How Bats Became Synonymous With Halloween

Dr. Emily Zarkaof thePBSseriesMonstrum visited the largest urban bat colony in North America, which sits under the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas, to talk about why bats have become so synonymous with Halloween. Fear, for one, did much of the work.

We've always had a habit of turning thethings we don't understand into monsters. In early Christianity, batswere associated with the Devil,casting these innocent animals into symbols of duplicity and darkness. In the Bible, God forbade Mosesand his people from eating bats,deeming them unclean. Over the centuries, the idea of uncleanliness was often reinterpretedas moral corruption, which helpedcast bats into an evil light.

The association also comes from Bram Stoker's Dracula, which gave bats a starring role.

But it was Dracula, published in 1897, that put the proverbial nail in the coffin of bats as vampires. Bram Stoker doomed bats forever when he gave Dracula the ability to shapeshift into a bat andcarry out his nefarious deeds in disguise, showing his unworldly nature and firmly solidifying bats with vampires.

Ancient Celtic lore also contributed to the reputation, particularly around Samhain.

The tradition of Samhain is veryold, going back to the ancientCelts of Ireland and Britain, likely originating over 2,000 years ago....These texts describe Samhainas a time when otherworldly spirits and the dead could cross into the human world. ...massive bonfires were part of the tradition. ...insects swarming the light from the bonfires would naturally attract more bats,who darted and swooped overhead of the revelers. Imagine villagers seeing the silhouetted bats flicker in the glow at exactly the time when spirits were believed to cross into the human world.

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