Saturday 31 October 2020

Trick or Treat

 


 Trick or treat ? Why? 

According to the book Ceremonies of The Seasons.........................

The origin of trick-or-treat is thought to be related to the Christian practice of Soul-Caking which was held on All Soul's Day on November 2nd. It's written about in the C17 but thought to be much older. Soul caking involved children going around the village asking for cakes in return for praying for the souls of departed loved ones. Soul-Caking often took place after the All Souls Day carnival or parade so the participants would be wearing costumes.

The only time we lived in a place suitable for Trick or Treating - the tradition hadn't yet traveled back here from the USA and since then I've lived in out of the way houses and had no small callers in fancy dress. This year I guess even fewer children will be out.

Many cultures around the world have festivals or traditions celebrated with The Eve of All Saints Day or Halloween  or the Night of the Dead, including Dias de Los Muertos in Mexico and Cheung Yeung in China

 

                                                       On Hallowe'en the old ghosts come 
                                                          About us- and they speak to some

(Anon)

The history of  Halloween goes right back to rituals performed for Samhain, the Celtic festival celebrated in Ireland and Scotland. Samhain was one of the four Celtic festivals known as quarter days. The meaning of the word in old Irish is 'summers end'. The end of the light half of the year. Celts considered sundown as the start of a day, which is why although Samhain is November 1st, it would have been celebrated at sundown on the 31st. It was their new year and fires would have been lit on the hilltops to drive out the evil of  the last year and welcome in the new. Then later came the Christian feasts of All Saints on the 1st and All Souls on November 2nd, when the dead are remembered in prayers.

In the past it was a night for staying by the fire, out of harms way, and telling fortunes............sounds OK to me. Perhaps at midnight I will peel an apple all in one piece, throw the peel over my shoulder and see what letter it makes - that will be the initial of my next lover.......!!!  
 
Have a lovely weekend. I'm back Monday IF I have anything to write about - at the moment my mind is blank.
 
Sue

32 comments:

  1. LOL - I don't think I have ever managed to peel an apple in one piece!
    Loving the mantelpiece and the fire looks so very cosy!
    xx

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    1. There was another fortune telling thing to do with hazelnuts but the squirrels nicked the few here weeks ago so I won't try that one either

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  2. Fascinating. Especially the very earliest (Celtic) links. I have a feeling they used to drive the cattle through (between 2?) fires to cleanse them. It was when the cattle were brought back down from the higher summer grazing pastures (we would call this transhumance today).

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    1. I think that's right about cattle. All sorts of ideas for warding off evil spirits back then - maybe we should try them against Covid

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  3. Autumn colours are such a tonic to our dull wet weather. x

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    1. Very wet and windy here today - very glad of the woodburner

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  4. Your mantelpiece is very Autumn like, I hope you have
    been enjoying Autumn Watch. It looks as thou we have rain all weekend here and winds. Enjoy what ever you are doing Sue and others.

    Hazel c uk 🌈🌈🌈

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    1. Horrible weather here this afternoon. Staying in seems the best plan

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  5. Well as the wind blows and torrential rain is expected later Samhain has come in with enough vigour to herald Winter.

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    1. The predictions for a bad winter might be true!

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  6. I remember doing the peel thing as a teenager. I never did find a guy with the initial ssssss! As an alternative to trick-or-treat, our Youth Minister is organising a Light Themed Treasure Trail around the town this evening. About fifteen families have signed up for it, I hope the weather is kind.

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    1. Hope the weather in Ferndown is better than Suffolk for the families - it's horrible here.
      I can't see how any apple peel would ever make anything other than a s!

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  7. I love the mantlepiece decoration, the little lights are soooo cute! Sadly, we don't have any kind of shelf in the living room so I can't do anything similar.

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    1. I found the pumpkin lights at a car boot a few years ago. Grandson liked them!

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  8. Our Halloween day will be spent hard at work, and then coming home to wait for trick or treaters. We rarely get them, but we want to be sure that the ones who do show up are amply rewarded.

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    1. We have really horrible weather here in Suffolk today, not good for going out in this evening

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  9. Your mantel looks lovely and just perfect for the season! I always enjoy your posts on the seasons and holidays like this one. We are not celebrating Halloween since our children and grandchildren are all grown but many people are still celebrating here despite covid. Some people have come up with some very creative ways to hand out candy from a safe distance. Have a lovely weekend Sue!

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    1. I put thehalloween bits there for grandson, they ar back in the cupboard now just Autumn on the mantelpiece

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  10. It was very mild today, very Autumnal. No sign of cold weather or winter. I got my washing dry this morning so it wasn't all bad and then tonight the sun came out.

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    1. No washing dried here it drizzled a bit before 12 they poured. Washing is on the airer in front of woodburner ready for when I light it

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    2. Yesterday it was dry here until 11. I had it out in the wind at 8.30 and in, dry, just as it started to drizzle.

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  11. Scottish children have always gone guising, much longer than in England, I believe. This is dressing up and doing a turn, performing a joke, song or poem, to get our sweeties.

    We also used neeps (turnips) as lanterns and they were extremely hard to hollow out as you can imagine! Pumpkins are used now for obvious reasons! It was always one of my favourite holidays!

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    1. All the old tales tell of a turnip hollowed out - not easy but then came exodus of Irish and Scots to the Americas and then back again with pumpkins

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    2. Indeed! We brought it back. Thanks for your lovely blog. I really enjoy it.

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  12. It looks lovely and cosy at yours. X

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    1. It seemed chilly indoors because of the wind and rain so I just chucked a log on the fire to take off the chill

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  13. What memories you brought back to me! As a young girl, my friends and I would do that with an apple peel and try and "see" the letter of our latest love :)

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    1. There must have been a lot of disappointed girls in the past when all the peels broke!

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  14. The mantel looks very nice. I have never been able to peel and apple in one piece.

    God bless.

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    1. Very difficult to peel an apple all in one and then it just makes an S

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  15. The mantlepiece looks lovely :-)

    Obviously we had no trick or treaters here last night, but on Suky's 8pm doggy walk around town the socially distanced queues for the takeaways were mainly made up of very spooky ghosts, ghoulies and lots of clowns. I was glad to get back indoors.

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    1. Never any trick or treaters up the end of a lane!

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