Black Cats, A Halloween Tradition

"While October may be the favorite month of thousands of humans, who excitedly plan their costumes of spooks, vampires and monsters, in anticipation of Halloween, cats, particularly black cats, have little cause for celebration this month.

Much has been said about the more violent indignities that may be practiced on black cats at this time of year, but a more subtle cruelty has surfaced in recent years. Some shelters have noted a spate of black cat adoptions shortly before Halloween, with many of these cats returned to the shelters in the days after the holiday because "He just didn't work out."

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/samhainoctober31/p/Black_Cats.htm

Halloween has symbols associated with it. These symbols help to shape our view of the holiday. When we think of Halloween we think of the colors black and orange. Images of carved pumpkins or Jack-O-Lanterns, bats, witches, black cats and other scary creatures come to mind.

In modern times we have adopted black cats as much a part of Halloween as pumpkins and witches. However, black cats have not always been associated with Halloween. In fact, from ancient times to almost the present black cats don't seem to have been connected with Halloween.  Black cats association with Halloween appears to be a relatively recent and mostly American contribution.

The black cat's nocturnal nature has became connected to witches -- after all, night time was the time they held their meetings, as far as the church was concerned.