Halloween Scots-style

Here in Australia, we think of Halloween as being mainly a North American tradition. However, it actually had its origins in the Celtic culture over two thousand years ago. It was known then as the Samhain festival, and was a day on which the Celts believed that the souls of the dead and/or evil spirits could visit the living world and wreak havoc.

Eventually, the Catholic church made 1st November All Saints Day (possibly in an attempt to curb the Pagan Samhain festival) and the day before it became known as Halloween - the eve before All Hallows or All Saints Day.

As a Scottish-Australian, only one generation removed from the land of tartan, it is my Celtic duty to examine the Scottish Halloween traditions that date from before our time.

And who better to consult on these traditions than my own personal experts on Scottish culture, my Mum and my Aunt? These ladies were children in Scotland in the 1950s and I asked them what they remembered of Halloween traditions.

My Mum, who grew up in a small farming village in the South of Scotland said:

When we were young we used to carve out a swede turnip (they were the size of footballs). We would hollow out the stalk for the chimney. A candle was fixed in the bottom, a wire handle attached and we carried it out with us. The stink of hot turnip was unbelievable.

The end of October was very cold to be out walking at night but we never seemed to mind that. We went round the village dressed as witches, ghosts etc and received apples and homemade treacle toffee and fudge. The clever mums would make toffee apples--- and the occasional rich farmer would give us a shilling.

Most households would make the toffee and fudge in the days before the 31st. One year my mother had made all the toffee and put it on the cold floor behind the kitchen door to cool off and set. One of my brothers came in the back door and without looking stripped off his dung-laden wellies and tossed them behind the door. Imagine my mother's horror when she went to get the toffee and found the wellies sitting nicely in it! It was panic that year to get more made so that the children wouldn’t be disappointed.

If someone had a Halloween party, we would play games such as dooking for apples, or eating treacle-covered scones hanging from a string.

My Aunt recalled:

We carved turnips not pumpkins for lanterns and as you made the design you were careful to leave a thin layer of neep for the candle to shine through, not actual holes!

‘Guising’ was done from house to house and you tried to make yourself unrecognizable. You only went to houses where you were known and in order to gain a treat you had to entertain the household in some way.

I wouldn’t be taking my research seriously, if I didn’t at least attempt to carve a swede, but there’s a couple of problems with this:
a) swedes in Australia are around the size of a cricket ball, not a football, and
b) swedes are not currently in season here, being a cool-season vegetable.

However, in the interests of accurate experimentation I did it.

Before Our Time is about revisiting the wisdom of the past and evaluating its application to today’s life. So I have concluded that we would be better in Australia to start a tradition of carving Halloween lanterns out of an item which is large like a pumpkin, and readily available in October.

Ta-da!

Halloween melon lanterns.

A Scottish tradition that is a keeper, I think, is the fudge (or tablet) making for Halloween. My Mum sent through a recipe from The Home Book Of Scottish Cookery by Aileen King and Fiona Dunnett (1967) which I whipped up to send in to my daughter’s class at school.

The ingredients were just water, sugar, condensed milk, butter and vanilla essence. Torture on the teeth and the hips, but oh-so-delicious! (edit: see below for my version of the recipe.)

I wrapped it into individual serves with a spider sticker on each one.

If you know any Scottish bloggers, send them this way so we can get a more up-to-date analysis of Halloween Scots-style.

Happy Halloween! What traditions do you have for this day in your part of the world?

(Edited to add the recipe!)

Scottish Tablet or Fudge
500g white sugar
150ml hot water
60g butter
1 small tin condensed milk
1tsp vanilla essence

Add sugar to water in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until dissolved. Add condensed milk and heat, gently stirring all the time. When combined, add the butter in small lumps. Stir while waiting for each to totally melt before adding the next. Turn the heat right up and bring to the boil. Boil rapidly for around 5-7 mins until the mixture forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water. Remove from heat and allow bubbles to subside. Add vanilla essence and beat until creamy and thick. Pour into a lined 22cm x 30cm tin and refrigerate. Cut into squares when set.

Edited 11 Nov: It seems some people are having trouble getting the fudge to set. I'm no fudge expert, so I really don't know what is going wrong! I boiled mine really rapidly for the full 7 minutes, and it did start to turn streaky with a darker colour at that point - if that helps!