Books We Love Insider Blog: What Do Bats Have To Do With Halloween? by Connie Vines

Monday, September 28, 2020

What Do Bats Have To Do With Halloween? by Connie Vines

Even though we are still practicing social distancing during the Pandemic, many of us are pulling out Halloween decorations we've stored away. Or, purchasing items at local stores.

After all, Halloween is fun! At least in my house.

I'm not into scary, give-the-children (or me) nightmares. It's all about the

dressing up, decorations, and "Halloween food."

Past meals have featured: Deadman-Over-Worms (meatloaf shaped like a gingerbread man with his arms at his side, on a bed of wheat spaghetti pasta). Bleeding (strawberry puree) Cemetery Cake, Bloody Fingers (hot-dogs shaped to resemble fingers). My granddaughters are positively ghoulish with glee while painting on the catsup blood. And, of course, their is the ever-popular Jell-O mold of the Frankenstein Monster's brain on the dessert table.

So what is your decoration of choice? Jack o' Lanterns, black cats, witch hats? 🐱

Or, perhaps bats (my personal favorites). How did these gentle mammals, not-counting the vampire bats who do like to snack on hot-blooded livestock, become associated with the spooky season, anyway?

There are a few different theories:

They're nocturnal 🌙

Experts say that nocturnal animals are often associated with death and darkness. "They engage in mysterious activities in the dark and so they have been cloaked in superstition since ancient times." Stanford University classics scholar Adrienne Mayor told National Geographic. And bats are particularly spooky.

"The combination of dark gray, brown, or black shades with cryptic nighttime habits evoked a sense of awe and fear back in the time when the only lights at night were oil lamps and wax candles."

And (those poor bats) because they often lived in caves, gave them a historic "association with the underworld".

They are an in-between kind of animal

Bats are the only flying mammal, and some cultures consider them a 'liminal' animal--not quite bird, not quite mammal. Something else liminal? Halloween. "One of the main themes of Halloween is liminality--the in-between-ness. It's between one state and another state; between growth and death; between fall and winter.

Blame Bram Stoker 📖

It wasn't until Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, that bats could change at will. "Dracula" is one of my favorite classic novels, I must confess-- but I'm not buying the evil reputation heaped upon the bats.

I'll hang my Halloween bat decorations with a smile.

Those little creatures save us between $3.7 and $54 billion in pest control services every year. They also help pollinate of 700 plants, including many we love to eat. It's the distorted Jack lantern's faces and the scarecrows that give me the fright.

Do you have a favorite Halloween tradition?

How about a Autumn or Halloween soup?

I enjoy Pumpkin Soup After removing the seeds, etc. from the center, I oven-roast my small pumpkin. I then dice up 1/4 - 1/2 of the vegetable before tossing into my crockpot.

There are many pumpkin soup recipes, feel free to share your favorite :)