Why, out of all things, do witches ride brooms?

Answer 1

Actually, I believe the image of a witch "flying" on a broom originates from a pagan ritual of young women that used to run along wheat fields when the wheat was ripening, with a broom between their legs.
It was a fertility rite, sometimes used to assure a good harvest, sometimes to make the woman fertile (as a plea for babies), sometimes even both.
As they so sprinted between the wheat, which would reach up somewhere up to their waists, their legs were of course hidden and to a casual onlooker from far away it would appear as if they were riding the broom and flying.

When catholic church needed "culprits" for all the unnatural and "evil" happening during the christening of Europe and later the witch huntings, a story like that would of course be enough to get the woman accused of being a witch, performing "miracles" like flying, which was unnatural, so it had to be devil's work. A woman like that would of course be burnt at the stake.

Answer 2

The old ladies with wrinkled faces and maybe a wart or two and something of a cantankerous personality in their dotage were always prime suspects for the Inquisition and Witch Hunters. These women had a habit of sitting or standing on their door step with their Brooms. The brooms acted as both a cleaning tool, a way to chase off mischievous children, and as a cane or crutch.

On the other hand, children of that period would use their mother's broom as an imaginary horse and in some cases an imaginary flying horse, for such tales were told before the fireplace in the evening's.

The old women were often turned in to the Hunters by mothers and children for some imagined or real slight. The old woman may even have told the child that was imagining they were flying on their mothers broom that she did so also.

Anyway, along with being an old woman, with wrinkles, and warts, the broom became part of the stereotype and the flying broom a symbol.

Answer 3

Witches don't ride brooms. Its a common misconception that comes from the old tradition of jumping broomsticks during a ritual or celebration.

EDIT
The custom of "Jumping the Broom" originated in paganism. The couple would jump over a broomstick together to signify jumping into a new life together. As time went on, this custom appears to have spread to other countries, not necessarily in the context of paganism.
http://www.gabartow.org/military/broom.shtml




As Samhain was the beginning of the cycle of winter, Beltane marks the second major cycle of the year: Summer. This May Sabbat is a celebration of new life in all its forms. This is the day God and Goddess are united in sacred marriage, their relationship consummated. This melding of God and Goddess symbolically fertilizes the animals and crops for the rest of the year.

Witches celebrate the great fruitfulness of the earth and the exuberance of spring this night with a playful sense of carefree abandon. This is the traditional day of pagan handfastings. A vow made between two witnessed and blessed by the God and Goddess that commonly lasts for a year and a day (which then can be continued for life).

Jumping over broomsticks and dancing around the maypole typically entwining the red and white ribbons (symbols of the God and Goddess) are both symbols of fertility. Beltane is also known as May Day, Beltaine, Rudemas, Giamonios and Bhealltainn. Beltane colors are red and white (symbolizing the God and Goddess). Symbols are the May Pole, baskets, flowers and the butterchurn.
http://members.tripod.com/~Lady_Simone/cstar1.html



That witches rode to Sabbats upon broomsticks was a very common belief at one time. They were supposed to anoint their bodies with a salve given to them by the Devil, and thereafter to be able to fly through the air upon a variety of sticks or stems, including broomsticks. The choice of the latter as a likely means of transport is probably due to the fertility associations of the broom-plants, and also perhaps to the female connexion of the besom, though male witches were thought to ride in this way as well as women. In some confessions recorded at the trials, we hear of sticks being used for ritual purposes, but there is little evidence that the witches ever did much more than straddle them, or leap about with them between their legs.

The besom, or broomstick wedding is now usually associated with gypsies, but at one time it seems to have been known in Wales amongst people who were not gypsies. A *****-broom was set aslant across the open door, either that of the bride's home or that of the cottage in which the couple were to live. The young man leapt over it into the house, and the girl then did the same. Care had to be taken not to touch the doorpost or the broom, or to move the latter accidentally, otherwise the ceremony was void. It had to be performed in the presence of witnesses, and one person, chosen for his standing and importance in the community, acted as officiant. Such a marriage was considered quite valid, however strongly the clergy might condemn it. It could, however, be broken without difficulty if, during the first twelve months, the besom was replaced in the doorway, and the dissatisfied partner jumped backwards over it from the house into the open air. http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/12/messages/1121.html

Answer 4

I don't ride a broom. I ride in a car.
Brooms are symbols used in several ritual and spells in the Wiccan and Pagan religions.
The myth about riding around on them came with the converison to Christianity.

Answer 5

I don't know, Eric, but this theme keeps reoccurring time after time regardless of society or nationality. I once interviewed a praticioner (for a book I wrote) and she informed me that brooms which nullified gravity enabling witches to fly were made from a special grass (marihuana? LOL!) with a wooden shaft etched with demonic symbols.

Recently I viewed a video taken close to Mexico City. UFO investigators were hoping to film UFOs around a certain mountain range and were equiped with dual video cameras. What they filmed looked exactly like the classical depiction of a witch (robes, hat & all) FLYING from one mountain peak to another on a... BROOM. I thought that if I lived one or two centuries ago and I have been witness to whatever that was, I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that I had seen a witch flying on a broom.

Who knows!

H

Answer 6

Society portrayed witches as flying brooms because besoms (brooms) help witches to cleanse their houses of negative energy. Besoms are helpful tools for witches and society turned it into a joke upon the witches by making them appear to fly on them.

Answer 7

Brooms are the sign of fertility and were used in handfasting ceremonies to ensure fertility so the couple would conceive.

Answer 8

i swear i read this in a book...flying ( figuratively speaking)ointments contained some very psychotropic plant compounds which also acted as an aphrodisiac and stimulant..( nuff said?) riding the broom?

Answer 9

the ash tree has always been associated with flying - in part because the ash is one of a handful of trees which will happily grow out of a wall or on the side of a steeple.

(there is a fuller explanation in robert graves' 'the white goddess').

besoms were traditionally made from ash wood, and all witches had one (because nearly all housewives had one). they were the obvious choice of magical mount.

....

(never believe the nonsense modern 'wiccans' talk about witchcraft. wicca has as little connection with real witchcraft as pentecostalism does).

Answer 10

I don't and never did. Before vacuum cleaners were invented, I "borrowed" a neighbor's horse.

p.s. I'm not a witch though I've been called one many times.