Halloween Animals

Halloween animals are just as much a part of this Sabbat holiday as pumpkins and bags of candy. Most animals that are tied to Halloween really don’t have any true “evil” or dark aspects to them, and it’s just centuries of myth and folklore.

Black Cats

The classic black cat is probably the best known Halloween animal around, mainly because they have gotten to be associated with witches and bad luck. But people have revered the cat for thousands of years, and the tying of felines to witches is a pretty new idea. It wasn’t until the late Middle Ages that people got nervous about cats, typically because free-roaming cats were so common in villages at that time and easy to associate with “witches” when the witchcraft hysteria blew through Europe and North America.

And of course, the color black has long been associated with evil forces so the two just naturally fell together.

Bats

Given their elusive nature, and preference for night, the relatively harmless bat has been associated with evil energy for a very long time. Their peculiar appearance certainly doesn’t help either, nor does the long-standing (and basically incorrect) myth that bats are connected to vampire and that they drink blood.

Since Halloween is all about the darker time of the year, this is one of many animals that are associated with the holiday due to their nocturnal habits.

Owls

Though they’re not usually seen in the same negative light, owls are another very common Halloween animal just because they are associated with the night. They have a bit of a sneaky way about them, how they fly so silently through the dark. Pretty appropriate for a spooky day like Halloween even though there really isn’t anything slightly negative about these birds.

Spiders

Many cultures consider the spider to be a wise on a mythical level but when you get up close and personal, most people get the creeps from all those legs. The connection between cobwebs and abandoned (haunted?) houses adds some more Halloween influences to the lowly spider.

Wolves

Not quite as spooky at the other Halloween animals and usually seen more as a “werewolf” monster than a true wolf. They got their bad rep over hundreds of years as they attacked and killed livestock out in the countryside, and their late-night howling gave many the impression that they were more evil than your usual natural predators.