Ending it with our Victorian witches.

Now Halloween is over. Faded lights, candy papers and fake spider webs everywhere. From pumpkins and pizzas to the long Sunday hungover it was..glorious.

After the candy and booze hedonism that weekend we spent the rest of it staring at Halloweeny movies and eating lam (mmm!). One of the films we watched was Hocus pocus and..I came to think of a thing. 

Every time you see witches portrayed in popular culture they have one thing in-common: they all look distinctly Victorian. Any time you see witches as they would have been thought of at the time when people actually believed in witches it will be a historical drama/crime about the suffering of the innocent, which is undoubtedly the most accurate portrayal of a witch, but not a "real" witch. In comedies/horror/family films where they have power and such they all look very Victorian, if not modern. And I can't help but wonder.. is this another bi-product of the fact that we are essentially still only living at the end of the era that started with the Victorians?

There are many things that suggest that, especially here in England. Many words are still just a development of a Victorian word (like bus or front room). We still live in their houses and live by their social values (like free market and nuclear families ).. and I know for a fact that you can pass for eccentric in Victorian clothes but take it just 20 years further back and you're in fancy dress!

So when I once heard that we may still just be living at the end of their era it totally made sense..and we have more in-common with them now than since then as well which is probably why they are so popular!

But back to the witches. 

We still think of witches the way the Victorians made them. And I want to embrace that. There was nothing funny about the fear of women that sparked the fires of the 1600's.. but I find the Victorian witches very funny! Instead of being victims that get burned they are just the kind of witch I would like to be: powerful, self confident and a snappy dresser! 

Taking out my stripy tights now... where's my broomstick!?

¤