Associated Holidays

All Halloween-like and Halloween related Holidays

Key Points / Halloween Connection

- Connected through centuries of folklore linking them to the devil, pagan spirits, and witchcraft imagery

Brief Bio

Ancient Greek and Roman myths featured Pan and satyrs—half-man, half-goat creatures associated with wild nature, uninhibited revelry, and fertility. With the rise of Christianity, many symbols of the Pagan belief system were used as signs of evil as early Christian traditions adopted pagan imagery to represent the devil, giving him the horns, beard, and cloven hooves of a goat. 

As far back as the Middle Ages folk history and art frequently depicted the devil attending gatherings of witches in the form of a black goat. The 19th-century goat-headed figure Baphomet cemented the animal as a staple icon of the occult, modern Satanism, and dark folklore.

Visually goats possess horizontal, slit-shaped pupils and unblinking stares that many human cultures historically found unnerving or eerie. Also, some goats produce human-like screams, further adding to the air of dark mystique surrounding the animals.