Celebrating Halloween traditions
Girls would bake a cake with nine ingredients, then walk backwards upstairs to bed 
Today, Halloween seems all about plastic pumpkins and trick or treating. But the festival has deep religious roots.
Originally, the end of October was marked by Samhain, when the Celts celebrated the end of summer and beginning of winter.
“Like many Celtic holidays, Halloween was adopted by the Christian church, and was re-created as the festivals of All Saints on 1 November, and All Souls the day after,” said Emma Lile from the National History Museum at St Fagans.
“But even though they tried to adopt the festival as their own, the church still acknowledged elements; that it was a time to remember the dead.”
So traditionally, it has been a far more sombre occasion. Masks were worn to ward off bad spirits rather than for fun.
Instead of dressing up, children would dance round bonfires before running away as the flames died out for fear of the ‘black sow’, chanting:
‘Home, home, let each try to be first,
and may the tail-less black sow take the hindmost.’
It was also believed that if you peeked through the keyhole of a church at midnight, you would see which parishioners were likely to die that coming year.
Bobbing for apples also dates back to this period.
“The size of the apple denoted how much luck you’d get in the forthcoming year,” she said.
“They would also throw the peel of an apple over their shoulder and whichever letter it most resembled would be the initial of the one you’d marry.
“So for centuries, apples have been connected with health and happiness.”
Another tradition popular among single girls was to create a “mash of nine sorts,” which included vegetables, salt and milk, with a ring hidden inside. The first to find it would be the first to marry.
“Girls would also bake a cake with nine ingredients,” said Emma. “They would then walk backwards upstairs to bed, holding their hands behind their back. They would then dream of either a coffin, or of the one they would marry.
“They would also eat salt before going to bed. Whoever they dreamed of coming to give them water would be their husband.”
While the art of carving a face in a vegetable dates back centuries, local people would have used a swede or turnip rather than the American-style pumpkin, and use them to ward off the evil spirits.
“They believed that the distance between the living and the dead was far closer, especially at this time of year,” she said.
Loading ...
Loading...
Entries (RSS)