As Halloween approached last week, Los Medanos College’s History Department and Student Life jointly sponsored a History of Witchcraft event Oct. 30, giving nearly three-dozen students the opportunity to learn about its origins. Attendees were also handed tarot card coloring pages and tickets to enter an opportunity drawing for a book called “Witches, Midwives and Nurses” about different healers.
Patrick Hlusak, history professor and witchcraft expert, spoke about witchcraft’s history alongside colleague David McCarter. Hlusak began the lecture explaining that Halloween originated with Celtic and Germanic traditions and later merged with other cultures.
“All Hallows Eve meaning ‘honor as holy’ was from hālgian of Germanic origin,” said Hlusak.
Dia De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead celebrations, share some similarities to the traditional dance from Scotland and Ireland called Dance of the Dead. He added that Halloween is a mixing pot of cultures and has since morphed into different versions over the years.
McCarter focused on the origins of witchcraft, showing examples of the first witches projected on the screen in front of attendees, many coloring their pages and looking up long enough to get a glimpse.
He explained that in the 1100th century, the churchmen opposed paganism, and said astrology and alchemy were considered a form of witchcraft.
“Astrology uses the position of the stars to obtain such knowledge for necromancy, and the use of spirits of the dead for similar purposes.” said McCarter, “There is also alchemy, changing of base metals into precious ones, and divination which is used for conjuring, which is the use of various means to acquire secret or otherwise unknown knowledge.”
Hlusak said learning about witchcraft and its history is important because “misunderstanding ideas from the past can turn out to be dangerous.”
Student Jordan Ramey found the event interesting, and said his favorite part was about the history of Halloween.
“It gave me a lot of information I didn’t know before,” he said, adding that he got the Sun tarot card coloring page, which portends good fortune and happiness, and also represents the universe coming together, agreeing with the path taken.
Program Coordinator for Student Life, Lindsay Litowitz, who helped the event, said “the turnout was great and it’s been really fun.”
