{"id":4639,"date":"2012-10-05T10:28:26","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T16:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4639"},"modified":"2012-10-05T10:32:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-05T16:32:00","slug":"tempest-in-a-pointy-hat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4639","title":{"rendered":"Tempest in a Pointy Hat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organizers of this year’s Pagan Pride Day in Denver, Colorado<\/a>, want to set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of people dressed as pointy-hat witches.\u00a0 One of the organizers posted to a statewide mailing list,<\/p>\n

I think that we should let witches in non-black hats participate, too…I was thinking we would have the black hat witches as requested per the Guinness guidelines for our official count, but then in the front row we can have witches wearing other colors of hats—holding a banner that says “Real Witches Come in All Colors”. This way, we would be combatting the stereoptype rather than supporting it, and maybe we can persuade the Guinness folks into dropping or renaming the “dressed as witches” category—as a wise witchy lady pointed out, this is really just as offensive as having a “largest number of people dressed like Native Americans” or “largest number of people dressed like Jewish people” category…Definitely NOT what we’re going for with the Pagan Pride message! So please spread the word that the hat does not have to be black after all. We all know of course that not all witches even wear pointy hats, but let’s ease the Guinness folks into it slowly and start this year with our hats in many colors to help get the point across.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am a little confused here, because I searched the Guinness site<\/a> and cannot find anything about witches in an existing category\u2014please let me know if I overlooked it.<\/p>\n

Of course, someone else immediately replied,<\/p>\n

I still think this is offensive.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The last thing I would think we want to do is to promote the stereotypical image of the classic wicked “witch” in an event that is trying to promote us to the public. . . .\u00a0 My spiritual path is far more sacred to me than trying to break a world record for pointy hats.\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t see where that is honoring the Lady and Lord at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So will witches-in-pointy-hats end up in Guinness next to the “world’s fastest toilet<\/a>“?\u00a0 We have a long way to go to catch up with “Sikhs in turbans” or “Orthodox Jew with sidelocks,” after all. Is it worth the bother?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organizers of this year’s Pagan Pride Day in Denver, Colorado, want to set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of people dressed as pointy-hat witches.\u00a0 One of the organizers posted to a statewide mailing list, I think that we should let witches in non-black hats participate, too…I was thinking we would have the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,29],"class_list":["post-4639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colorado","tag-witchcraft"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1cP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12719,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12719","url_meta":{"origin":4639,"position":0},"title":"You May Be Celebrating Ostara, But Are You Vogue-ing Ostara?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Actually, this piece comes from the well-known British HPS, author, and academic Vivianne Crowley, and it is worth reading. On 20 March, druids, witches, and lovers of nature will gather to celebrate the spring equinox, one of the eight festivals of the Wheel of the Year. For millennia, the spring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"equinox\"","block_context":{"text":"equinox","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=equinox"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.vogue.co.uk\/photos\/6230ca62965d1c9a61336071\/2%3A3\/w_2240%2Cc_limit\/CNSTMMGLPICT000002405248.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.vogue.co.uk\/photos\/6230ca62965d1c9a61336071\/2%3A3\/w_2240%2Cc_limit\/CNSTMMGLPICT000002405248.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.vogue.co.uk\/photos\/6230ca62965d1c9a61336071\/2%3A3\/w_2240%2Cc_limit\/CNSTMMGLPICT000002405248.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.vogue.co.uk\/photos\/6230ca62965d1c9a61336071\/2%3A3\/w_2240%2Cc_limit\/CNSTMMGLPICT000002405248.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.vogue.co.uk\/photos\/6230ca62965d1c9a61336071\/2%3A3\/w_2240%2Cc_limit\/CNSTMMGLPICT000002405248.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.vogue.co.uk\/photos\/6230ca62965d1c9a61336071\/2%3A3\/w_2240%2Cc_limit\/CNSTMMGLPICT000002405248.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11849,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11849","url_meta":{"origin":4639,"position":1},"title":"The Witch’s Hat: Where Did It Come From?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Abby Cox tracks the history of the black, conical, flat-brimmed hat with a deteour into eighteenth-century dressmaking and other things: \"Swedish witches are defnitely cottagecore witches, and I'm here for that.\" If you are in a hurry and wish to skip patriarchy, etc., start at the 11-minute mark. Not discussed:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"culture\"","block_context":{"text":"culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=culture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10019,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10019","url_meta":{"origin":4639,"position":2},"title":"Season of the Witch(crap), Part 2","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Season of the Witch(crap), Part 1\" here. Continuing . . . \u2022 One more \"high\" priestess joke, and you're out of here. From the Colorado Springs Independent, the weekly that gets all the cannabis advertising because the chain-owned daily paper won't touch it: \"Meet Colorado's High Priestess of Cannabis.\" Yes,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media1.fdncms.com\/csindy\/imager\/u\/blog\/14467973\/cannaculture.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media1.fdncms.com\/csindy\/imager\/u\/blog\/14467973\/cannaculture.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media1.fdncms.com\/csindy\/imager\/u\/blog\/14467973\/cannaculture.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11292,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11292","url_meta":{"origin":4639,"position":3},"title":"“The Witches of Manitou”\u2014More than an Urban Legend","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The old spa town of Manitou Springs, located in the foothills west of Colorado Springs. Photo by Mark Reis, ( a former newspaper co-worker of mine) from the Colorado Sun. Click to embiggen. The Colorado Sun, an online news site, dropped this into my inbox yesterday, giving M. and me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"The old spa town of Manitou Springs, west of Colorado Springs","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6800,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6800","url_meta":{"origin":4639,"position":4},"title":"“Beautiful, Wartless Witches”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"According to Smithsonian magazine, Hallowe'en started becoming a fashionable party evening in the early 1900s. And images of witches were (surprise) empowering: \"This is the period of the New Woman\u2014the woman who wants to have her say, to be able to work, marry who she chooses, to divorce, and, of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Halloween\"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=halloween"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com\/\/filer\/a8\/40\/a840113c-c92a-449b-b62c-e6e0a23c95b9\/05002gifford.jpg__600x0_q85_upscale.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com\/\/filer\/a8\/40\/a840113c-c92a-449b-b62c-e6e0a23c95b9\/05002gifford.jpg__600x0_q85_upscale.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com\/\/filer\/a8\/40\/a840113c-c92a-449b-b62c-e6e0a23c95b9\/05002gifford.jpg__600x0_q85_upscale.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12603,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12603","url_meta":{"origin":4639,"position":5},"title":"Interview with Helen Berger, Leading Scholar of Paganism","author":"Chas S. 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Since completing her PhD research on the early modern witch trials in the 1980s, Berger has devoted her career to the sociological analysis of modern-day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/helen-berger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4639"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4643,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4639\/revisions\/4643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}