Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash
“ This belief that black cats are supernatural and bad luck are culturally reinforced ,” says McNeill . “ When we think of things that seem creepy and eerie on Halloween , we think of dark things . That ’ s why witches wear black or dark purple and they have black cats . Kids grow up seeing illustrations and costumes with these things , and suddenly the ideas are passed on from generation to generation . It reflects our culture ’ s ideologies and helps create them , too .” She concludes that “ Women and cats were often burned together for crimes of witchcraft . Sometimes they were seen as an incarnation of the devil .”
The black cat myth is also directly related to the belief that the color black represents evil , and the color white represents purity . Researchers Haylie D . Jones and Christian L . Hart , writing in 2020 for the journal “ Psychological Reports ,” studied whether there is a bias against black cats . “ People exhibiting higher degrees of black cat bias had higher levels of superstition , but not religiosity or racial prejudice ,” the researchers reported . They also found that people who had difficulty reading the emotions of black cats tended to exhibit a stronger bias against adopting black cats .
Despite these frightening beliefs , many people do not realize that in some cultures black cats are revered and considered good luck . Sailors
throughout history have believed that having a black cat on board their ship would bring good luck . This practice dates to the Egyptians bringing cats on their voyages along the Nile River , and was evident in most recent history during World War II when “ Blackie ” was the ship cat for HMS Prince of Wales , a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy . According to Melissa Breyer in her 2017 article “ Cats at Sea : 7 Famous Seafaring Felines ,” writing for the environmentalist blog “ Treehugger ”, “ Blackie achieved celebrity status after Prince of Wales brought Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic to Newfoundland for a clandestine meeting for several days with Franklin D . Roosevelt .” After signing the Atlantic Charter , photographers captured Churchill petting Blackie .
In Scotland , it is believed that you will have prosperity if a black cat appears at your doorway or on your porch . In France , some people believe that something magical is about to happen if you see a black cat .
For the Japanese , the black cat omen is a good sign , and you ’ ll have luck in finding love if you spot a black cat . The Maneki-Neko is the beckoning cat in Japanese culture that brings good luck to the owner . Represented as both a solid black or solid white cat statue , the Maneki-Neko have for centuries been
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