HALLOWE'EN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 255, 27 October 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

HALLOWE'EN.

OLD CUSTOMS SURVIVE.

FUN AND FEAR.

(By ALICE CARR TIBBITS.)

The strange customs prevailing throughout England* Scotland, Ireland, and Wales on October 31, the evs preceding All Saints' Day, are certainly relics of pagan times, for, in spite of its apparent association there is nothing in the records of Church observance to give weight to the idea that on this night of all others special divination 'is granted; that spirits—both of the visible and invisible world—walk abroad, to the happiness or undoing of their more materially inclined brethren.

Nut-crack night, snap-apple night, or Hallowe'en—which ever we prefer to call it—has, from time immemorial, been the feource of more excitement than any other night in history, except, perhaps, the fifth of November, and anyone who has sat before the hl&ztag logs in an old English manor or farmhouse will testify to the delightful atmosphere which grips one, in spite of the fact that present-day enlightenment forbids us to believe that we shall see our future husbands peering Qver our shoulders if we eat an apple before a looking-glass. We are not really disappointed if we don't, for we have done it in the spirit of the woman who was "not a scrap superstitious," but who threw the spilt tialt over her shoulder "in case," not wishing to spoil any possible luck. JSounds just a little bit Scotch, does it'not 7 I think, however, that we all share that attitude* whatever our nationality.

Hallowe'en nowadays retains mostly those customs which create fun, and it is noticeable that every one of £hese is in some way connected with fruits and seeds, apples and nuts being to the fore. One very old and laughter-provoking game is the hanging up of a stick horizontally by a string from the ceiling, putting a lighted candle on one end and an apple on the other. The stick is then twirled rapidly as the merry-makers leap up and snatch at the apple with their teeth, no hands being allowed. Now, as it very often happens that the candle comes round before they are aware, there is the thrill of the probability of being scorched or anointed with grease! One needs to be rather heroic for 'his particular feat.

Ducking for floating apples is another favourite pastime, and it causes much amusement to onlookers, but needless to say it would only find favour with those whose faces would not look unnatural after the immersion, therefore to-day perhaps only young children, the elderly middle-aged and men would provide this fun, although teeth are an essential factor to success, the idea being to grab the- apple with them. There is on record but one solitary ease of a man whose Wmthvws to larg»&as £§§ flU* to

suck the apples up without effort. Naturally, he was detested by all Hallowe'en votaries.

The nut games were popular amongst those who had not the courage or who preferred not . to subject their complexions to the bowl, even in order to gain a husband, though this is made to appear as the main object of every feminine heart in those days, be it owned by maid, spinster or widow; in fact, I thiplr every Hallowe'en ceremony on record has +>"« purpose in view, showing what a great place love and marriage had in the minda of our ancestors.

Of their fortune with the nuts, the game most widely known was that of putting three nuts upon the bus of the grate, naming the nuts after the lovers. If a nut crackpd or jumped, the lover would prove unfaithful; if it blazed or burned, he had a regard for the pereon making the test. If the nuts named after the girt and her lover burned together they would marry.

| Fun, however, was a later adjunct to what may be termed the unhallowed rites of All Hallows Eve. With education, and the consequent passing of superstition* it was the most natural thing that its rather fearful guise should be more or less discarded and only the ludicrous remain. The old idea that on this mystic night a special faculty is conferred on immaterial humanity to detach itself from corporeal ties and wander abroad haa been the cause of well-authenticated cases of nervous shock and broken health on the part of persons gifted with a vivid imagination and others who have been the victims of some thoughtless, practical joke. Old grandmothers would speak of the night wdth shaking heads, and woe betide any child so unfortunate as to have been born on October 31, for they were but half in this world and half in the nest, holding converse with spirits, and seeing fearful happenings in the future. Sir Walter Scott makes use of thiA belief in his romance of "The Monastery." Burns depicts the power attributed to Hallowe'en customs in the olden days when he says:

Wee Jenny to her granny says: "Will ye go wi' me, granny? 11l eat the apple at the glass, I gat frae Uncle Johnny." A request which arouses the indignation of the old lady: She UufPt her pipe wi* sic a lunt, In wrath she was sae vap'rin'. She notic't na, an alzle brant Her braw new worset apron Out through that night. "Ye little ekelple-llmmer's facet I daur ye try ale ■portin', As seek the fool thief ony place For him to spae your fortune: Nae doubt but%ye may get a eight t Great cause ye hae to fear it; For mony a ane has gotten a fright. And lived and died deleeret On sic a night." Life was taken very seriously then. In England no Hallowe'en would have been properly honoured without its carra way cake and "mine'd pyw," the mince-meat having u two MffitiHl ingredients « "fat bullock's tongue* sad l"i •ad Vhslf pints