Talk:Witching hour

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[edit] Daylight savings?

The witching hour is apparently also used to refer to the hour that occurs twice when daylight savings is removed, but I can't find any reference to it outside certain unix command manuals. Is this a common enough expression to include in the article, or just an idiosyncrasy? αγδεε (ε τ c) 11:13, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Earliest known use?

While the article states that "The earliest known use of the exact phrasing "the witching hour" is from 1835, in the last line of a short story by Washington Irving", I have in my hand a copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein contained in which is a letter composed by Shelley that contains the following line: "Night waned upon this talk, and even the witching hour had gone by, before we retired to rest." This letter was from the introduction to the 1831 edition of the novel and is thusly dated October 15, 1831.

Would this not change the earliest known use of the phrase? I only discovered this because I searched for the phrase 'witching hour' after reading this introduction and seeking to confirm my belief that the witching hour was midnight.

Ckostovny 07:15, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Witching Hour

The poet, John Keats, uses this phrase in his poem "A Prophecy" which is contained in a letter to his brother, George. It was written on October 25, 1818. The poem begins: "Tis the witching hour of night, Orbed is the moon and bright, And the stars they glisten, glisten, Seeming with bright eyes to listen--For what listen they?"