Out and about yesterday, I noticed once again how much Hallowe’en decoration there is all over the place. Supermarkets have huge displays of pumpkins, some of which are too small to be anything other than decorative. I can’t help thinking about the food that is being wasted as some people just put a pumpkin on their front doorstep, not even making a lantern of it or carving a face in it and using the innards to make a stew! And once it’s all over, there will be reminders to keep the decaying pumpkins out of reach of any wandering hedgehogs, as pumpkins are not good for them.
Zoe Williams has been writing about Hallowe’en parties and fancy dress in her column in the Guardian. Her comment about Britain coming late to Hallowe’en has provoked some indignant letters in response, such as this one:
“As a child in the 1970s, we spent many hours in the weeks leading up to 31 October planning what we would wear, which houses we would visit and, of course, choosing and rehearsing our party piece. Adults played no part in this other than to stock up on apples, monkey nuts and loose change. These were given to guisers, who were invited into homes to sing, tell jokes or, in my case, play the violin very badly. It was great fun. We roamed the streets in groups of three or more, without any adult supervision. Homes were not decorated, and the whole thing was forgotten about completely by the time 5 November came along, with fireworks and bonfires to enjoy.
What depresses me most about Hallowe’en in modern Britain is the tacky consumerism that encourages people to spend their money on plastic crap to decorate their homes and businesses for weeks in advance of the actual event. The only thing I remember being sold in shops around the time of Halloween was something predictably called a Halloween cake, a round sponge with orange icing and a funny face on top. To have “a face like a Halloween cake” was a popular, if somewhat uncomplimentary, saying.
Kathleen Macpherson
Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway”
That was Dumfries and Galloway. We didn’t dress up for Hallowe’en where I grew up. Nor did we go round doing trick or treat stuff. There was no way my father would have allowed us to go round asking for stuff from the neighbours, or even worse, from people we didn’t know! We weren’t allowed to do Penny-for-the Guy stuff before Bonfire Night either. He just about accepted us doing Bob-a-Job week, Brownies, Cubs, Scouts and Guides offering to do something helpful in return for a donation to the church funds.
Scotland was much more Celtic, still in touch with old pagan traditions like Samhain. Here’s a link to something about Scottish traditions.
What we did do at our local church was have a Hotpot Supper at this time of year, a bit of a harvest celebration, with a nod to Hallowe’en in the decoration of the church hall with turnip lanterns and fun and games including ducking for apple. But there were no witchy or ghostly costumes. I’ve read that the dressing up business, ‘guisers’ -clearly connected to ‘disguise’ - the children dressed as adults was so that the spirits that would be about on All Hallows Eve would not carry them away. Quite why ghosts would want to steal children remains unexplained, to me at any rate. But my father, together with the other adults of our church community, did not hold with any nonsense about ghosts and spirts walking around!
So there it is. It’s all become a lot more commercialised in the last 30 to 40 years. And, yes, Zoe Williams, we have imported trick-or-treat from the USA, probably from films and TV series. But there were already some traditions around. Where else did the Americans get the idea from?
Life goes on. stay safe and well, everyone!
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