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mrwho2019 t1_j1lbitu wrote

I guess someone watched The Devil's Hour?

The phrase "witching hour" began at least as early as 1775, in the poem "Night, an Ode." by Rev. Matthew West, though its origins may go further back to 1535 when the Catholic Church prohibited activities during the 3:00 am and 4:00 am timeframe due to emerging fears about witchcraft in Europe.

During the time in which this term originated, many people had sleeping schedules that meant they were awake during the middle of the night. Nonetheless, there is psychological literature suggesting that apparitional experiences and sensed presences are most common between the hours of 2:00 am and 4:00 am, corresponding with a 3:00 am peak in the amount of melatonin in the body.

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Shape__Shifter t1_j1lbmiy wrote

Wikipedia has the origins and probably links to more info, but says 'witching hour' has its origins in a poem from 1775 called "Night, an Ode".. but it could go further back to 1535 when the catholic church banned activities between 3-4am due to fear of witchcraft spreading and using 3am as its the inverse of when Jesus supposedly died (3pm)

Another folklore thing with it is the hour after midnight and it's sometimes called the "devils hour"

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ProbablyImprudent t1_j1lbxkk wrote

In early Catholic tradition Jesus was believed to have died between 3:00pm and 4:00pm. The inversion of that, 3:00am and 4:00pm was called the "Devil's Hour". The "witching hour" is developed from that. Many cultures have other hours of early morning after midnight with similar superstitions. This is probably due in large part to the hours between midnight and 4:00am being the quietest time where almost all life, or life that we are accustomed to dealing with, is asleep. Indeed very few people ever are commonly awake at those hours. Societally, if you know that almost every single person in a village or city was asleep at those hours and if they're awake they are probably tired, that would make it the best time to do anything disagreeable like thieving, harming others, or anything else socially unacceptable like "witchcraft". You'd be a lot more likely to get away with it. Makes sense that someone in charge might like to keep people inside at those hours. Makes security a lot easier.

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explainlikeimfive-ModTeam t1_j1lj9g1 wrote

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