A Traditional Scottish Halloween

Forget pumpkins and trick-or-treating, for a traditional Scottish Halloween we carve neeps and go guising! In recent years, the world has latched on to a very American form of Halloween. If you weren’t already aware then All Hallows Eve isn’t a modern invention but it originates from the Celtic festival of Samhain. Thousands of Scots and Irish immigrants brought it over to North America and from there things changed a little.

The roots of the celebration aren’t as far away as you might think though. Let’s see what a traditional Scottish Halloween looks like, where it originated and even share a couple of spooky stories. So how much do you really know about October 31st?

Origins of Halloween

Samhain begins at sunset on the 31st October. Summer is ending, winter is beginning and tonight the realms of the living and the dead are closer than ever. With ghostly spirits roaming Scotland, it was best to light fires and ward off anything that goes bump in the night.

With 1st November declared as All Saints Day, the 31st became known in Scotland as All Hallows Evening and eventually Hallows E’en. The original pagan festival slowly started to become eclipsed by the newer Christian celebration. Scottish Halloween kept its core spooky message even if it lost the real Celtic paganism for a while.

That’s all changed now with pagan fire festivals taking place around the country now, most notably in Edinburgh as either a procession through the streets or atop Calton Hill!

Traditional Scottish Halloween Neep Lanterns

If you’ve ever tried to carve a neep (turnip) then you know fine well why people use pumpkins these days. Rock solid on the inside, it’s a real skill to try and get these things scooped out without losing a finger. Saying that, once it’s finished the colour and shape often makes for a much more frightening lantern. Have a look at mine below.

The reason that lanterns were used comes down to the importance of fire. On Halloween, with dangerous spirits roaming the country it was important for communities to light fires to ward them off. If you needed to travel then having a portable fire that doubled as a scary face would help protect you.

Fancy Dress & Guising

Probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Halloween is fancy dress and trick or treating. It might seem like a modern activity but this is another old Scottish Halloween tradition. What’s the safest way to protect your kids from any undead that might be hunting them? Dress them up so that they blend right in!

Children would travel door to door in disguise which gives this tradition its name Guising. They would wear old clothes and masks or blacken their faces and do a trick to be rewarded with fruits, nuts or cakes. No superheroes or princesses here though. If you didn’t look like a ghoul then you weren’t going to fool a ghoul.

Traditional Scottish Halloween Games

A traditional Scottish Halloween wouldn’t be complete without a few games. Some of these are purely for entertainment like trying to eat a Scotch Pancake covered in treacle off some string. But others go back much further and took advantage of the magic that comes with Samhain.

Dooking for apples, where you catch the fruit between your teeth out of a basin of water, might just seem like a kids game. In the past though, once you had caught this sacred fruit, the peel had to be thrown over your shoulder. The shape of the peel was supposed to spell out the initial of your future spouse.

In case you weren’t a fan of apples, you could go to the garden and pull out stalks of kale. A long piece would mean a tall partner and if the roots were particularly dirty then you’re in luck. The more soil on your kale, the more money your future would bring!

If you were already in a couple then there was a Halloween tradition for you as well. Two nuts should be placed in a fire and then its a waiting game. Hopefully they just gently burn away to nothing and then you were due a long and peaceful marriage. But if the nuts sizzled and popped then a stormy relationship was ahead!

Scottish Halloween Story – Tam o Shanter

Obviously, scary stories about ghosts and demons are a huge part of Halloween. Scotland is full of tales about ghosts, witches and monsters but one of the best known is the Robert Burns classic Tam o’ Shanter. As the story goes, Tam was a travelling home one night after a few too many drams in the pub.

As he gets to the ruined Alloway Kirk, he sees a terrible sight. Witches and warlocks are dancing while the devil plays the bagpipes. Open coffins lined the kirk, the corpses inside holding up candles to light the party. All manner of disturbing things are lying around like bloody tomahawks and murderer’s bones.

One of the witches has taken his fancy, young Nannie who’s dancing with an extra short skirt on. The occasion makes Tam take leave of his senses and he cries out “Weel done Cutty Sark”. Suddenly the lights go out and the witches storm out of Alloway Kirk to grab him. Kicking his horse Meg into a gallop, Tam just makes it over Doon bridge where the witches aren’t able to cross. All that’s left behind is Meg’s tail in Nannie’s hand.

I would highly recommend reading the whole poem because it’s a true masterpiece in horror stories. You can find it here.

Scottish Halloween Story – Sawney Bean

The tale of Sawney Bean is a very different type of traditional Scottish Halloween story. Nobody knows if it’s entirely true but the important thing is that it could be. I won’t spoil the surprise for you but turn the lights off, hit play and enjoy this horrifying legend. If you want to increase the atmosphere then add a neep lantern or two.

Looking for any more stories to share or places to visit on Halloween, then have a look at these Haunted Locations in Scotland!

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