It’s that time of year again. I am definitely feeling the need to point at and post a link at Devo’s astute article on why the whole witches in pointy hats thing needs to go. If you are going to be dressing up for All Hallows Eve, or Samhain, it might be well to give this article a look before donning that pointy hat.
Reconsidering the Witch’s Uniform
Fanny Fae 
And this is why I will still wear a rounded/pointy hat: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/125819383315159115/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_hat
Heritage and tradition are still fine things.
Fair enough. So as someone who is both Welsh and a Witch, you could don that hat with cultural pride.
interesting… except that the traditional image of a witch (old toothless woman with the classic hat) has nothing what so ever to do with anti Antisemitic sentiment…. its based on the traditional Welsh grandmother. The hat and outfits are the folk styles of various areas of Wales, and most women considered village witches were older, single, toothless (no dental care) and would have dressed in these folk styles. Today in Anglesey you will still find women dressing in these styles for folk celebrations and traditional days.
In English story books from the 19th and early 20h century, illustrations would have presented the witch looking like a Welsh Grandmother -The Welsh were the last bastions of old living, they speak a different language and are considered more ‘Pagan’ in their ways….
The article is just bad research or using bad research as a launch for an issue.
That;s a fair assessment, Josephine. And I do appreciate your taking the time to actually read it, and make more thoughtful commentary than the pat dismissal of, “I don’t know what he writer was smoking.”.
I confess to knowing little to nothingabout Wales or Welsh history. However, I do find that making people, regardless of culture, into a caricature for Halloween kind of off-putting. I wonder how many who are dressing up in the conical hat on Halloween are even thinking about the Welsh grandmothers at all..As I mentioned on my FB post, I choose not to wear one because 1) I am not Welsh or Jewish and 2) I personally just don’t like hats on myself.
I do wonder how much of the issue, bad research or not, is because of the dominant culture’s continued caricaturisation of witch’s and Pagans in general and the whole playing it up is kind of feeding into that idea.