Every year people hear about the same animals around Halloween time. Black cats symbolize bad luck, spiders symbolize some people’s biggest fear, and ravens are associated with death. What about bats?
There is a superstition that bats interfere with witches. In ancient folklore, there were beliefs that witches would use bats as an ingredient for their potions. During this time, bats were associated with death, just like ravens are today.
Another superstition about bats goes back to Celtic and Samhain folklore. During the Samhain time period, large bonfires were lit to scare away spirits. The light from these fires attracted insects, which in turn attracted bats to the area. The erratic flight of the bats hunting insects was seen by the Celts as spirits, later associating them with the supernatural.
Some people categorize bats with Halloween for their dark features. They are covered in the color black from head to toe and have claws attached to their wings and feet to help them grip branches.
One habit that bats have is they fly around at night. They are known to be nocturnal, which means being active at night and then resting during the day. It is the exact opposite of what humans do during night and day.
Bat’s sound can also tie into the topic of Halloween. Their high-pitched squeals can make their image even scarier than what some people might already see them as. Bats use echolocation to communicate with each other. Echolocation also helps with finding food and getting a feel for the environment around them. If bats feel or see humans around them, they tend not to go near them and they never harm humans.
So now knowing a little bit more about bats, do people still think they are as bad as society claims them to be? There are many superstitions about bats, but none of them are found to be accurately true, so in this case bats are not considered as evil as many people may think. They may have some dark features, but they are existing creatures just like the rest of life.