Old Superstitions and Observances to Which the Scotch Still Cling
Tenaciously—Ceremonies That Accompanied Lighting of Hallow Fires—How
Lassies Compel Spirits to Reveal Natures of Those Who Are to Wed Them.
Like almost all of the Christian festivals, Hallowmas, or All Saints
day, is associated with an ancient pagan celebration of great antiquity,
and from this older rite many of its curious and singular observances
are derived. Hallowe’en is the vigil of the feast of All Saints, and the
custom of its elaborate observance is general everywhere, though its
greatest development has been reached in Scotland.
Modern practise has largely omitted what was at one time the most
important part of Hallowe’en ritual—that is, the lighting of bonfires at
nightfall by each household. From this practise the relationship that it
bears to the older Druidical festival of Samuin is apparent. This was a
great occasion in the days of the ancient pagan worship, and all the
hearths were on this day rekindled from the sacred fire.
Indeed, sacred fires seem to have been a part of the various forms of
worship of many nations. The Germanic people had their fires, as well as
the Celtic, so the custom was not wholly Druidical, but from the Druids
came most of the superstitions that now cluster around the eve of the
Christian festival.
Origin of the Feast.
The feast of All Saints was introduced very early by the Christian
Church because of the impossibility of keeping a separate day for
every saint. In the fourth century, when the persecutions of the
Christians had ceased, the first Sunday after Easter was appointed by
the Greek Church as the day for commemorating the martyrs generally.
In the Church of Rome a like festival was introduced about 610 A.D.,
this being the time when the old heathen Panthéon was consecrated to
Mary and all the martyrs.
The real festival of All Saints, however, was first regularly
instituted by Pope Gregory IV, in 835, and appointed for the first day
of November. It was admitted into England about 870, and probably
about the same time into Ireland and Scotland. The festival is common
to the Roman Catholic, English, and Lutheran branches of the Church.
The leading idea of Hallowe’en is that it is the time of all others
when supernatural influences are strong, and charms, therefore, will
not fail to work. Spirits, both good and evil, walk abroad on this one
mysterious night, and divination attains its highest power. All who
choose may avail themselves of the privileges of the occasion with the
certainty that their questions will be answered.
Prying into the Future.
Nuts furnish the principal means of reading the secrets of the future,
and in some parts of England the night is known as “nutcrack night.”
The nuts are cracked and eaten, as well as being made the oracles of
the occasion, and apples also are used in the games and for
divination.
The poet Burns, in the notes to his poem, “Hallowe’en,” speaks of the
passion which human nature has had, in all ages, for prying into the
future—particularly unenlightened human nature; yet it is not always
the ignorant who indulge in the Hallowe’en pranks. It is by the
peasantry in the west of Scotland, however, that the night is regarded
with sincere veneration and believed to be truly great with meaning.
Burns gives some of the spells and charms whereby the lassies test
their fate. Among these customs are the pulling stalks of corn, the
blue clue, and eating an apple before the glass. He also mentions
sowing hemp-seed, “to winn three wechts o’naethings,” “to fathom the
stack three times,” “to dip your left shirt-sleeve in a burn where
three lairds’ lands meet,” and, finally, a curious process “with three
luggies or dishes.”
Another writer tells of fagots made of heath, broom, and dressings of
flax tied upon a pole. These are lighted and then carried upon the
shoulders of some one who runs around the village, attended by a
crowd. Weird effects are produced on a dark night, when numbers of
these fagots are blazing at the same time.
Still another writer tells of the custom of collecting the ashes from
the bonfire when the fire has burned out. They are carefully gathered
into the form of a circle, and a stone for every person of the several
families interested in the fire is put into this magic pile. If any
stone is injured or moved next morning it signifies that the person
represented by that stone is “fey,” and will not live a twelve-month
from that day.
Kindling the Hallow Fire.
In the days when the “hallow fire” was kindled, various magic
ceremonies preceded its lighting. These exorcised the demons and
witches and rendered them powerless. When the ceremonies were
finished, the fire was lighted and carefully guarded by the men of the
family from the depredations of certain societies which were formed,
sometimes through pique and at other times for fun alone, for the
purpose of scattering these fires. The attack and defense were often
“conducted with art and fury.”
The first ceremony of Hallowe’en was pulling the kail (stalk). By its
shape and size the young women determined the figure and size of their
future husbands, while any “yird,” or earth, sticking to the roots
meant fortune. The taste of the “custoc,” or heart of the stalk,
showed the temper and disposition, and finally the stems or “runts”
are placed above the door, and the Christian name of the person whom
Fate sends first through the door gives the name of the gentleman.
In an old book of the early part of the sixteenth century there is a
passage as follows:
“We rede in olde tyme good people wolde on All Halowen daye bake brade
and dele it for all crysten soules.”
This refers to the ancient custom of the poor going “a-souling,” or
asking for money which they earned by fasting for the souls of the
alms-givers and his kinsfolk. Presumably the “brede” was not eaten
until the day after.
In some places these loaves were called “sau’mas loaves”—soul-mass—and
were kept in the house for luck. Bakers gave them to their customers,
and thus they resembled the Good-Friday bread and cross-buns.
The vigil and ringing of bells all night long upon All Hallows was
abolished under Henry VIII, but, in spite of this, half a century
later, under Elizabeth, a special injunction forbade all superfluous
ringing of bells. Evidently the laws were not enforced then any more
than now, and the nerves of the people were tried as they are in these
days. It is our doorbells, however, not church-bells, that keep us on
edge, with the small boy at the button.
A Collector’s Bequest.
“My wish is that my Drawings, my Prints, my Curiosities, my Books—in a
word these things of art which have been the joy of my life—shall not be
consigned to the cold tomb of a museum, and subjected to the stupid
glance of the careless passer-by; but I require that they shall all be
dispersed under the hammer of the Auctioneer, so that the pleasure which
the acquiring of each one of them has given me shall be given again, in
each case, to some inheritor of my own tastes.”—_From the Will of Edmond
de Goncourt._