TO-NIGHT IS HALLOW-E’EN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23953, 31 October 1939, Page 14

TO-NIGHT IS HALLOW-E’EN

To-night is Hallow-e’en, or All Hallow’s Eve, the night of witches, pumpkins, and magic spells. Hundreds of years ago this evening was regarded in a more sombre spirit, as the young maidens of those times really believed that witches, devils, mischief-making elves, and the spirits of the dead, and in some * cases the spirits of the living, walked abroad on this particular night. Children born on this day were supposed to preserve through youth the power to converse with the spirits abroad on Hallow-e’en night, which was considered the best time of the year for discovering what the future had in store regarding a husband or wife.

Hallow-e’en is a curious mixture of classic mythology, Druidic beliefs, and Christian superstitions. Nuts and apples figure prominently in the entertainments of the evening, which may be traced to the Roman feast of November 1 to Pomona the goddess of fruits and seeds. At this time the stores laid up in the summer for use in the winter were opened, hence the use of nuts and apples for many of the divinations regarding future husbands and wives An old Irish custom of this evening is for a young woman who wishes to know if her followers truly love her to put three nuts upon the bars of the grate, naming the nuts after her sweethearts If the nut cracks or jumps, the lover will prove unfaithful. If it begins to blaze or burn, he has a regard for the maiden making the experiment, and if the nuts named after the girl and her admirer burn together. they will be married It is said that on this day a maiden may find out at least the first letter of the name of her future husband by peeling an apple and swinging the peeling three times about her head before letting it drop. If she repeats these lines that were long ago repeated by the witches of the North of England it is said to help greatly: l pare this pippin round and round again, „ . . My sweetheart’s name to flourish on the plain, I fling the unbroken paring oer my head; My sweetheart’s letter on the ground is read In Scotland the cabbage figures largely in the Hallow-e’en celebration. The auaint idea ffe universal among the children that when a new brother or sister has appeared in a household the baby has come through fairy aid from the roots of the cabbage stalk. When they have finished making merry and singing. This is the nict O’Hallow-e’en, When a’ the witchie micht be seen. Some o’ them black, some o’ them green, Some o’ them like a turkey bean. before going to bed, they arrange a generous pile of cabbage stalks against* doors and windows so that the kindly and gracious fairies of blessed Hallowe’en night shall set free the soul of another baby, and the household shall not fail to welcome another bairn within the coming year.