Written by: Manaswi Sapkota - 26004, Grade IX
Posted on: 08 November, 2022
A witch trial, also known as a witch hunt, was a search conducted to find people suspected of practicing witchcraft. These witch hunts occurred during the 16th to 18th centuries. Although witch hunts were not so common during the 19th and 20th centuries, they were still present. Some people might find this weird when I say this, but witch hunts are still conducted to this day. But to find out more about that, we need to understand the history of witch hunts.
In the Early Modern Period (1450-1750) more than 35,000 people were executed after being accused of witchcraft. Among the executed, both men and women were included. Sometimes even kids in their late teens were executed. So how was a person defined to be a witch? Well, if a person was underweight they would be suspected of witchcraft, as a witch would need a light body to fly around. The second method of testing witches was throwing them in rivers. If a person who was not a witch was thrown into a river, they would drown, but a witch would float back up. People would mostly suspect women of witchcraft if they had some education in certain fields, mostly medical ones.
How did witchcraft gain its fame? The answer is simple, people. People started believing in witches in 931 B.C, but they never really hunted for them. It wasn’t until the 14th century that witch hunts started. In this time period so many people were accused of witchcraft when in fact most of them were innocent. They were accused of witchcraft if they were getting lucky, as people believed that they might have made a deal with a devil or used spells. If someone was unlucky, they would assume that witches put a curse on them. These were of course just human beliefs, as humans love to blame their bad luck on others and look down on others' good luck.
What were the qualities of a witch according to people? People believed that witches were able to fly, and use spells like love spells; to make someone fall in love with them. They were also associated with weather changes and bad luck. Their powers would be compared to the powers of nature. People assumed witches could use magical powers as well. To say the least, people believed witches had the power to end the world if they wanted to.
You might think that these trials were not that prevalent, but they were so common that it was like something that happened on a daily basis. People didn’t find it weird or abnormal when in fact everything about these witch hunts was unusual. Innocent people were left with permanent injuries and so many were killed, all on the basis of assumptions and no concrete evidence. You might think this was normal for such a conservative era, and while I do kind of agree with that, is it not concerning that these hunts are still being done in the 21st century?
In places like South East Asia, these hunts are still common. In a town in Zambia, 16 people were killed by “witch hunters'' in the span of 4 months. People with HIV were also accused of spreading it through witchcraft. Even in Nepa, we can see that people beat others in the name of beating the bokashi '' out of them. People are constantly tortured for things they didn’t even do because of others’ superstitious beliefs. We need to raise awareness of things like this as it is harmful to the general human society. You never know when you’ll be accused of witchcraft. You do not know who believes in this kind of stuff and you do not know who supports witch hunts. You never know when you will lose your life to these witch trials. It’s especially important to raise awareness in Asian countries as many people here are conservative and tend to be quite superstitious.
