Summary
We enjoy our Halloween witches just as they are....warty green hags that do not exist in nature. They ride broomsticks by moonlight. They stir bubbling cauldrons of witches' brew. Little girls feel safe as they don pointy black hats and go "trick or treating."
This image is far removed from the true accounts of persecution, torture, and murder of tens of thousands of European "witches" over a 300 year period (1450 - 1750). Even America was infected by witch hysteria, evidenced by the Salem witch trials of 1692.
Since the 1960s, public perception of witchcraft has been transformed. Witches can now be entertaining, not evil, thanks to American pop culture.
Halloween Objects
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