered Unlucky?
Why Do Children Say “Trick or Treat”?
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
British Museum — Prints of darkness. Historical witch imagery, including Bruegel’s 1565 broom-riding figure.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/prints-darkness
Library of Congress — The First Book of Illustrated Witchcraft — 15th Century Visions. Discussion of the illustrations in the 1489 De lamiis et pythonicis mulieribus.
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2020/10/the-first-book-of-illustrated-witchcraft-15th-century-visions/
Salt Lake Herald, 21 October 1906 — Our Boys and Girls. Halloween illustration and party material, preserved by the Library of Congress.
Library of Congress — Halloween: Topics in Chronicling America. A guide to historical newspaper evidence, including Halloween fortune-telling.
https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-halloween
Library of Congress, American Folklife Center — Welcome to Folklife Today, and…Happy Halloween! Discussion of Jack Santino’s historical account and cautions about interpreting Samhain.
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2013/10/welcome-to-folklife-today/
Library of Congress, American Folklife Center — Spiders and Skin-Changers: Two African American Witch Tales for Halloween. Examples of witch traditions beyond the familiar costume.
Library of Congress — Halloween Greetings. Includes a petition from people imprisoned during the Salem witchcraft prosecutions.
https://blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2022/10/halloween-greetings/