As a positive omen in Britain and Ireland The superstitions surrounding black cats vary from culture to culture, and black cats have positive associations in the
Celtic nations and England, where a black cat crossing one's path is considered good luck. In 2014, the animal welfare organisation
RSPCA stated that "in UK folklore, black cats symbolise good luck".
Scottish lore holds that a black cat's arrival at a new home signifies prosperity, while
Welsh lore states that a black cat brings good health: {{Verse translation A fedr swyno hefyd, A chadw'r teulu lle mae'n byw O afael pob rhyw glefyd. Can also charm, And keep the family where it lives From the grip of every kind of sickness. The
Gaels had traditions of feral and sometimes malevolent black cats. In
Scottish mythology, a
fairy known as the
Cat sìth takes the form of a black cat with a white spot on its chest.
Superstition, folklore, bringer of good or bad luck for black cats, Los Angeles, 1961. The studio was seeking cats for the
Roger Corman movie
Tales of Terror. Black cats are often a symbol of
Halloween or
witchcraft. Sailors considering a "
ship's cat" would want a black one because it would bring good luck. Sometimes, fishermen's wives would keep black cats at home too, in the hope that they would be able to use their influence to protect their husbands at sea. In the
folklore of Chiloé of southern Chile, black cats are an important element that is needed when
treasure hunting for the treasure of the
carbunclo. In
Japan, black cats are good luck and are associated with
Maneki-neko.
Scottish culture associates black cats with prosperity and the goddess
Brigid. In
Latvia, black cats on farms mean prosperity and a good harvest. In
Italy black cats mean upcoming good luck. In
Germany, a black cat walking left to right is good luck. In
Thailand, black cats are considered auspicious and bring prosperity to their owners. According to the
Tamra Maew, a guidebook to cats from the
Ayutthaya period, there are as many as nine breeds of black cats. In the early days of television in the United States, many stations located on
VHF channel 13 used a black cat as a mascot in order to make sport of being located on an "
unlucky" channel number.
Anarcho-syndicalism , depicted on a 1915
propaganda poster or
"silent agitator." At first the black cat symbolized
sabotage but later became more broadly adopted as a symbol by
anarcho-syndicalists. Since the 1880s, the
color black has been associated with
anarchism. The black cat, in an alert, fighting stance was later adopted as an
anarchist symbol. More specifically, the black cat—sometimes called the "sab cat" or "sabo-tabby"—is associated with
anarcho-syndicalism, a branch of anarchism that focuses on
labor organizing, including the use of
wildcat strikes and
direct action tactics. According to
Ralph Chaplin, who is generally credited with creating the
International Workers of the World's black cat symbol, "My 'Sab Cat' was supposed to symbolize the 'slow down' as a means of 'striking on the job'," although others in the IWW used the symbol much more broadly. In testimony before the court in a 1918 trial of Industrial Workers of the World leaders, Chaplin stated that the black cat "was commonly used by the boys as representing the idea of
sabotage. The idea being to frighten the employer by the mention of the name
sabotage, or by putting a black cat somewhere around. You know if you saw a black cat go across your path you would think, if you were superstitious, you are going to have a little bad luck. The idea of sabotage is to use a little black cat on the boss."
Space Shuttle program When the
Space Shuttle program naming system for missions was reworked to avoid a Space Transportation System (STS)-13, some sourced this to superstition and
Apollo 13. The crew for what would have been STS-13 (which turned out to be
STS-41C) made a humorous mission patch that included a black cat and a number 13. The mission was successful and even landed on
Friday the 13th. == Notable black cats ==