Hallowe’en (Halloween) is celebrated on 31 October, on the evening before All Saints’ Day.

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As the last day of the old Celtic calendar, it marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter – a dark time readily associated with witches and evil spirits! 

There are many different traditions from all over the world associated with this time of year.

Here are some of Scotland’s top Halloween traditions illustrated by some of our favourite photos from Scran:

Guising

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The term guising is a shortened form of ‘disguising’.  Young guisers dress up, often with home-made costumes and painted faces, and knock at their neighbours’ doors. 

They often perform songs or jokes and collect a few pennies or sweets for their efforts. Neighbours try to guess who their masked visitors are.

Tumshie lanterns

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Guisers are often greeted by a Halloween lantern on neighbours’ doorsteps.  This was traditionally made from a hollowed-out swede or turnip – a tumshie in Scots.  The tradition goes back to the belief that the spirits of the dead came back to their old haunts on All Saints Day, so fires were lit to guide them home and ward off evil spirits.

Dooking for apples

Dooking for apples is a great Halloween party game. Apples are floated in a large basin of water and players duck [dook] their heads into the basin to retrieve an apple – traditionally with their teeth, but sometimes with a fork.

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Treacle Scones

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Various other games at Halloween also involved ‘no hands’ rules.

A great example is taking bites from a bun or treacle scone covered in sticky syrup/treacle and hung on a string. 

Great fun but so messy!

For more pictures of Halloween visit Scran.

We hope you enjoyed these photos of Halloween celebrations from the past 70 years. Which of these four traditions do you and your neighbours usually take part in?

COVID may change how our traditions are expressed this Halloween, but we hope that you still find ways to mark the occasion.

Images © The Scotsman Publications | Licensor Scran