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If you're a witch in Scotland, 2022 could be your year! The First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, has expressed support for a petition to award pardons to almost 4,000 witches in the country.
The only thing is, these witches are...not alive.
Nope, they were executed sometime between the 16th and 18th centuries during aggressive witch hunts all across Scotland.
Although this may seem similar to the Salem Witch Trails that happened in Massachusetts, the number of people executed far exceeds it. In Salem, 300 witches were found guilty and 19 of them were executed. In Scotland? Almost 4,000 guilty while two thirds of them were burned at the stake.
Last year a petition that garnered over 3,400 signatures called for the Scottish government to pardon and memorialize the dead. They were primarily unmarried women over the age of 40. With the leader of the National Party in support of the petition, it signals that a formal apology could be on the way after over 500 years.