Do you know the secret recipe for ‘Witches’ Brew?’

Young children can name all 15 ingredients that get tossed into the Halloween cauldron to make a batch of “Witches’ Brew.” The rhyming song – also known as “Alakazamakazoo” – was introduced in 1976 by Harlan G. “Hap” Palmer III. 

The song is a classroom standard for early childhood educators.

 

One teacher said: “Palmer ’s songs enhance the development of motor skills, language acquisition, reading readiness and math concepts as well as nurture the imaginative process and encourage creative problem solving. Palmer pioneered the integration of music and movement, influencing several generations of young learners.”

 

Palmer, who is a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, Calif., earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UCLA, majoring in dance education. He will celebrate his 80th birthday this year – three days before Halloween. 

A living legend in American children’s music, Palmer composed and recorded more than 200 songs for children. 

One of his personal favorites is “Witches’ Brew,” which he co-wrote with his former wife Dr. Martha Cheney. 

She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Wilmington who currently resides in Huson, Mont., near Missoula. Today, Dr. Cheney is the director of early childhood programs at Walden University, an online university headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn. 

Their “Witches’ Brew” potion is a gurgling concoction of “dead leaves, seaweed, rotten eggs, spider web, moldy bread, mucky mud, floor wax, thumb tacks, purple paint, fingernails, lunch pails, apple cores, wrinkled prunes, mushrooms and motor oil.”

 

Add the items one by one and…“Stir them in my witches’ brew. I got magic! Alakazamakazoo. 

“Ooo – my witches’ brew – ooo…what’s it gonna do to you? Boo!”

 

Each batch of witches’ brew comes with a warning label. Don’t drink this stuff.

 

On a far higher literary plane are the three witches that were created by English dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616). They appeared in “Macbeth,” which was first performed on stage in 1606. They uttered: 

“Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.” 

Their recipe was viler than vile – too obnoxious to print. 

Moving right along…witches, cauldrons, broomsticks, black cats, flying bats, owls, spiders, skeletons, skulls and ghosts have become symbols associated with Halloween legend and lore. 

Some go way back to Celtic rituals once practiced in Ireland, Scotland and England. 

The festival of Samhain celebrated the end of harvest. It coincided with the transition into the “darker” part of the year, “when the veil that separates the worlds of the living and the dead is at its thinnest.” 

Historian Susa Morgan Black said many people lit massive bonfires to keep the evil spirits at bay. 

These bonfires, however, attracted swarms of mosquitoes, moths and other insects, so it was natural for all this nocturnal activity to inspire bats and owls to show up and feed on the tasty insects, she said. 

“Bats are sort of creepy, among the most Halloweeny things ever,” Black said.

 

Elizabeth Yuko, a contributor to History.com, said the association of black cats with the occult dates back to the 13th century, and witches often took the felines in to offer them protection. 

“Cats, like the women accused of witchcraft, tended to exhibit a healthy disrespect of authority,” Yuko noted.

 

A representative of the Four Paws pet products company said that witches were known to take the form of black cats, so they could “sneak around unnoticed and perform magic spells. A witch could shapeshift into a black cat up to nine times, which may have something to do with the belief that cats have nine lives.”