Not Being Offensive This Halloween

I am sure a lot of you have seen videos buzzfeed has been putting out about cultures dressing up in the costumes that exploit them (if you haven't see below for the Japanese Geisha Video)

This stream of videos got me thinking about a subject very close to me....witches.

Personally I am wiccan which means that just as someone who believes in Catholicism is Catholic, I practice wicca and am a witch.
Now the biggest bad stereotype is that we are devil worshippers so let me throw out that we don't believe in hell or heaven and therefore don't believe in the devil. Basically saying that wiccans praise the devil is like saying a Jewish person loves Jesus.

Moving on to my favorite holiday, the upcoming Halloween.
Halloween, known to us a Samhain, is a holiday with a lot of stereo types of my culture as a wiccan.

For example,
the "classic" witch iconography of the ugly old green hag

 

or the "sexy" witch costume

In reality a witch looks like any other person.

Obviously it is all within reason. If you are being a Hogwarts student or one of the Sanderson sisters that is awesome and I hope you have fun, but generically calling yourself a witch just because you threw on a pointy hat? At the end of the day...you should just be more creative than that. So this Halloween remember that if you wouldn't want someone dressing up in a way that makes fun of your culture, race, or religion; you shouldn't dress in a way to offend anyone else, and that includes us witches.

Happy Samhain Everyone!-Megan