The
celebration of Hallowe’en, the eve of All Saints, on October 31, has become
something of an embarrassment with the recent Americanisation of its practices.
In Scotland, in particular, the feast has been associated with the ancient Gaelic
season of Samhain, which sees the end of summer days and the start of winter
nights.
Alexander Macgregor in his ‘Highland superstitions’ (1922) comments:
“It is a Druidical festival at which the fire of peace was regularly kindled.
There is no night in the year which the popular imagination has stamped with
a more peculiar character than Hallowe’en. It was the night above all others,
when supernatural influences prevailed. . . . It was customary in many parts
of Scotland to have hundreds of torches prepared in each district for weeks
before Hallowe’en, so that after sunset on that evening every youth able
to carry a blazing torch or ‘samhnag’ ran forth to surround the boundaries
of their farms with these burning lights and thereby protect all their possessions
from the fairies.”
Meanwhile, families gathered in their homes to perform traditional ceremonies.
A curious Orkney custom was to gather nettles on All Hallows Eve and insert
them in the blankets of a fancied partner. Divination with apples, bobbed at
in water or hanging from a string, nuts placed on the fire, strange games played
in fancy costume. As Macgregor writes: “It is difficult to describe a Hallowe’en
as enjoyed by a family circle in olden times.” Its celebration was almost
confined to children living in the north and west, and was rare in the south
and east of Britain.
Although Hallowe’en is supposed to have originated as a pagan Celtic festival
there is no history of its celebration in connection with the dead in pre-Christian
times. There is no mention of it in Anglo-Saxon texts, although, according to
Bede, November was once known as Blad-monath, or blood month, a time when cattle
were slaughtered because there would be no more fodder for them and winter stores
of meat needed to be laid by. Bede did not specify, any particular day at the
beginning of November. And from the Middle Ages until the 19th century no special
meaning was assigned to October 31, apart from being the eve of All Saints,
when the ringing of church bells was encouraged. At one period, by decree of
Elizabeth I, this bell-ringing was forbidden on the grounds that it introduced
an element of superstition, so there was evidently some awareness that a pagan
festival was lurking in the background.
It is intriguing to note that as a folk festival Hallowe’en has recently
become more popular, with increased sales of witch masks, hats and other pagan
decorations, such as pumpkins and turnips, than it has been for decades. What
is deplorable is the development known as “trick or treat”, imported
from the United States, whereby children are encouraged to wander from door
to door after dark scaring elderly inhabitants with threats of stone bombardment
unless a cash ransom is paid promptly. This habit seems to be an urban development,
whereas in the past Hallowe’en ceremonies have been virtually confined
to the countryside.