Witch Krafting with Kat

Thank you for visiting and supporting my blog 'Witchkrafting with Kat' this year.  I am now having a little festive break to enjoy many mince pies and the walks in the fresh air to work them off 😆. I will be back in the new year for more Witchy Wednesday postings.   Until them Yuletide greetings to you all.  I hope you all have a very Merry Witchmas and a healthy and prosperous new year.  Merry Christmas ⛄  Kat Hazelton 😊 🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️

Yuletide blessings to you all 😊 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿  

  C hristmas folklore includes several witch figures, most notably the Italian witch La Befana, who delivers gifts on Epiphany Eve, and the terrifying Frau Perchta in Alpine regions, who punishes those who were lazy. Other traditions involve scaring off witches by hiding brooms in Norway, sprinkling homes with water in Slovakia, and the use of "witch balls" to ward them off.  La Befana (Italy): A kindly, though fearsome-looking, witch who flies on her broom to deliver gifts to children on the night of January 5th. Good children receive sweets, while bad ones get coal, onions, or garlic. Dettaglio da "La Befana", incisione di Bartolomeo Pinelli (1821) Detail from "La Befana", engraving by Bartolomeo Pinelli (1821) Frau Perchta (Alpine regions): A figure who roams the countryside during the twelve days of Christmas. She rewards hard-working families with a small silver coin but punishes the lazy by slitting their bellies open and stuffing them with straw.  F...

Welcome to another Witchy Wednesday, this week I am sharing some wonderful prints from the Wellcome Collection archive. A wonderful place to research history. All images because of their age are now in the public domain. About the Wellcome Collection.  Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library. Through their extensive collections, exhibitions and events, in books and online, they help to explore the past, present and future of health. You can find them near Euston station in London. All their exhibitions and events are free. You can use their library and view items from their collections free of charge– on some items you may just need to book in advance. Wellcome Collection opened in 2007. They care for many thousands of items relating to health, medicine and human experience, including rare books, artworks, films and videos, personal archives and objects. They are part of Wellcome, a charitable foundation supporting science to help build a healthier future for everyone. Ple...

    K rampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure from Central and Eastern Alpine folklore who punishes misbehaving children during the Christmas season, often accompanying St. Nicholas. He is a half-goat, half-demon creature who beats naughty children with birch sticks and may stuff them in a sack to be carried away. His name comes from the German word krampen, meaning "claw," and the tradition has pagan origins, possibly linked to pre-Christian winter solstice celebrations.   Krampusnacht is on December 5th each year, which is the evening before the Feast of St. Nicholas. It is a tradition in parts of Alpine Europe, where Krampus, a horned folkloric figure, accompanies St. Nicholas to punish misbehaved children.  A great explanation of the history of Krampus in this video by Bibi Pelic.   All images were source from The Public Domain Review and Domain Free.  Thank you for joining me again for another Witchy Wednesday. Have a magical week and plea...

  The Hellfire Club an innocent D&D group in Stranger Things.  The Hellfire Caves in High Wycombe was a place I frequented a great deal when I was a kid way back in the 1980's! Myself and my friends, looking very much like the kids of Stranger Things, used to ride from Wooburn Green across the Rye, across the Town all the way to West Wycombe on our bicycles. We use to spend the day rolling down the grassy hill, having picnics and then going into Wycombe caves before wearily heading home. In the caves we used to soak up on all the spooky stories of the Hellfire Club and make up other ghost stories to try to out scare each other!  Happy days! 😆  The Hellfire Caves in West Wycombe, near High Wycombe, are a network of man-made chalk caverns used as a meeting place by the 18th-century Hellfire Club. Founded by Sir Francis Dashwood, the caves were a secret, decadent club called The Hellfire Club and were known for its elaborate parties and allegedly scandalous or occu...