Greetings, dear Sunny Optimists,
I hope you are well this day and have an ease with the ebb and flow of your everyday life. As I was thinking about what to write for you this morning, I realised that my inspiration comes from the little things that make me smile. One example for me this week was the delight and innocence of a child at the prospect of Halloween.
Yesterday, I spent the morning with my grandson Noah who is coming up for four. He is very excited about Halloween. When I asked him if he found Halloween scary, he told me very sincerely that he loves making friends with 'monsters.’ We then read a book about monsters and all the wonderful things that happen when you make friends with them. Truly a lovely conversation and somewhat inspirational. I am looking out for monsters to make friends with myself.
He then told me he had decided to be a ghost for his Halloween adventure of Guisin' (see below) and ran off to put on his costume for me.
See below - BIG SMILE:)
Not only was he keen to show me his outfit, but he also wanted to share his party piece joke with me.
'Nana, what is served, but you cannot eat?'
Theatrical pause as I consider the question.
'I don't know, Noah, what is served but you cannot eat?'
A look to his Mummy to check in on the answer.
'A TENNIS BALL!', he shouts and then runs around the room in celebration that he got it right.
Such fun.
The History of Halloween
As I am sure you know, Halloween originates from the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marks the end of the harvest season and signals the need to prepare for the coming of winter. I love the image below, which captures the annual flow of these seasonal celebrations.
These Celtic festivals are often spoken of as being 'pagan' in origin, usually to mean not Christian or Jewish. However, the etymology of the word pagan is more about being 'rural' and 'of the country.' I love that this connects us more directly to the wisdom of the natural world rather than to religious connotations.
In the 9th century, the Western Christian church shifted the date of All Saints' Day to 1 November, while 2 November later became All Souls' Day. Over time, Samhain and All Saints/All Souls melded into one festival.
On 'All Hallows Eve,' it was thought that the boundaries between the physical and the spirit realms were more permeable than at other times. The people believed that the spirits of the dead would cross into the physical realm, which was rather scary for them. Many Halloween traditions weave the celebrations of this harvest time with protection from evil spirits.
Scottish Halloween Traditions
And so, I thought I would have a little bit of fun and share some of the Scottish traditions around Halloween that I experienced as a child.
In Scotland, we called trick or treating Guisin'.
The trick part required people to dress up in old clothes and darken their faces or wear a mask of some sort. The reason for this tradition was to disguise the children to avoid them being 'taken' by the evil spirits.
The treat part comes from the elders of the village knocking on doors to collect food for the harvest feast. They were also gathering offerings for the fairies to ensure the community's cattle survived the winter.
I have great memories, both as a child and then as a parent, of going out 'guising.' We would come back with additional pocket money, fruit and nuts, and of course loads of CHOCOLATE!
When I was a child, we would carve these lanterns out of turnips to create ghostly faces to ward off any evil spirits. Thankfully turnips have been superseded by pumpkins which are so much easier to carve. The lanterns often sit outside the front door of a house to indicate that ‘guisers’ are welcome.
Dookin’ is a great Scottish word. You place your hands behind your back and use your mouth to try and catch an apple floating in a basin of water. Sometimes we would try dropping a fork held in our teeth in the hope of spearing one! Not at all easy in either scenario. I remember us all looking at each other afterward and laughing at all our wet faces and soaking hair.
We hung scones from a good height with string so that we could get underneath them. Then with our hands behind our backs, we had to attempt to eat them. As you can imagine, this got very messy and rather sticky!
Questions for this Week
So there you go. It has been a delight to travel down memory lane with you this week. Wherever you are, I would love to know;
What delightful little things sustain your wellbeing at this time of year?
What memories of Halloween do you have?
How and with whom will you celebrate Halloween this year?
As always, I love hearing from you.
Ann
Oh my. Do I always say how my heart loves your Sunny Optimist? Well, once again, I say the same.
I loved getting your Celtic Halloween. I have such affinity for all Celtic.
And this brings back so many lovely memories. First of my mother. She always made our (me and my four siblings) costumes and, the extrovert that she was, always loved to assist in creating Halloween parties. As a teen our house basement would be converted into magical Halloween using rolls of crepe papers. And dunking for apples was part of the fun.
Later on life I made costumes for my two sons. And pumpkin carving was a family affair. Forwarding into grandchild time, my English grandchildren often came with my son to America on the school autumn holidays for Halloween. Going to pumpkin farms, which are now small theme parks, was a highlight. And carving pumpkins. They are now one at university and the other 15. They won’t be coming to America for Halloween this year. So I’m grateful that you helped me pull out old memories to be with this year. As always, I’m in gratitude for your Sunny Optimism❤️🙏❤️
Happy Halloween 🎃
I was always very scared of monsters in cartoons as a child and especially in cinema screens. I don’t know if it’s because I couldn’t make sense of animations. But I think perhaps today’s children are a lot braver. A lot lot braver not only than that but have the kind of raw fearlessness that many adults might not have. I was always a bit too frightened of things. The Disney films and a comical and as I realise now quite entertaining story book called The Jusge by Harvey Zemach. I think the book is great. Unfortunately I hope HZ won’t mind. Found it scary when mum got it out the library for me as a three year old. A monster looking through the window about to devour the story’s central character
Great to be here Ann. Happy Halloween