Halloween Bats

Bats are one of the many traditional symbols of Halloween and sales of rubber bats soar during the holiday season. But why? What makes them such a popular "mascot" for this dark night?

Symbolism

Bats have many symbolic associations, few of them good. Here are a few reasons why they'e so appropriate for the Halloween season:

Night

Bats are generally associated with evil spirits - mainly because they really are nocturnal creatures of the night. This is actually rather unfair as bats are (in my opinion) wonderful cute creatures. However a black flying mammal that makes no audible sound and only comes out at night probably can't avoid a bit of bad press! The association with blood sucking vampires probably doesn't help their case...

Fire

So bats are associated with night and spirits, making them a perfect symbol for Halloween. There's also a more specific reason for the association; it used to be common to light bonfires to try and scare off the evil spirits at Halloween. The bonfires would attract the insects, the bats would then be attracted by the insects that for them were food. This meant that bats would often be seen around the Halloween fires, leading to a belief that more of them were in the sky on that night.

Death

Bats were thus considered to be associated with the spirit world and were sometimes seen as messengers from the "other side". One superstition was that if a bat flew around a house three times then someone in that house would soon die.