[BITList] That time again

[HUGH]

31st October,

It's that time again, Hallowe'en, when all sane people go abroad, or put out the lights and lock the doors. A sign in a supermarket yesterday - Happy Halloween (their spelling).  What's Happy about a festival of the dead?

It's a deluge of America and TV-inspired instant traditions. The Independent's wee sister paper "I" had a nice piece on the intrusion of pumpkins to the scene.  We used spend ages hacking out a large turnip with a blunt teaspoon, she said, and waxed nostalgic about the smell of turnip burnt by candle flame. That's how I remember it, though we used a tablespoon, being further north.  Only children observed Hallowe'en - adults supervised. Hallowe'en parties were always held in church halls by Boy Scouts or the like, and "dooking for apples" meant kneeling on a chair with a fork clamped between the teeth, over a basin of water with apples in it. Or hands behind the back trying to seize an apple with the teeth without drowning.  Sticky scones or buns liberally smeared with treacle suspended from a string - hands behind the back, mouth only.  We "dressed up" - I recall curtain rings hanging by string from my ears, a soot moustache and a handkerchief round my head -  I was a pirate.  And we knocked doors and were admitted after saying the passwords, "Please for my Halloween".  We sang or recited, all that remained of the ancient tradition of Galoshans.

With regret,

Hugh.
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