People dress up as many things for Halloween–dinosaurs, pirates, cheerleaders–but the most popular getup by far are witch costumes. For years, witch costumes have remained in the top spot more than any other costume. And it’s easy to understand why. You can never go wrong with a classic.

If you’re dressing up as a witch, of course, you have to carry around a broomstick as part of your ensemble. But have you ever wondered why the household object is associated with Witches in the first place?

From the beginning, brooms have been linked primarily to women. However, the first witch to confess to riding a broom was actually a man. His name was Guillaume Edelin, and he was a priest from a town near Paris.

In 1453, he publicly criticized the church’s warnings about witches, and as a result, he was arrested and tried for witchcraft. He was tortured into admission, and even after repenting, he spent his life in prison.

The earliest images depicting witches on brooms date back to 1451, so at the time of Edelin’s case, the idea was nothing new. In two illustrations from 1451, one woman can be seen flying through the air atop a broomstick, while the other shows a woman on a plain white stick.

Both wore headscarves and were part of a Christian sect founded in the twelfth Century that allowed women to become priests. Because of this, the Catholic Church considered these women to be heretics.

Anthropologists believe that the connection between brooms and witches may have something to do with a pagan fertility ritual. The ritual consisted of rural farmers leaping and dancing on pitchforks, poles, or brooms under a full moon for the purpose of encouraging an abundance of crops.

In addition, broomsticks were thought to be used by witches for applying herbal ointments and salves to the most intimate regions of their bodies.

In 1324, a wealthy widow named Lady Alice Kyteler was tried for witchcraft after authorities found evidence of a “pipe of ointment” in her house that she used to grease a staff, “upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin.”

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According to some historical accounts, witches created brews from plants that were rich in alkaloids, which could cause hallucinations. Instead of eating or drinking them, witches would rub the substances onto their skin.

A manuscript from the fifteenth century written by theologian Jordanes de Bergamo contains some text stating that witches would mount a staff on certain days and nights and ride on it or “anoint themselves under the arms and in other hairy places.”

It’s hard to confirm whether or not witches really did such deeds. Most confessions from accused witches were given while they were under torture.

During the seventeenth century, the idea of witches flying in and out of chimneys on broomsticks started to dominate. At this time period, women were becoming more closely associated with the household and domestic space than ever before.

It was said that women had a custom of placing a broom outside a door or up a chimney to let people know they weren’t home. This may have led to the popular notion that witches entered and exited their homes through the chimneys, even though very few accused witches ever reported any occurrences of that kind.

By the eighteenth century, the anxieties surrounding witchcraft dwindled, but today, the image of witches flying on broomsticks remains prevalent.

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