So I mentioned the other day in a comment that I had signed up to the British Newspaper Archive website, that lets you browse hundreds of old British newspapers, and includes a handy search function to help you find what you're looking for.
I've been having lots of fun looking for old spook sightings and weird events, some of which I'll post next year (or maybe even in the Creepmas Countdown!), but I thought it would also be fun to do a search for Halloween and see what it came up with!
Here then, is a selection of some of the stuff I've discovered so far...which contrary to what I've read some places online, proves we've been dressing up, making lanterns from turnips and pumpkins and doing all the traditional Hallowe'en stuff we still do nowadays, for a very long time indeed!
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First up is a poem, printed in the Coleraine Chronicle, November 8 1851, titled 'Gay Hallowe'en'.......
SONGS FOR THE SEASON
No.1
GAY HALLOWE'EN
I
Hallowe'en! How it gladdens the heart and the brain,
To see the old festival coming again!
Like hope to the heart that affliction has bow'd -
Like rainbow o'erarching the gloom of the cloud, -
Like a vision - it comes to console us while mirth
Has exorcised care from the bosom of earth;
And pleasure and joy, like twin-angels, are seen,
Descending to gladden and cheer Hallowe'en
II
The School boy's proud eye - Oh! no longer it looks
In anger and sulkiness over his books;
No, - the streamlet re-echoes, while dancing along,
The fervour and mirth of his laugh and his song.
As soon as day dawn o'er the vale he espies,
With his comrades at morn to the greenwood he flies;
And till even smiles down on the landscape serene,
The nuts are a-gathered for gay Hallowe'en.
III
The furrows that Time's rugged finger had traced
On the brow of old age, Hallowe'en has effaced!
And the joy and the smiles that so gladdened of yore -
Are they gilding those wrinkles and furrows once more?
Yes, years are forgotten, and gray hairs, and pain,
And the heart of three score is young - playful again!
As in youth it had sported, and played on the green,
It sports now as merry on gay Hallowe'en
IV
We're told that old Rome, the sage mistress of earth,
Had her deity - guardians to watch o'er the hearth;
Her Lares presiding o'er hearthstone and flue -
And why should not we have our deities too! -
Let mirth be enshrined then, and friendship and love!
And with these three Divinities guarding the scene -
Whose heart will not throb upon gay Hallowe'en!
V
Higher still, to shut out the night's gathering gloom,
Pile the fire on the hearth till it roar through the room!
Gather round - gather round, for with dainties the board
Fit for epicures feast is abundantly stored :-
The apples are baked, and the child and the sire
Are watching the nuts cracking loud in the fire :-
And the proud little dames in amazement have seen
The face of their lovers on gay Hallowe'en!
VI
We care not - not we - altho' gried do it's worst,
In saddening the heart that affection has nurs'd :-
Let the world we despise fling its arrows of wrath -
Life's tempest its shadow to darken our path :-
There are moments that still to the heart can recall
Emotions of pleasure to brighten them all!
Bright moments from care that we fail not to glean,
Such as light our fireside upon gay Hallowe'en!
MOIRA
From "Mave (*or possibly Mare*) Roe's Round Room",
November, 1851
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There's a few festivities mentioned in that poem, getting apples ready for 'dooking' and roasting nuts on the fire to see future husbands, for instance...and here's another snippet from the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, dated Wednesday October 30th 1929, that elaborates on these a little!
HALLOWE'EN
Suggestions for To-morrow's Party.
A Hallowe'en party can be a delightful and simple affair, entailing no very elaborate preparations or expense. And the usual fun and frolic on the night when witches and marlocks (*surely they mean Warlocks?*) are believed to walk abroad is as much enjoyed by the grown-ups as by the children.
On that night everyone is a child again and enters with zest into the time honoured games. When Hallowe'en comes round I see a picture of a great old-fashioned farm kitchen with white scrolled flags and a strip carpet here and there. And on the hearth a clipping rug with "Home Sweet Home" in bright red across it.
We children regarded it as a work of art when we helped to make it in the long winter evenings before wireless and gramophones and other modern distractions (*hehe...like Wifi and I-phones!*) were even dreamed of.
When I say children of any age, I mean from seven to 70 and over. In those days the master of the ceremonies was a very old man - at least, he seemed that to us with his snow white hair and beard. We screamed with delight when he dived for apples and came up with the beard dripping wet every time. And we would have cried with disappointment if Mr. Philip could not have come to our Hallowe'en party. Like many more men devoted to children, he was a bachelor.
"Dooking for apples" as the game is called on the north side of the border is always riotous fun, and due preparations should be made for it. A waterproof sheet spread over the carpet is a good idea, and another is a couple of waterproof bibs for the performers - one large and one small. These fitted with strings to tie round neck and waist. The tub, placed in the centre of the sheet, should be half filled with water, and apples of a moderate size chosen. Rosy ones and with the stalks removed, of course.
APPLES
A competition may be arranged and players paired off to dive for apples together. This makes great fun, and the one who secures most apples in a specified time - five minutes or so - scores. At the end of the "dooking" a prize is given, or better still, two - one for ladies and the other for gentlemen.
The prize is a well earned one, for until one has tried to fix one's teeth in an apple, continually bobbing away in the water with exasperating persistence, it is impossible to know how strenuous a business it is.
Sometimes as a substitute for the tub of water the apples are fixed on strings and hung up. But this is not nearly as much fun as the "dooking" process.
Then there are blindfolding games. A variation of the old favourite, blind man's buff, is to provide three or four players with an apple each, and when the blind man grabs one, it's possessor is in turn blindfolded.
THE FUTURE
Three soup plates are placed on a table in the following order : - The first an empty plate, the second containing clean water, and the third muddy - a burnt match will do the trick quite well. Then the blindfolded one is led up to the table to try his or her fortune by dipping fingers in one or other of the plates. The empty one means an unwedded life, the clean water marriage with a young man or maiden, and the third foretells that the bride or groom will be a widow or widower.
Roasting nuts is another fortune-telling game. The players pair off, a boy and a girl, placing a nut for each in front of the fire. The nuts are watched with breathless interest; for if they jump apart, the affair will come to an end. But if the nuts settle down to roast together it means an engagement with a happy ending. Great nonsense of course, but also great fun.
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| Illustration to Robert Burns' poem Halloween by J.M. Wright and Edward Scriven |
No party nowadays is complete without a dance at Hallowe'en or any other time. and in the intervals, if there is a garden where the homely cabbage is grown, couples may choose a cabbage stalk, in the dark, of course.
In his poem on Hallowe'en Burns says -
"To burn your nuts and pu' your runts
"And haud your Hallowe'en."
Runts, rendered in plain English, is a cabbage root, and according to the superstition, on the shape of the one chosen depends the grace and the beauty, or the lack of either, of the husband or wife to be !
The girl with many admirers will be able to make a choice if she eats an apple at midnight before her looking-glass. Then the face of the man she will eventually marry will look over her shoulder.
An old lady I know declares it did happen in her case. And as a result of prying into the future she went off in a dead faint.For she did see the face of the man she married a year later and whom she did not meet until later. And she has lived to tell her Hallowe'en adventure to her great grandchildren.
A.W.S.
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These few pictures from The Dew Drop : A Monthly Magazine For The Young (1873) tell us about turnip lanterns, which is what I always used to have as a nipper before everybody started buying Pumpkins! I didn't get these from the archive, my brother found them and stuck them on Facebook so I nabbed them from there! :)
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Even Queen Victoria used to get in on the act of celebrating Hallowe'en, as this article on "The Queen's Hallowe'en" from The Morning Post, November 6th 1871 tells us!
CELEBRATION OF HALLOWE'EN AT BALMORAL CASTLE. -
The old Scottish festival of "Hallowe'en" was celebrated at Balmoral Castle with unusual éclat. The demonstration has come to be known in Balmoral and throughout the district as "The Queen's Hallowe'en;" and in accordance with the royal desire, and following the custom of past years, most of the people, both on the Balmoral and Abergeldie estates, turned out on Tuesday night, and formed a torchlight procession, which had a picturesque and imposing appearance.
Those who came from the east side of Balmoral met at the entrance to the grounds to the east of the Castle, where the torches were lighted. The Balmoral contingent, including the servants, ghillies, and the tenants on the west side, met at Mr. Grant's, and lighted their torches there.
This party, headed by Mr. Ross, her Majesty's piper, then began their march towards the Castle, while the party from the east side marched past the front of the Castle, and on by the carriage drive through the lawn to meet those from the west.
When the two parties came in sight of each other and joined their forces the sight was very fine. There were altogether 180 to 200 torch bearers; and her Majesty, with several other members of the royal family, viewed the scene with evident pleasure and satisfaction.
Her Majesty - whose health is now so much improved that she was able to drive out and witness the junction of the two miniature armies to the west of the Castle - came back to the Castle at walking pace, and remained for fully an hour an interested spectator of the proceedings. After the torchbearers had promenaded for some time, the torches were heaped in a pile on the roadway a little to the west, and in full view from the windows of the Castle. Empty boxes and other material were soon added, and in a short time a splendid bonfire blazed famously, a gentle breeze helping to fan the flames. Her Majesty, the Prince and Princess Louis, the Princess Beatrice and the ladies and gentlemen of the suite then retired indoors, and took up positions at the windows to see the rest of the merrymaking.
Dancing was begun with great vigour round the bonfire to the strains of Mr. Ross's bagpipes, and refreshments were served to all and sundry by Mr Collins, sergeant-footman. The demonstration culminated in a vehicle containing a well got-up effigy of the Hallowe'en witch being drawn to the fire by a band of sturdy Highlanders. The "witch" had a number of boys for a guard of honour, headed by the piper, and in the rear came Mr. Cowley, her Majesty's jäger, whose workmanship the effigy was. The boys, who each carried a blazing torch, set up a ringing cheer, and at a given signal Mr. Cowley and a ghillie pitched the effigy into the flames amid tremendous cheering, the royal party from the windows having a good view of the "wrinkled hag o' wicked fame."
The fire was kept up for a long time with fresh fuel, and when all had danced till "they could almost dance no longer," the health of her Majesty was proposed by Mr. Cowley, and responded to with the utmost enthusiasm, accompanied by three times three rounds of vociferous cheering. Later on in the evening the servants and the others about the Castle enjoyed a dance in the ghillie hall. The ball broke up at an early hour on Wednesday morning.
Dundee Advertiser
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Anyway, this post is already way longer than I intended, so I'll leave you with another poem, this one from way back in 1780....it's in Scots dialect, so guid luck wi' understanding it! Again, I stole this from my brother's Facebook post, so no idea where he dug it up from...but enjoy!
Hallowe'en
OF a' the festivals we hear,
Frae Handsel-Monday till New Year,
There's few in Scotland held mair dear
For mirth, I ween,
Or yet can boast o' better cheer,
Than Hallowe'en.
Langsyne indeed, as now in climes
Where priests for siller pardon crimes,
The kintry 'round in Popish rhymes
Did pray and graen;
But customs vary wi' the times
At Hallowe'en.
Ranged round a bleezing ingleside,
Where nowther cauld nor hunger bide,
The farmer's house, wi' secret pride,
Will a' convene;
For that day's wark is thrawn aside
At Hallowe'en.
Placed at their head the gudewife sits,
And deals round apples, pears, and nits;
Syne tells her guests, how, at sic bits
Where she has been,
Bogle's ha'e gart folk tyne their wits
At Hallowe'en.
Grieved, she recounts how, by mischance,
Puir pussy's forced a' night to prance
Wi' fairies, wha in thousands dance
Upon the green,
Or sail wi' witches over to France
At Hallowe'en.
Syne, issued frae the gardy-chair,
For that's the seat of empire there,
To co'er the table wi' what's rare,
Commands are gi'en;
That a' fu' daintily may fare
At Hallowe'en.
And when they've toomed ilk heapit plate,
And a' things are laid out o' gate,
To ken their matrimonial mate,
The youngsters keen
Search a' the dark decrees o' fate
At Hallowe'en.
A' things prepared in order due,
Gosh guide's! what fearfu' pranks ensue!
Some i' the kiln-pat thraw a clew,
At whilk, bedene,
Their sweethearts by the far end pu'
At Hallowe'en.
Ithers, wi' some uncanny gift,
In an auld barn a riddle lift,
Where, thrice pretending corn to sift,
Wi' charms between,
Their joe appears, as white as drift,
At Hallowe'en.
But 'twere a langsome tale to tell
The gates o' ilka charm and spell.
Ance, gaen to saw hampseed himsel,
Puir Jock Maclean,
Plump in a filthy peat-pot fell
At Hallowe'en.
Half filled wi' fear, and droukit weel,
He frae the mire dught hardly speel;
But frae that time the silly chiel
Did never grien
To cast his cantrips wi' the Deil
At Hallowe'en.
O Scotland! famed for scenes like this,
That thy sons walk where wisdom is,
Till death in everlasting bliss
Shall steek their e'en,
Will ever be the constant wish of
Jockie Mein.
(Hallowe'en by John Mayne, 1780)
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