Why are owls considered scary--halloween??

thinkhalloween said:

Lately I have noticed that owls have become part of Halloween decorations.....why?? Do people consider owls scary?? Is there some sort of folk lore associated with owls??

Click to expand...

Imagine ancient peoples, in their tepees/yurts/caves/whatever, they have no electric lights or really much protection from what roams the darkness except some spears or arrows or whatever weapon they can devise.... and then a great horned owl sounds sounding off 50 feet from the lodge-flap, or whatever. I imagine that would be quite scary, or at least it would wake you up.

Owls have a long and storied history as psychopomps. Let me tell you a true story:

Back in the 1990s, about a year after my brother dropped dead of heart failure at age 26, [TWENTY-SIX, WTH?!!!] my mother and I were talking. [My brother was a *bad* asthmatic who smoked both tobacco and pot HEAVILY, at once point I even remember saying to him, "Don't you think you are kinda stressing your pulmonary system a wee bit much?!!" and he shrugged that off. Continually on steroid dosepaks, and just puffing away! *facepalm*]

My mother told me that about a month before he died, she was awakened in the wee hours by a screech-owl tapping on her bedroom window.
She repeatedly tried to shoo the owl away, but he kept coming back.... tapping.

My hair almost stood on end. "MOM ARE YOU SERIOUS OMG!!! Could there be a more horrible omen!" Maybe hearing the banshee would be worse, but an owl tapping on your window at night is right up there.

That owl was *warning* her. Death was coming to our family.

My mother: "Oh pooh, I don't believe a bit of that! Omens! That's devil-talk, I'm a Christian!"

Yeah, whatever. Meanwhile what happened, happened. I love owls, they are fascinating and beautiful birds. But if one taps on your window, summoning you or if any bird flies across your path close to you, look out. Something bad is about to happen and I speak from sad experience. Call me crazy, but I have seen it.

My brother would agree if he could.

An owl sits, waits, swoops down, snatches a mouse right up, the mouse (or other animal ) probably never knew what hit them.. sort of like how death itself finds some of us!
I have told this before, no Owl involved,but a big black colored bird.
I was standing the the Tallahassee graveyard, the old one "downtown" watching my now Ex-wife cleaning old broken gravestones so they could be repaired (Vandalized)
A big black bird swooped down hitting her across the back of her head, knocking her to the ground,into soft grass,she wasn't hurt.
A strange man who spent much time in the graveyard asked her what the exact time was the bird hit her, which direction did it come from and which direction it left in?
He "pondered" awhile, then he said to her:"Someone close to you is going to Die Soon!"
Then he looked at Me (the "new" Husband) and told me that I should be drinking "Willow Tea" for "Protection". I laughed.
Later that night my wife became very nervous about this, insisted I drink Willow Tea! (Tasted like krappe! )
The next morning just before day-break her phone was ringing.... Her Uncle in Texas... had died.