LONG before the Christians turned the season into a service for souls and saints, Halloween was the ancient pagan ceremony of Samhain. Allhallows Eve was the night that Druids - or Celtic priests - gave thanks for the harvest and heralded the coming of winter. It was also a time when this world and the next came together and the Host of the Dead were abroad.
Ghosts, goblins, witches and fairies were all believed to roam at will, so the Druids lit bonfires to protect the living, disguised themselves to avoid being recognised and attempted to propitiate these other-worldly visitors with food and drink.
Halloween was also a night when young people turned their thoughts to their future. More specifically, they wanted to know whom they would marry and whether fortune awaited them.
Many of the traditions we associate with Halloween in Scotland can be traced to our ancestors' fear of the dead and desire to know the future.
Children enjoy the messy business of trying to bite a treacle scone.
Fire
Fire reminds us of the Druids lighting up the night skies with bonfires to banish the spooks. Turnip or pumpkin lanterns give as much comfort to us in the dark as they would have done to people in the past. The Ordeal by Fire comes down to us in a sanitised form that has been changed even in the last 100 years. Traditionally a rod was suspended from the ceiling with a lit candle placed at one end and an apple at the other. The rod was spun round while the assembled company attempted to take a bite out of the apple. Given the danger, it is not surprising that latterly the candle was omitted and only the apple swung. Today a treacle scone or doughnut is often substituted and few will realise that they are honouring a Druidic ritual.
A young boy bobs for apples at a Halloween party in 1968.
Water
Alongside the Ordeal by Fire was the Ordeal by Water, which is most commonly played out today when we duck for apples. The symbolic journey by the Druids across water to the mythical "apple-land" is re-enacted when we try and bite these fruits bobbing up and down in a half-filled bath of water. (Please note: scaredy-cats, or the particularly well-dressed, can cop out by holding a fork between their teeth to try and stab the apples.)
Once you get your apple the greedy can eat it, or else you can keep it for the next most important part of our Halloween traditions…..
Divination
There are as many ways to find out how your future lies – most involve fruit, nuts or vegetables from the harvest. However, almost all of the prophecies are geared toward revealing your loved ones. So if you're not interested in walking down the aisle or finding out if your partner is loyal, then look away now.
Apples
Take your apple and divide it into nine segments. Eat eight pieces standing with your back turned to a mirror then throw the ninth portion over your shoulder. When you turn round you will see the face of your intended in the mirror. (Honest!). Alternatively you can peel the apple, throw the peelings over your shoulder where the initial of your loved one's surname will be revealed.
Nuts
Another way to find out whether you'll have a happy future is to place two hazelnuts on the embers of a fire. Name one nut after yourself and the other after the significant other in your life. If you're mismatched then the nuts will jump about and split apart. If they remain constant and side-by-side, then you are clearly a good couple.
Vegetables
Bonfires are still lit on Halloween, but many now wait until Guy Fawkes night.
Rural Scotland had hundreds of ways (well almost) to divine the future based on vegetables, which range from pulling up cabbages to sowing hemp seeds. In this instance you could even make your own idea up. Go on, be creative…
Other foodie ways to find your fate
If you're lucky you can still find Halloween parties where you can divine your future from a bowl of mashed potatoes. Various charms are hidden in the spuds and everyone given a spoonful. Your future depends on the charm you find; a coin denotes wealth, a button batchelordom, ring marriage – just be careful you don't swallow it!. A slightly more sophisticated way of predicting the future was done by a local "wise woman" who would crack an egg white into a glass of spring water and "read" the signs from the settlement of the egg.
Things to avoid at your party
In the not too distant past young people got up to all sorts of merry tricks during the night. However if you tried any of these things today you would probably end up with a police record. One favourite prank was for the men to blow smoke into people's houses – either through the letterbox, or by blocking the chimney. Or else they would knock a neighbour's window whilst simultaneously smashing an empty bottle.
http://heritage.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1009&id=1244862004
Treacle Toffee
1lb/450g demerara sugar
3 tablespoons black treacle (dip the spoon in very hot water for a few seconds before each spoonful; that way the treacle slips easily from the spoon)
3 tablespoons golden syrup (do as above to measure easily)
14oz/400g tin of condensed milk
4oz/125g butter
1/2 teaspoon best vanilla extract
Thoroughly butter a baking tray and line with a sheet of baking parchment. Put all the ingredients into a saucepan except the vanilla extract. Stir over a gentle heat until the sugar has dissolved completely, only then boil the contents of the pan, for 15 to 20 minutes. Pull the pan off the heat and drop a little hot toffee into a mug of cold water. When it becomes brittle, cracking in the water, stir in the vanilla and pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Leave to cool and when it is just tepid, mark into squares with a sharp knife. Cut and break into squares when cold. If you like, wrap each bit in greaseproof paper and store in an airtight tin.
Tomato, Bacon and Potato Soup
Serves 6
This is a hearty soup and if it is to be drunk from mugs outside, I would liquidise it until smooth.
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, skinned and chopped
4 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks about 1cm square
4 rashers back bacon, fat removed, with the bacon cut into small bits
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
2 pints/1.2 litres stock - chicken or vegetable
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onions and potatoes for four to five minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Then add the bacon and continue to cook for a further couple of minutes before adding the tomatoes and the stock. Simmer the soup for about 20 minutes, or until a piece of potato is soft when pressed against the side of the saucepan with the back of your wooden spoon. Cool, liquidise until smooth, then season with salt and pepper. Reheat to serve.
http://heritage.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1009&id=2149692005
A famous 1598 woodcut shows the witch gathering on Anchor Green, North Berwick.
North Berwick and the brew of tortured witches
WHAT happened on Halloween 1590 in North Berwick is up for debate. What is certain is that the fragments of evidence handed down through centuries is a witches' brew of intrigue.
Some 200 witches met in Saint Andrew's Auld Kirk to raise the devil to help them kill the King. Or, it was on that day that King James VI said a witches coven assembled to conjure up a storm to drown him and his new wife Anne of Denmark as they sailed up the Firth of Forth to Leith. Whether it was true that witches gathered to plot his doom is debatable, but it was enough evidence for King James, who saw his top two fears made clear: treason and witchcraft.
Picture: Kate Chandler" height="148" width="225">Saint Andrew's Auld Kirk, North Berwick, as it appears today.
Picture: Kate Chandler
When the alleged witches confessed under extreme torture a gruesome tale emerged. One accused claimed their horned master had commanded them to open up four graves and remove toe, finger and knee joints from the corpses. They told of throwing a dead cat with the organs of a corpse into the sea in order to raise the storm. Accounts of the confession of Agnes Sampson describe a black mass in the church with dancing, prayers, incantations and black candles.
Another so-called witch, Dr John Fian (also known as Cunningham), was a local schoolmaster. The good doctor revealed in his confession that he carried mole's feet as a talisman and that he kissed the devil's behind as he worshipped him. He further alleged that the devil was in fact Francis Stuart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, and that they had been commanded by Bothwell to make a wax image of the King and chant over it: "This is Jamie the Saxth, orderit tae be consumed be a noble man."
To James VI, a devout Calvinist, it all seemed frighteningly plausible, as his ship had almost capsized on his way back from Denmark. Bothwell was James's cousin and his family had been contenders to the throne for three generations. Convinced of his narrow escape he personally presided over the trials of the North Berwick witches. In doing so he helped to legitimise the anti-witch sentiment, which sparked off a wave of similar trials throughout Scotland during the 16th and 17th century.
The newly reformed church also played a central role in whipping up this fever. Accusations of witchcraft could be made anonymously by leaving a note in a box, and the church handed over their information to the authorities. Records show that at least 3,837 people were accused of witchcraft in Scotland. It is not known how many were put to death; it could be between 60 to 70 per cent of this number. The vast majority was women. Many suffered excruciating torture. A terrible number were strangled and their bodies burnt.
There are so many incredible elements to it that it looks like the invention of people under torture.
- Dr Julian Goodare
Yet Dr Julian Goodare, who helped set up the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database at Edinburgh University, remains unconvinced that the North Berwick coven actually happened.
"Whether the meeting really took place I doubt," says Goodare. "There are so many incredible elements to it that it looks like the invention of people under torture."
Today's sleepy North Berwick holds little reminder of these tragic times, apart from a small "witches' stane" - a rough stone left in nearby Spott that commemorates those who died. People undoubtedly remain fascinated by the stories of the witches. Roy Pugh, a local historian based in Dunbar, wrote The Deil's Ain, a history of witchcraft in Scotland.
Roy stresses that witches could be anyone that found disfavour in the community, and were just ordinary individuals who became scapegoats in difficult times. "Fishing villages are very superstitious places and in rural areas with uneducated people, if there was no obvious reason for your chickens not laying or your calf dying, then you made one up.
"The most common indictment for witchcraft was whose turn is it to clean the stair or rake the dung heap. They would argue and one would say 'the devil curse you'. Later a child (of the person cursed) might fall sick and the church would be told what had happened."
Fast fact
A detailed pamphlet written in 1591 titled Newes from Scotland outlined the arrest, torture and trial of the North Berwick witches. It describes - in relish - the torture but is thought by historians to be a touch salacious.
The incredible confessions that came out of people still challenge historians today. Defendants would speak of flying through the air or changing into an animal using their spells, and they confessed to making a pact with the devil. Most agree that these admissions were the product of horrific torture instruments, such as the witch's bridle, a padlocked frame, which fitted over the head with a sharpened crucifix inside the mouth. Defendants were also deprived of sleep - often for weeks - before trial. However, there is also a general consensus that not all of the confessions were made up, but rather the people involved may have had herb-lore or practiced superstitious rites.
Despite these rational explanations, even today there are signs that people continue to believe in the power of witches. As a child, Roy says he was told to leave a coin on the witch stane, and often when he passes someone has left a small offering.
A small, present-day reminder of the Halloween that shook Scotland more than 400 years ago.
posted by Skylightsky at 5:44 AM
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