The Witching Hour.
The term Witching Hour refers to the time of night when creatures such as witches, demons, and ghosts are thought to appear and to be at their most powerful and black magic to be most effective.
Overview[]
There was an agreement that the witching hour or hours ran anywhere between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. This was a time where there was a widespread frenzy and panic about witchcraft in the European regions. The Catholic Church was so serious about this matter that they laid down rules prohibiting activity during the witching hours. Anyone found out and about would be considered unholy and was punished by getting excommunicated.
The witching hour from medieval times is the time believed that witches came out to do their "unholy" practices. The time ascribed to the witching hour was generally viewed after midnight. Women caught out late at night could have been suspected of witchcraft if they did not have a legitimate reason to be out.
Description[]
In some communities, there is the belief that during the witching hour, the barrier between the world of the living and the dead is lifted. This allows ghosts to move in between the two realms. There have been several cases of people who claimed to have seen or heard ghosts at midnight or during the hours after midnight before sunrise.
Demons, however, are said to be the more dangerous bunch of the beasts that emerge and roam the night during the Witching Hour. Unlike ghosts, demons are believed to roam the world in bodies of people or animals that they possess. They are also included in the witching hour theory where they are believed to be most active and cause the most terror.
Mediums also become active during the witching hour. Mediums are people who are believed to have the ability to communicate with the dead and channel their spirits for other people to communicate with them. There are places where they are believed to be most active during the witching hour. According to believers in the supernatural world, there is a relationship between the activity of ghosts and mediums at this hour.