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. The phrase 'witching hour' began at least as early as 1775, in the poem 'Night, an Ode.' by Rev.
The term now has a widespread colloquial and idiomatic usage that is associated with human physiology and behaviour to more superstitious phenomena such as luck. Definitions vary, and include the hour immediately after midnight, and the time between 3:00 am and 4:00 am. In folklore, the witching hour or devil's hour is a time of night that is associated with supernatural events, whereby witches, demons and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful. Witches' Sabbath 13th-century CE portrayal of an unclean spirit For other uses, see Witching hour (disambiguation).
