Halloween is a fun and festive time of year with roots going back to Old World tradition. While some traditions have faded away, others survived and are still practiced today. In the old days, both October 31s and November 1st were considered special days. Often the eve before a holiday was the time for raucous revelry while the next morning was the time for solemn church going. Thus, All Hallows Eve (or evening) became Hallowe’en, and then simply Halloween. Of course we know that before it was All Hallows, the celebration was called Samhain (pronounced sow-en), a Celtic pagan high day. For this edition of The Archivist’s Corner, your archivist has uncovered some antiquated accounts of Celtic Halloween customs for your reading pleasure.
A vintage Scottish Halloween card
Douglas Holms submitted his observations of Halloween customs in Britain and Ireland to the magazine Irish Monthly in October of 1910:
HALLOWE'EN is the eve of Hallowmas, All Saints' Day, November the First. Much beloved, we know, by the Scots, and provocative of haggis and whiskey, and other things to which no further reference will be made in this article. It used to be regarded as the occasion when witches and devils and other mischief-making beings were abroad on their baneful midnight errands, or (more pleasantly) one on which those aeronautic folk, the fairies, hold a grand anniversary and are unusually active and unusually propitious.
Fire, apples, nuts, loom large as propitiating instruments. In the North of England it was the custom to dive for apples, or catch at them, suspended from a string, with the mouth only, the hands being tied behind the back. In the burning of nuts, common to the North of England, Ireland and Scotland, propitious omens were sought, largely concerning matrimony. The custom is well described by the poet Gay in his spell:
Fire, apples, nuts, loom large as propitiating instruments. In the North of England it was the custom to dive for apples, or catch at them, suspended from a string, with the mouth only, the hands being tied behind the back. In the burning of nuts, common to the North of England, Ireland and Scotland, propitious omens were sought, largely concerning matrimony. The custom is well described by the poet Gay in his spell:
| Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame, Anid to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name. This with the loudest bounce me sore amaz'd, That in a flame of brightest colour blaz'd; As blaz'd the nut, so may thy passion grow, For 'twas thy nut that did so brightly glow! | |
There was the custom common to Scotland and Wales of lighting fires. In some cases they collected the ashes from the consumed fire in the form of a circle. Then a stone was placed
near the circumference for every person of each family interested, and whatever stone was out of its place upon the next morning the person represented by that stone was said to be devoted of
"fey " and was supposed not to live another year.
And much more you may learn by diligent search among old world customs. " Soul-cakes," too, you ought to make and eat about this time, and perhaps you may lighten the lot of your ancestors in another place. But there, we are getting a little bit out of our depth!
near the circumference for every person of each family interested, and whatever stone was out of its place upon the next morning the person represented by that stone was said to be devoted of
"fey " and was supposed not to live another year.
And much more you may learn by diligent search among old world customs. " Soul-cakes," too, you ought to make and eat about this time, and perhaps you may lighten the lot of your ancestors in another place. But there, we are getting a little bit out of our depth!
Mary Julia MacCulloch explored Halloween customs on the Isle of Skye and mainland Scotland in an article in the journal Folklore, March 1923:
There are various festivals in the year breaking into the peaceful monotony of the crofters' existence, but the chief of these is Hallowe'en. I do not need to say that this is observed on the 31st of October, the eve of All Saints' Day. I do not also need to say that this Festival coincides with the New Year of the Ancient Celts, the time when the sun dies. It is little wonder that the sun was an object of adoration, for even now, on the broad moors, open and bare, there is little enough of him, and what must it have been when the land was covered with the forests which have helped to form the great peat bogs.
Before Hallowe'en in all the shops there is a great display of masks, or false faces, as they are more usually called in Scotland. This is in the village, for if the country people want them, they have to walk there for them. When the day comes, there is great preparation. All sorts of old garments are produced and there is great dressing up. This is not confined to children, for quite grown-up lads take part in it. On that night no door is closed against the " guisers." They walk into any house without knocking, and penetrate into its recesses.
I am told that in some parts the lads and young men get very riotous. There is great pulling up of cabbage stalks to see if the future partner for life is to be straight in mind and body. After these are pulled up, the youths run through the townships and play many rough pranks, throwing the cabbage stalks in at house doors, or at the windows which are frequently broken. They are even more daring than the town lads in their raids on combustibles to make the bonfires, and byres and stables are watched lest they be stripped of their woodwork.
Before Hallowe'en in all the shops there is a great display of masks, or false faces, as they are more usually called in Scotland. This is in the village, for if the country people want them, they have to walk there for them. When the day comes, there is great preparation. All sorts of old garments are produced and there is great dressing up. This is not confined to children, for quite grown-up lads take part in it. On that night no door is closed against the " guisers." They walk into any house without knocking, and penetrate into its recesses.
I am told that in some parts the lads and young men get very riotous. There is great pulling up of cabbage stalks to see if the future partner for life is to be straight in mind and body. After these are pulled up, the youths run through the townships and play many rough pranks, throwing the cabbage stalks in at house doors, or at the windows which are frequently broken. They are even more daring than the town lads in their raids on combustibles to make the bonfires, and byres and stables are watched lest they be stripped of their woodwork.
| The girls visit the churchyard at midnight to try their fortune whether it is to be good or bad. Their future husband’s wraiths are expected to appear. Samhain (the Celtic New Year) is mainly observed in the Highlands, but echoes of it linger on in the Lowlands. Children, dressed up and with blackened faces, still come round to the doors of the houses. I wonder whether the masks are the survival of the disguising themselves as animals which was practised by the ancient Celts in the orgiastic rites at Samhain. The children in Fife used to sing: This is the nicht o' Hallowe'en A' the witches are to be seen, Some o' them black, an' some o' them green, And some o' them like a randy queen! |  Halloween Greeting Card featuring divination or scrying with a mirror, 1904 |
Last but not least, Ruth Edna Kelley published The Book of Hallowe'en in 1919. Unfortunately it presents some outdated misinformation, such as the notion that the Celts honored Middle Eastern god Ba’al on Samhain. Equating Northern European deities with Mediterranean gods was a common practice at the time but is discouraged by scholars today. However, the book describes some interesting Halloween customs from various Celtic regions and presents many traditional tales and poems. So, do I do recommend this book, but read it with a discerning eye. You can find it for free on Project Gutenberg. Without further ado, here is an excerpt featuring Irish Halloween customs:
Ireland has a literature of Hallowe'en, or "Samhain," as it used to be called. Most of it was written between the seventh and the twelfth centuries, but the events were thought to have happened while paganism still ruled in Ireland.
The evil powers that came out at Samhain lived the rest of the time in the cave of Cruachan in Connaught, the province which was given to the wicked Fomor after the battle of Moytura. This cave was called the "hell-gate of Ireland," and was unlocked on November Eve to let out spirits and copper-colored birds which killed the farm animals. They also stole babies, leaving in their place changelings, goblins who were old in wickedness while still in the cradle, possessing superhuman cunning and skill in music. One way of getting rid of these demon children was to ill-treat them so that their people would come for them, bringing the right ones back; or one might boil egg-shells in the sight of the changeling, who would declare his demon nature by saying that in his centuries of life he had never seen such a thing before.
The evil powers that came out at Samhain lived the rest of the time in the cave of Cruachan in Connaught, the province which was given to the wicked Fomor after the battle of Moytura. This cave was called the "hell-gate of Ireland," and was unlocked on November Eve to let out spirits and copper-colored birds which killed the farm animals. They also stole babies, leaving in their place changelings, goblins who were old in wickedness while still in the cradle, possessing superhuman cunning and skill in music. One way of getting rid of these demon children was to ill-treat them so that their people would come for them, bringing the right ones back; or one might boil egg-shells in the sight of the changeling, who would declare his demon nature by saying that in his centuries of life he had never seen such a thing before.
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Even after Christianity was made the vital religion in Ireland, it was believed that places not exorcised by prayers and by the sign of the cross, were still haunted by Druids. As late as the fifth century the Druids kept their skill in fortune-telling. King Dathi got a Druid to foretell what would happen to him from one Hallowe'en to the next, and the prophecy came true. Their religion was now declared evil, and all evil or at any rate suspicious beings were assigned to them or to the devil as followers.
The power of fairy music was so great that St. Patrick himself was put to sleep by a minstrel who appeared to him on the day before Samhain. The Tuatha De Danann, angered at the renegade people who no longer did them honor, sent another minstrel, who after laying the ancient religious seat Tara under a twenty-three years' charm, burnedup the city with his fiery breath.
These infamous spirits dwelt in grassy mounds, called "forts," which were the entrances to underground palaces full of treasure, where was always music and dancing. These treasure-houses were open only on November Eve.
The power of fairy music was so great that St. Patrick himself was put to sleep by a minstrel who appeared to him on the day before Samhain. The Tuatha De Danann, angered at the renegade people who no longer did them honor, sent another minstrel, who after laying the ancient religious seat Tara under a twenty-three years' charm, burnedup the city with his fiery breath.
These infamous spirits dwelt in grassy mounds, called "forts," which were the entrances to underground palaces full of treasure, where was always music and dancing. These treasure-houses were open only on November Eve.
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Recommended Books:
 Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear Postcard Book - CLICK IMAGE |  A Hallowe'en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writers over the Centuries - CLICK IMAGE |
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