Hallowe'en
The word Hallowe'en dates to about 1745 and is of Christian origin, meaning "hallowed evening" or "holy evening." It comes from a Scottish term for All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows' Day), with the word "eve" (from "even"), contracted to e'en or een.
Some researchers speculate that the modern "trick-or-treat" ritual may stem from the Scottish practice of "guising," a secular version of "souling." In the Middle Ages, soulers, children and poor adults, would go to local homes and collect food or money in return for prayers said for the dead on All Souls’ Day. Guisers discarded the prayers in favor of less religious performances like jokes, songs, or other “tricks.”
Vintage Hallowe'en
Selected Dances
(click for more haunted folklore and background information)
Black Cat
"Take your undergarment off at Halloween, wash it backwards, dry it backwards, and then sit down before the stove backwards without speaking; and if you are to marry, you will see your future husband come down the steps. If you are not to marry, you will see a black cat come down the steps, followed by four men carrying a coffin.”
~ Traditional
Hallowe'en Jig
Amang the bonie winding banks, <br> Where Doon rins, wimplin, clear; <br> Where Bruce ance ruled the martial ranks, <br> An’ shook his Carrick spear; <br> Some merry, friendly, country-folks <br> Together did convene, <br> To burn their nits, an’ pou their stocks, <br> An’ haud their Halloween" <br><br> ~ Robert Burns, Halloween, 1785
Slains Castle (Dracula's Jig)
"My son, the vampire, <br> He'll make you a wreck. <br>Every time he kisses you, <br> There'll be two holes in your neck." <br>br> ~ Allan Sherman, My Son the Vampire (1964)
Weird Sisters
"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Open, locks, Whoever knocks." <br><br>~ Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1
Ferla Mor
"Whatever you make of it, I do not know, but there is something very queer about the top of Ben MacDhui and I will not go back there again by myself I know.”
~ Professor J. Norman Collie, 1925, at the 27th Annual General Meeting of the Cairngorm Club in Aberdeen
Mischief
Mischief Night/Devil's Night
"The devil's in the moon for mischief" <br><br>~ Don Juan by George Gordon, Lord Byron, Canto the First
Sleepy Hollow
“On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on perceiving that he was headless!--but his horror was still more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle!”
~ Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 1820
Green Lady of Skipness Castle
"A form sits by the window,
That is not seen by day,
For as soon as the dawn approaches
It vanishes away."
~ The Haunted Chamber, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Scottish Witch
"You've got to pick up every stitch
Oh no, must be the season of the witch"
~ Season of the Witch, Donovan Leitch, 1968
The Pumpking Baker
"Take a pound of Pompion, and slice it; an handful of Time, a little Rosemary, sweet Marjoram stripped off the stalks, chop them small; then take Cinamon, Nutmeg, Pepper, and a few Cloves, all beaten; also ten Eggs, and beat them all together, with as much Sugar as you shall think sufficient; then fry them like a Froise." <br><br>~ Gentlewoman’s Companion, written by Hannah Woolley, 1675
Witches' Brew
"Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."
~ Shakespeare's Macbeth, the witches' recipe, Act 4, Scene 1 (c. 1603-1607)
Hallowe'en & Spooky Dance Index
(click for dance description or cribs)
