HALLOWE’EN AS IT USED TO BE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21265, 20 February 1931, Page 16

HALLOWE’EN AS IT USED TO BE.

Every civilised people have no doubt its own particular ways of celebrating or “ keeping ” the Festival of All Saints, but Scotland, belonging as it does to that sisterhood of nations that take their pleasures sadly, bear away the palm, so far as uproarious merriment is concerned, in her methods of “ haudin ” Hallowe’en.

Fifty years ago this festival was the most eagerly looked-forward-to event of the calendar, and preparations, therefore, were neither sma’ nor ordinal - ’. Parties —or sprees, as we call them north of the Tweed —were arranged beforehand, and when the guests had performed the various rites, eaten and drunk, and extracted the last ounce of enjoyment at one house, they set off for the next, taking host and hostess with them, and went through the whole course of celebration once more, apparently with as much zest as ever.

When all the guests had arrived they were placed on stools in a circle round a huge three-legged pot smoking with “ champit tatties,” the whole scene lit only by fitful gleams from the peat fire. Each one, armed with a horn spoon, dived into the mashed potatoes—and perhaps all ate more than was good for them, in the hope of spooning out one of the lucky charms scattered through the steaming mess. There was a threepenny-bit signifying plenty, a doll meaning marriage, a button for bachelordom, and a thimble for spinsterhood. The meal ended, the business of dookin’ for apples began, and great was the funning, squealing, and laughing as one by one they bent over the big wash-tub and tried to edge an apple to the side to ensure a good grip with their teeth. There was many a slip ’twixt the apple and the lip, and the expert at herding the flock to the side of the tub was not always successful at retrieving the fruit. The eating of the spoils took place round the fire to the accompaniment of nut-burning—a method of divining the future, really, for each couple of nuts burnt represented a couple in the district, and alas! for the fond hopes of lads and lasses if the nuts refused to blaze together end to end, sitting side by side on the hot peat. If one or the other jumped aside, seeming to want to parfy company, sad at heart was the hizzie or chap who had so unobtrusively put the nuts in position. The company now began to split up, some adventurous souls straying into the kailyaird to find out from the kail-runts what their prospects were of gaining a . placid life-partner; with lots of cash (ideal combination!). If the custock when pulled up retained plenty of earth on its roots and was sweet- td, the taste then sumnum bonum • was attained —no better fate could be imagined!

Meantime some of the were busy at the scales in the hard weighin’ three wechts o’ naething. Others were winding balls of twine and expecting their future dear one to hold fast the end of it. Some of the ploughmen were imitating the sowing of seed in the open field, while holding the thought I that Fate would send their future wife’s wraith to go 1 after them with the harrow.

In the cosy kitchen the farmer’s wife had set out three bowls —one containing clean water, one dirty water, and the third being empty. One by one the blindfolded guests were led up to make their choice after a rearrangement of bowls, and great was the ridicule poured forth on the - luckless wights who made a bad choice —the foul water meaning a widow or a widower, or the empty bowl, which naturally indicated a partnerless future. ' At the witchin’ hour of twelve! the maidens retired to eat an apple in front of a mirror in the hope of seeing their future beau look over their left shoulder, nd one lassie, braver than most, walked across the fields to that rare spot where three lairds’ lands meet and dipped her sleeve in the stream there, hoping to have the company of her future husband back to the farmhouse. These, and many others, were the ploys indulged in by Scotia’s rural sons and daughters at Hallowe’en.- But the old spirit of enjoyment seems to have died down somewhat, and the celebrations are now the prerogative of the younger ones —children who don false faces and multi-coloured garments and go round the houses guising, thus collecting a store of apples, nuts, and pennies to spend on the morrow. One of their old rhymes goes thus: Hallowe'en nicht at- e'en A’ the witches shall be seen — Some o' them black, some o them green. Some o' them like a turkey bean.