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In European folklore, the witching hour is the time when supernatural creatures such as witches, demons and ghosts are thought to be at their most powerful, and black magic at its most effective. This hour is typically midnight, and the term may now be used to refer to midnight, or any late hour, even without having the associated superstitious beliefs.

In neopaganism, it is sometimes used to refer solely to midnights occurring during a full moon, when a witch's power is supposedly at its greatest. In Gypsy beliefs the "Witching Hour" is actually at 1 o'clock as opposed to midnight because it is the "Thirteenth Hour".

 

The Witching Hour and Ghost Hunting:

http://www.hollowhill.com/guide/witching-hour.htm

If you aren't familiar with real witchcraft, you might assume that the 'witching hour' is midnight, or the hour immediately before or after midnight. In fact, the night is divided into twelve equal "planetary hours," but they're rarely sixty minutes long. To determine the actual hours of the night, start with the times of sunset and sunrise. You can find this information in any farmers' almanac, or online. Count the minutes between dusk and dawn, and divide that by 12. In the Craft, this is one hour, and each hour has a specific purpose, ruled by a particular planet. Some planets repeat twice in one night. -----A free program can calculate this for you: ChronosXP.. http://chronosxp.sourceforge.net/en/

There are at least two planetary hours each night that correspond favorably to ghost hunting: The hour ruled by Saturn (good for spirituality of all kinds) and the hour ruled by Mercury (communications, including divination). Some ghost hunters favor other planets, and many add the Moon to the hours, since it relates to psychic gifts. Since the Mercury, Moon, and Saturn hours are generally consecutive and give you three hours for optimum research, we've listed all three in the chart on our website. Think of these corresponding hours like the tides; smart ship captains make use of the tides to set sail. Ghost hunters can at least try these corresponding planetary hours, to see if this enhances results. We have listed the planetary hours for ghost hunting, day by day on the chart on our website: http://www.hollowhill.com/guide/witching-hour.htm

 

The Witching Hour - Early Uses of the Phrase:

One of the earliest known uses of the exact phrasing "the witching hour" is from 1835, in the last line of a short story by Washington Irving:

"Two pairs of eyes are watching me now,
from the couch and the ledge by the window.
Faerieland shines in those eyes.
And I must leave you,
for it's the witching hour and a full moon is rising. . . ."

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Mary Shelley used the phrase "Witching hour" in her introduction to Frankenstein - 1817

"Night waned upon this talk,
and even the witching hour had gone by
before we retired to rest."

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Variants of the phrase were in use much earlier;
Shakespeare refers to "the witching time of night" in a soliloquy in Hamlet:

Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on.
[Act III, sc. ii]

 

~~The Witching Hour is a song from the progressive metal band Symphony X from their album The Divine Wings of Tragedy.

~~Witching Hour is an album released in 2005 by Ladytron.

~~Witching Hour is a song from the 1981 Welcome to Hell album recorded by Venom, later covered by black metal band Mayhem on Deathcrush.

~~Radiohead's 2003 album, Hail to the Thief, contains a reference to the Witching Hour in the eery song titled The Gloaming.

~~The Witching Hour is a DC comic book horror anthology that ran from 1969 to 1978 with the tagline "It's 12 o'clock... The Witching Hour!" (changed to "It's midnight... The Witching Hour!" after about a year). It was hosted by three witches based on Macbeth's Weird Sisters: Morded, Mildred, and Cynthia. After its cancellation, it was merged with The Unexpected until that series folded. These witches were later revived, along with the hosts of companion series House of Secrets and House of Mystery, as important characters in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman.

~~The Witching Hour is a graphic novel written by Jeph Loeb and Chris Bachalo and drawn by Art Thibert. The story was published by Vertigo on 3 parts in 1999 and later released as a trade paperback in 2000. The story, a horror fantasy, follows 5 witches as they grant people wishes and exact justice upon them.

~~The Witching Hour is also the first book of Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches trilogy.

~~In the 2005 film The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the witching hour is referred to as occurring at 3 A.M., as opposed to midnight. In the film it is said that this is the hour each night when demons mock the Holy Trinity, and also that it is the opposite of three o'clock in the afternoon, the hour when Jesus Christ is traditionally believed to have died during the crucifixion.

~~The Witching Hour was a Harry Potter-themed symposium held in Salem, Massachusetts from October 6, 2005 to October 10, 2005.