The Classic Witch

The classic witch has green skin, flies on a broom stick, and has a pointed hat. But have you ever wondered where these ideas came from?

The green skin

The classic Halloween witch has green skin. This was first used in the 1939 film, The Wizard Of Oz, the wicked witch of the west had green skin. It was one of the first movies to have color, so the producers added bright green skin to the wicked witch of the west, and bright red for the ruby red shoes. The green paint that was used turned out to have copper in it, this was bad because the actor had to drink and eat from a straw because if the paint was ingested, she would have gotten ill. This paint was also highly flammable, and in one scene where she disappears in a broom of smoke, the paint caught on fire and she suffered from second degree burns.

The broom sticks

The broom stick myth came from witches making strong potions, these potions affected the witches minds to make them feel like they are flying through the air. The earliest known image of a witch on a broomstick dates back to 1451. Two illustrations by French poet Martin Le Franc’s manuscript Le Champion des Dames shows one women soaring through the sky on a broom stick, and another on white plain stick.

The pointed hats

Back in the middle ages it was fashionable for women to wear tall conical headdresses. At this time a lot of catholic churches believed that women were witches, and that they had gotten their powers from the devil. Priests connected the women’s hats with devil horns. They also associated them with witchcraft. This idea led to witches having dark pointed hats.

Witches have been apart of Halloween since many decades ago, have you ever wondered what Halloween would be without them?

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https://www.history.com/news/why-witches-fly-on-brooms

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-witches-often-shown-with-green-skin