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Enjoy this curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
Soul Cakes
Nov 2
All Souls Day
Spreading the Soul of Scotland
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.”
~ Traditional prayer for the faithful departed
Before the Scottish Reformation, All Souls’ Day on November 2 was a day for remembering the dead. Masses and prayers were offered for departed family, friends and benefactors, while bells, candles, charitable gifts and food formed part of the wider medieval observance.
In parts of Scotland there were also food traditions associated with remembrance. In Aberdeenshire, special cakes were baked for All Souls and offered to visitors, while the broader tradition of “soul cakes” involved giving cakes or bread to the poor in return for prayers for the departed.
All Souls also fell within the older Hallowtide and Samhain season, when Scottish and Gaelic folklore held that the boundary between the living and supernatural worlds was unusually thin. Fires, guising, divination and tales of spirits and fairies accompanied this turning point into winter. Such folk traditions survived long after the formal Catholic observance of All Souls largely disappeared from Scotland following the Reformation.
This 32-bar, four-couple strathspey devised by Marie Boehmer ends with a clockwise chase, reminding us that time marches—or perhaps strathspey-steps—inexorably along. But we move with it, following in the footsteps of former dancers whom we remember fondly.
Perhaps on All Souls’ Day we can imagine them briefly returning to the set—the old musicians taking up their instruments and familiar hands joining once again in the dance. 🕺 💃 💜 🧡 💜 🎃 ⛪ 👻 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🔔 🔔 🔔 🎶
Spreading the Soul of Scotland
Before the Reformation, All Souls’ Day belonged to a very different religious Scotland. Observed on November 2, it was a day devoted to remembering the faithful departed, with Masses and prayers offered for souls believed to be undergoing purification in Purgatory. The observance was considered so important that, if November 2 fell on a Sunday, it could be kept on the preceding Saturday rather than leave the departed another day without the prayers being offered for them.
Throughout medieval Scotland, remembrance of the dead formed an important part of religious life. Families endowed altars, chapels and priests to say Masses for departed relatives, while prayers might be offered not simply for one individual but for ancestors and other Christian souls. The living and the dead were regarded as parts of the same continuing community, connected through memory, prayer and ritual.
One particularly evocative custom was the sounding of the “dead bell.” A bell-ringer, sometimes dressed in black, passed through the streets, stopping at street corners to ring a sombre bell reminding those who heard it to pray for the departed. Medieval Glasgow had its own tradition of the dead bell, associated with St Mungo, and records survive of its being rung for the souls of prominent citizens and their ancestors.
Food also became associated with remembrance. In Aberdeenshire, an older tradition records special cakes being baked on All Souls’ Day and offered to those who visited the house. Such customs recall the wider practice of “souling,” in which food or small cakes were given in connection with prayers for the dead—a distant ancestor of some of the visiting and guising customs that became associated with the Hallowe’en season.
The Scottish Reformation of 1560 brought much of this formal observance to an end. The Protestant Kirk rejected Purgatory and prayers for the dead, and the Masses, endowed prayers and other medieval practices gradually disappeared. Yet remembrance of those who had gone before remained woven into Scottish culture, while older beliefs surrounding Hallowe’en, Samhain and the nearness of the otherworld continued in folklore.
For more on seasonal customs, click the painting of All Souls' Day in the Cemetery by, Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm Riefstahl,
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
