There are certain accesoires a witch just can‘t live without! A broom is needed to fly off into the mountains, a cauldron to brew potions in and of course the witch hat!
Since it is hopefully obvious that in history there never was a group of women dressing up that way, while living childless and having a bit too much fun at questionable parties … oh, that sounds nice, right? But, focus – this of course was always nothing but a myth used in desperate times.
So, why has the witch hat been established as one sure sign to recognize a witch by, and where does its design come from? Why a cone, often placed on a broad brim?
Until very recently, I honestly did not know where this stereotype came from, although throughout the years I have worn a pointy witch hat to more than one costume party!
In this post I will look at two possible explanations for the origin of this part of the witching image.
Let‘s start with the easier one!
In this one, the witch hat was originally a very similar looking hat of women selling home-brewed beer. Brewing as one of the typically female tasks sometimes had more results than needed in the private household, and so a rest was sold. To be recognized by potential customers, a pointed hat was worn by those women. This was in general accepted, until in the late medieval and early modern religious crisis in Europe women were more and more forced to become housewives and even these traditional female tasks that could enable a woman to join the workforce were taken away from them.
So, in this case the allogery of the witch with her pointy hat is just the image of a woman having an own income.
Very evil. How dare she?
Now, let‘s take a look at another possible explanation.
One group which in late medieval Europe had to wear a hat and was always shown in iconography of the time with a pointy shaped one were the Jews. In many old paintings and copper engravings of the time, the hat they wore was a pointy cone (although there are regional differences). Also, the hats they were obligated to wear to recognize them by in real life were often designed like this. Some sources state that the later witch hat was insipred by this, since in both versions it portraits an anti-christian, supposedly dangerous being.
Honestly, I‘m glad my wardrobe lacks of such a hat these days!
While one possible origin of its shape attacks woman joining the workforce and having an own income, the other one dates back to the discrimination of the jewish part of the population in Europe (and thus also to the well-known consequences). In both cases, the image of the person wearing a pointy hat has been used as one of evil. A sign of an anti-christian being to be expelled from society as a threat.
Even though these connections of images happen not always consciously and are born through decades and centuries of associating things with each other, I find it important to be aware of them and end one stigma, or even prevent new ones from being started.
So, the pointy hat witches are still pictured with in countless movies, books for children etc. was born from old images of people not accepted in a dystopian version of Europe, torn apart by all kinds of disasters and religious conflicts.
https://www.juedischegeschichte.de/html/mittelalter4.html
https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/hexenaccessoires-in-darstellungen-woher-kommen-sie-a-6c15f8df-0002-0001-0000-000179121597
https://www.stern.de/panorama/wissen/bierbrauen-war-frauensache—bis-fanatische-christen-die-brauerinnen-als-hexen-verfolgten-30432116.html
https://recollections.biz/blog/a-short-history-of-witches-hats/
https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/pointing-witchcraft-possible-origin-conical-witchs-hat-006499
Mistress witch writes 