Mark Fuller

OIDHCHE SHAMHNA: The hours between sunset on the 31st October and sunrise on the 1st November hold a very special place in Gaelic, and possibly pre-Gaelic, tradition in the Highlands. The term for the winter season, which is now used for the month of November in Gaelic, is ‘Samhain’ (whether you pronounce it “Sawan” or “Savan” depends on many factors… If you’re a Gaelic speaker comment which you do!) and ‘Oidhche Shamhna’ (again, sometimes pronounced “Hawna” and sometimes “Havna”) is the term used to describe the transfer between the half-year – the night of progression from summer to winter and the long dark nights we experience here. The traditions vary from place to place, but our knowledge of the way Samhain was celebrated is perhaps most widely shared by three women whose vast contribution to the accumulation of folk traditions should never be overlooked: Margaret Fay Shaw; Isabel F. Grant; and Barbara Fairweather. It is fairly clear that Isabel read Margaret’s work and Barbara read Isabel’s work when it comes to their descriptions of Samhain. This is a time of festival-like traditions and the use of fire in them is clearly linked to the darkness. At this time of year in many areas of the Highlands, children would take lanterns and sticks and go house-to-house. Some have recorded these lanterns as being made from turnips, which is likely to be the origin of the carved turnip. Margaret Fay Shaw recorded the events in the Outer Hebrides, particularly Canna and Lewis, and also took photographs which give us an incredible record of the way children dressed at Samhain. These are now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. Her record shows distinct similarities with some of the activities in the modern dress-up and eat sweets ‘Halloween’ widely celebrated worldwide today. The children of the Hebrides would create ghoulish costumes from animal skins and would wear masks made from animal skulls with the brains and skin scraped or boiled off. Once dressed in these macabre outfits, the children would go door-to-door telling stories, reciting poetry and songs or, in some areas more recently, telling jokes. There is also some record of damaging acts by these children! Young Hebridean Guisers, dressed in their scary outfits, would plug or cover chimneys and would remove gates from enclosures in acts of “devilment”. Petty vandalism in the name of keeping away evil! At least they weren’t the earlier Druidic people of the Highlands and Ireland who were, according to Anne Ross in her investigation into “Folklore of the Scottish Highlands” (2000), partial to human sacrifice to ward off the evil spirits after the harvest season... ... I’m starting to wonder if the Otherworld is really what we need to fear tonight! Regardless of which record or which area we read, the childrens’ reward always appears to be something savoury like a scone or bannock. One of these savoury treats would be dipped in treacle and hung up for the children to attempt to take bites from it. Apple bobbing or “dooking” has also been widely written about throughout Scotland. The children who went house-to-house would also bring fire with them, not only in turnip lanterns, but sometimes with peat or sticks bundled together and lit. These would be handed out at each stop and, if a turnip lantern, would either be left outside on the window sill, or inside on the window sill. This is a tradition still kept by some households and was to ward off evil spirits during the dark hours. The sticks in some areas would be specific woods, particularly holly which was taken into the house and placed on the fire, again to protect against spirits and particularly faeries. The tradition of taking this protective and light-giving fire door-to-door has also been recorded as being part of another ritual in which the fire would be carried around each house three times sunwise – a tradition which is used in many ritual traditions in the Highlands in order to bring permanence. As recorded by Isabel F. Grant and Barbara Fairweather, Oidhche Shamhna was the time of year when the spirits of the dead and faeries were particularly active and could interact with the living. This is also recorded as a reason for the children being dressed up, so other Otherworldly beings would consider them as part of their group and would leave them to wander freely, rather than capturing the children and taking them back to the Otherworld. The link between the living world and the Otherworld in Gaelic tradition is often close; but never closer than Oidhche Shamhna. This is where the modern Halloween tradition of zombies may originate. In terms of Faeries, Barbara Fairweather records that Oidche Shamhna was the time that the living could access a Faerie Shian, but as other Gaelic traditions tell us, you must be very careful in doing so as it rarely ends well! There is also the tradition that witches would go about their errands in the night, but this is not necessarily a spooky and evil thing – witches, depending on your understanding of the long history of witchcraft in the Highlands (pre-dating witch trials), have almost entirely historically been considered as wise cailleachs (older women) and healing women in the Highlands. They absolutely exist and the world is better for it. Another tradition which Isabel F. Grant and Barbara Fairweather record is that this was the night when younger women were blindfolded in the kale patch or yard. They would pick a leaf of kale from the stalk and then take the blindfold off. Whatever the physical attributes of the leaf were, the woman’s future husband would also have. Oidhche Shamhna is also a good night to see into the future in other ways. This sounds bizarre to people who are not aware of the depth of real belief and understanding of the possibility that some amongst us have the ability to see beyond the present, but I am aware of people and recent ancestors of people who were respected for their divinations. On Oidhche Shamhna lots of different ways of doing this are recorded by Margaret Fay Shaw and Isabel F. Grant, such as dropping an egg white into water and if the white sank it would be a bad omen and if it spread on the surface the omen was good. There is a similar tradition with dropping molten lead through the hole at the top of a key onto the floor. It was also known for seers to eat salted herring in order to induce second sight on Oidhche Shamhna. Whatever way you view Halloween, there is clearly a deep and long held belief that this is the night when we are closest to the Otherworld, including our ancestors amongst the less favourable spirits and beings. That will bring me some comfort and be in mind as I burn some holly twigs in a turnip lantern and drop an egg white into a glass of rainwater after a meal of salted herring. One thing is certain – Oidhche Shamhna has always been a transitional period and in some records it was a time to leave the negatives of the past months behind and seek protection for the long winter ahead. via Highland Historian #Scotland #Highlands #Folklore #FolkloreSunday #OidhcheShamhna #Samhain #Halloween