United Kingdom

Introduction

The celebration of Halloween originated in parts of the United Kingdom with the ancient Celts (pronounced KELTS), who believed that spirits roamed the earth on this night. People especially in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales observed the holiday, and Irish immigrants are said to have brought Halloween traditions to the United States. Many old folk customs are still carried out in parts of the United Kingdom, but Halloween trick-or-treating in the cities closely resembles the U.S. version.

History

Halloween is one of the most important holidays in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. It is believed to have begun more than two thousand years ago with the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced SOW-en), which means "summer's end." Samhain was celebrated to end the harvest and to welcome the winter. This turning point in the year was considered a magical time that opened the door to the dead and allowed ghosts and spirits into the world. Since then, Halloween has been linked with the dead and with the realm of witches, ghosts, elves, fairies, and other supernatural beings.

Because the spirit world was open, Halloween became the perfect time for predicting the future. It was also a time for young pranksters to make mischief, especially in farming communities, and blame it on the spirits believed to roam on Halloween night. They took gates off their hinges, whitewashed windows, hid livestock, and even chained all the house doors so no one could get out.

Halloween was probably not widely celebrated in England before the early 1900s. It was thus little known in England's American colonies other than as a commemoration of the Christian All Saints' Day. This began to change when Irish immigrants brought their Halloween customs and traditions to America in the middle 1800s. With them, the Irish brought an observance of Halloween that blended with American customs to eventually become the major celebration it is today.

"Guising" (pronounced GUY-zing), or dressing in disguise, was replaced by dressing up as ghosts, witches, and goblins. Turnip lanterns became jack-o'-lanterns, and mischief making became trick-or-treating. The same process occurred in England, partly because of the Irish living there and partly because of increasing American cultural influence. By the middle of the twentieth century, Halloween had become a major festival in many parts of England. Today, it is a favorite national folk holiday just as it is in the United States.

Folklore, Legends, Stories

Folktales and superstitions about ghosts, witches, fairies, and ghoulies exist in every country in the United Kingdom. They are passed on from generation to generation to try to explain the unexplainable. The tales also travel from country to country as people move from one place to the next. The tradition is so great in these countries that Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and England have produced some of the world's best storytellers.

The keyhole ghosts

In Wales, the name for All Hallows' Eve is Nos Galan Gaeaf. It is an important holiday with many superstitions attached to it. Welsh legends say that ghosts of the dead appear at midnight on All Hallows' Eve. In some areas of Wales, a brave village youth would go into the churchyard, where these ghosts were believed to be walking about. He would put his finger over the keyhole of the church door to keep spirits from escaping. Some people believed that through the keyhole, the boy could see ghosts of those who would soon die.

An Irishman named Jack

An old Irish folktale about a man named Jack is the basis for the Halloween jack-o'-lantern. Jack was said to have made a pact with the devil so that the devil could never claim his soul. According to the legend, when Jack died he was refused entry into heaven. But when he went to the gates of hell, the devil could not allow him in either. Jack took a coal from the fires of hell, hollowed out a turnip, and placed the coal inside. Legend says this "lantern" still lights Jack's way as he wanders the earth until the end of time.

A similar story is about a character named Will o' the Wisp, who is thought to be a wandering spirit who roams through swamps and bogs. This story was invented to explain the mysterious lights that sometime appear in swampy areas. These lights are now thought to be gases released from decaying plant matter. Some say ugly faces were carved on jack-o'-lanterns to frighten such evil spirits away.

A tunic for your life

The Scottish believed that a person who took a three-legged stool and sat at the intersection of three roads at midnight on Halloween would see fairies. These fairies would speak the names of persons who were going to die during the year. If the brave soul took articles of clothing and threw them to the fairies, the fairies would be pleased and prevent the person from dying.

Famous Halloween poems by Robert Burns

Scottish national poet Robert "Robbie" Burns (1759–1796) wrote two long poems—"Halloween" and "Tam o' Shanter"—that contributed much to the development of Halloween as an important holiday. When Scottish immigrants came to America, they recited the poems on Halloween. As a result, many American Halloween traditions came from ideas taken from these works.

Burns's poems are written in "Scots," a dialect of northern Scotland spoken by nearly all Scottish people of his day. "Tam o' Shanter" is based on a witch story told about Alloway Kirk, an old ruin near Burns's home in Ayr, Scotland. Like the American story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving, "Tam o' Shanter" is about the midnight ride of a comic folk hero, Tam. Tam is chased by witches until he comes to a bridge. Horse and rider cross the bridge, leaving the witches behind because witches will not cross water. Just at the last moment, a witch snatches the tail off Tam's mare.

In the poem "Halloween," Burns writes about many of the traditional Halloween customs of his day, such as pulling the kale, playing the game the Three Luggies, and burning nuts on the hearth to determine a sweetheart's faithfulness (see "Customs, Traditions, Ceremonies" and "Arts, Crafts, Games").

Customs, Traditions, Ceremonies

Many of the Halloween customs still practiced today in the United Kingdom began hundreds of years ago. One tradition that has remained is playing games or performing rituals that will foretell the future. In many of these rituals, young people try to predict, or "divine," whom they will marry. Other traditions that continue to play a part in Halloween festivities are dressing in costume and trick-or-treating.

Nutcrack Night in Ireland

An old folk custom in Ireland once gave the name Nutcrack Night to Halloween. When a young woman wanted to know if her boyfriend was faithful, she put three nuts on the bars of the fireplace grate, naming one nut for herself and the others for two boyfriends. If a nut cracked or jumped, the boy would prove unfaithful; if it began to blaze or burn, he liked the girl making the trial. If the nuts named after the girl and her boyfriend burned together, the couple would one day marry.

Pulling the kale

In another custom, "pulling the kail" (kale; cabbage), young people would go out hand in hand and blindfolded into the kailyard, or garden. Each one pulled up the first stalk of kale he or she encountered. They returned to the fireside to examine their stalks. Each person's stalk was said to reveal information about that person's future wife or husband. The amount of earth clinging to the stalk, for example, determined the size of the future mate's fortune or dowry; the taste of the pith, or core, indicated the person's temper.

In some areas, the cabbage's head was used to determine the appearance of a future husband. A closed white head meant the girl would marry an old man. An open green head indicated a young man as the future groom.

"Please to help the guisers"

"Guising," or dressing in disguise, on All Hallows' Eve, has been a popular custom in Scotland for hundreds of years. It is sometimes called "galoshin." It began in about the sixteenth century and continued into the twentieth century. Guising is one of the customs that gave us the modern Halloween activity called trick-or-treating.

Groups of young men or children put on scary "false faces," or masks, and, as soon as it was dark, went through the village streets carrying turnip lanterns or torches made from kale stalks. They sang Halloween rhymes and gave small performances as they went from door to door, saying, "Please to help the guisers." People gave them apples, nuts, and sometimes coins. They often used any money received to buy fireworks for Halloween.

Early Halloween costumes in Wales

In the late nineteenth century in some parts of Wales, young people wore clothes of the opposite gender and went from house to house singing verses and riddles. In other places, men dressed in sheepskins and old ragged clothes masked their faces and went around calling themselves gwrachod (hags), much feared creatures in medieval Wales. They frightened children and were rude to adults and were eventually stopped by the police.

Thump-the-Door Night

On the Isle of Man in the early 1900s, boys would throw cabbages or turnips at doors until the homeowner came out and gave them money or a treat. Because of this custom, Halloween was known as Thump-the-Door Night.

Welsh hillsides on fire and burning Guy Fawkes

In centuries past, families lit Halloween bonfires on hillsides to see whose bonfire would burn longest. They roasted potatoes and apples in the fire and danced around or jumped over the flames. Each person chose a stone and threw it into the fire. The next morning, when the fire was out, they would go back to look for their stones. It was good luck to find the stone, bad luck if it could not be found.

Today on Halloween, people may still light bonfires in rural areas, but most bonfires are reserved for Guy Fawkes Day, celebrated on November 5. The night of Guy Fawkes Day is called Bonfire Night, and people throughout the United Kingdom light bonfires and burn lifelike representations of Guy Fawkes. In 1605, Fawkes was involved in a plot with other Englishmen to blow up the British Houses of Parliament in revenge for laws against Catholics. This Gunpowder Plot was discovered, and Fawkes was arrested and executed. Since the mid-1850s, burning a figure of Guy Fawkes has become an annual tradition.

Putting the torch to witches and ghosts

In early Scotland, people often lit peat torches and carried them through orchards to burn any witches that might be lurking about. It was commonly believed that witches and ghosts feared fire, so the torches were believed to be a powerful weapon against them. In the Scottish Highlands, farmers would carry lighted torches into the fields on Halloween and walk clockwise around the fields, believing that this custom would ensure a good year for crops. It was later considered bad luck to allow a fire to go out on All Hallows' Eve.

Clothing, Costumes

The tradition of dressing in costume on Halloween may have begun with the Celts in pre-Christian England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Some writers say the Celts wore animal skins and other disguises during the celebration of Samhain so that evil spirits would not recognize them.

Later traditions include those of the mummers, who dressed in costumes and performed from house to house on many holidays. The British guisers wore costumes and masks to disguise themselves on their outings around town. Today, children and adults dress as ghosts (called ghoulies or kelpies in Scotland), witches, vampires, and skeletons. In most areas, children go trick-or-treating for candy and other treats on Halloween, much the same as children in the United States and other countries do.

Foods, Recipes

Colcannon is the favorite traditional Irish Halloween dish. It is made from potatoes, turnips, parsnips, cabbage, onions, and other fall harvest vegetables. It is sometimes used to foretell the future by placing tokens inside it, such as a ring, a coin, a miniature doll, and a thimble. When the colcannon is dished out, the person who gets the ring is supposed to marry; the one who finds the doll is expected to have children; the one who gets the thimble will remain single; and the one who receives the coin will be wealthy. This custom is still carried out at some Halloween parties today.

Spooning the crowdie

Crowdie was a popular Halloween dish in Great Britain during the Middle Ages, or medieval times (about 500 to 1500). Like colcannon, it was used to predict the future. It was made from whipped sweet cream mixed with apple sauce and had six items—two rings, two marbles, and two coins—placed inside for six players. Using spoons, players ate crowdie directly from a large dish. The players who found the rings would soon marry; those who discovered coins would be wealthy; and those who got marbles would remain single. If a player spooned up only crowdie, his or her life would be full of sweet surprises.

Barmbrack and sowens for Halloween

A traditional British Halloween food is barmbrack, a kind of bread with raisins and currants. A treat is placed inside the bread and is said to predict the finder's future. A person who finds a ring will soon wed; a piece of straw indicates a prosperous year. Another popular dish at Halloween is sowens, a porridge made from the husks of oatmeal.

Arts, Crafts, Games

In Scotland, Halloween is associated with fun and revelry at the fireside. It is also associated with ceremonies by young people for divining their future sweetheart. In one such game, the Three Luggies, one bowl is filled with clean water, another with dirty water, and a third is left empty. The bowls are arranged on the hearth. A player is blindfolded and is told to dip his fingers into one of the bowls. If the person dips into the clean water, he is destined to marry; if the player dips into dirty water, he will be a widow or widower; if the player dips into the empty bowl, he or she will never marry. The Three Luggies is still a popular Halloween game.

Dooking and forking, snapping and peeling

Apples play a big role in Halloween traditions in Wales and Scotland. The most popular Halloween game is bobbing for apples, called "dooking fur aiples" in Scotland. A number of apples are placed in a large bowl or barrel of water set on the floor. Without using their hands, players try to pick up apples using only their teeth. The apples with stems are usually caught first, and then comes the quest for those with no stem. Some players actually suck up the smaller apples into their mouths. Others plunge their heads into the barrel of water, force an apple to the bottom, and then grab it with their teeth, emerging dripping wet.

Today, younger children in Scotland play "forkin' fur aiples," an easier game. Each child stands on a chair and holds a fork, pointed downward over the apple barrel, in his or her teeth. If the fork skewers an apple when the child lets go, he or she gets to keep the apple.

Apple and Candle Night is the traditional name given to Halloween in the Swansea area of Wales. The game of Apple and Candle is played by suspending a stick from the ceiling, with an apple attached to one end and a candle to the other. The stick is then twirled rapidly, and players, without using their hands, try to grab the apple with their teeth as it spins around. They often end up with a mouthful of candle wax instead.

In another game, players peel an apple in a single piece and toss the peel over their shoulder. The letter of the alphabet the peel most resembles when it falls to the ground is the initial of the player's future husband or wife.

For More Information

Chambers, Catherine. All Saints, All Souls, and Halloween. Austin, Tex.: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1997.

Hintz, Martin, and Kate Hintz. Halloween: Why We Celebrate It the Way We Do. Mankato, Minn.: Capstone Press, 1996.

Web sites

"The Story of Halloween." [Online] http://www.scottishradiance.com/halstory.htm (accessed December 1999).