TRADITIONAL HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES

This page will attempt to list traditional Halloween activities from places as far apart as the Scotish Highlands and Mexico. Most of the sources can be found on the previous page. Another good source is "A Calendar of Scottish National Festivals: Halloween to Yule", by F. Marian Mcneill, 1961.

Divination Games:

According to Mcneill, these first two games involving apples, derive from two old customs of "Ordeal by Fire", and "Ordeal by Water":

1. Dookin' for Aipples (Bobbing for Apples) - the apples are placed in a wooden tub half full of water. Someone in charge turns the water with a stick, and people try to get one by their teeth (no hands). They can eat it, or save it for later for other apple-divinations. A silver coin can also be thrown in the bottom of the tub, and the lucky person who can fish it out with there mouth, will have luck in matters of money.

2. The Aipple and the Can'le - a stick is suspended on a string from the ceiling. At one end of the stick is a burning candle, at the other end, an apple. The stick is spun around, and the object is to take a bite out of the apple without singeing your hair on the candle.

Decorating:

Carving turnips and pumpkins for jack o' lantenrns.

Pranks:

Egging and soaping houses who don't give out candy.

Activities for Ancestors:

Dumb Supper.

E-mail: Jim Howard