Witches

Who are those who practice magic? Why do they do that? And why they decided to dedicate their lives to magic?

There are a lot of creatures and people who are thought to practice magic. They may be wizards, magicians, warlocks, etc. But witches are the most famous. There are a lot of films and books that tell us about witches and witchcraft.

A witch is a person usually woman who practices witchcraft. And witchcraft is the influence on the world with the help of supernatural magical powers in order to harm people. So as you see, witches were considered to be evil creatures that wanted to harm people and damage the world.

The attitude toward witches during centuries was different. A very interesting fact is witch-hunts that were very popular in medieval times. It is also practiced nowadays in some countries of Africa. But these hunts are not so cruel as they were in medieval times. Christianity considered witches to be companions of devil and they hunted them to kill them so that there would be no opponents.

At that time witches were faggoted. If a young woman kept a black cat, she could be considered to be a witch and faggoted. A lot of people were faggoted at that time. Europe was filled with flames.

But nowadays a positive meaning was added to the notion "a witch". And this word is often used to name people who practice all kinds of magic. Even good and kind people who practice magic to help people are called witches.

There are several traditional images of witches: the ancient and the modern one. The ancient image of the witch is a woman who flies with the help of broomstick, wears pointed hat and is usually very ugly. But nowadays witches have become very popular and they are not considered to be ugly and evil anymore. So, her image was developed and changed. Modern witch is beautiful and sexual. She wears long sexy dress and has beautiful dark hair.

Every country has its own idea about witches. Sometimes witches have different names and functions. But the folklore of every country can boast a great number of witches and witch-like creatures.

Baba Yaga is a witch-like creature in the Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovene and other countries of the Eastern Europe tradition. This character flies on a mortar and is known by kidnapping children. Usually she is a negative character but sometimes she is pictures as wisdom and cunning old woman who knows all plants that have some magical abilities.

In Catalan traditions, witches were women who have made a pact with the devil and got supernatural abilities that were used to get benefits. Today people don't believe in so called "bruixes". But stories about them pass from generation to generation.

Witches are very popular, so literature and cinematographer couldn't notice that. And nowadays there are a lot of films and books that tell us stories about witches. They have different images and some of them became really popular and famous all over the world.

The world-famous characters are Hannah Abbott (Harry Potter), Griselda Blackwood (The Worst Witch), Denora Desade, Annabelle Deville (Witch Girls), Prudence, Piper, Phoebe, Page (Charmed), Enchantress (DC Comics).

Witch has become a romantic and interesting character. And it is well known in the whole world. This is traditional character for Halloween.