I used to carve Halloween lanterns out of turnips, the smell of the turnip lid being burnt by the candle is so evocative of my childhood Halloweens in the UK.
@@clymtcAt school on Tyneside, in 1963, our entire class brought in their turnip lanterns. Late in the afternoon as the light faded in the classroom on an overcast day, under our class teacher's direction, the candles in all 40 of our lanterns were lit. The combined smell of wax, smoke and cooking turnip was overpowering as you can imagine and wafted beyond our classroom. Swede is called turnip in the North East of England, by the way, as it is in other places. We never used the term "swede".
I had a slice of pumpkin pie, made for my workmates and I, one year as a thankyou gift for us teaching an American lady how to ride horses (which she had paid for, and it was our job, in a London riding school, so though her food gift was kind - and tasty - it was unnecessary. I told my Mum about it and she was quite miffed as she said "I've made pumpkin pie for you before and you said you didn't like it!!" So my Mum must've made a savoury version, which I didn't like, as the one the American lady made for us at the riding school, was sweet...and very moreish!!!!
I can smell the burning turnip right now. Once smelt, never forgotten. Exactly how I never lost a finger whilst trying to carve one is beyond me. Tough going, but rather satisfying when you discover a technique that works!
I LOVE these two genuine, non-fake, original Americans, I watch some other RUclips channels BUT these two find and watch things no other channel does, for eg three other channels, one by one have reacted to "dire straits, brothers in arms", keep on finding and watching original content you two and stay happy, safe and healthy ALL three of you ✌️
When I was little in the Highlands of Scotland in the 1970s, we went guising, did the song, dance or told a bad joke to earn our rewards, which were often, Apples, Peanuts in shells, some sweets and a few coins, occasionally other nuts and fruits were included. My sisters and I would come home with 1 or even 2, full carrier bags of this and it kept us going for the next couple of weeks or more. Edit: Our Turnips (they were actually the Swede variety) were a fair bit larger than the one in this video, closer to the size of that pumpkin.
I remember Guising in the 1950’s in Central Scotland. Children dressed in adults old clothes with soot blackened faces, to disguise them from the spirits out that night, would come round he houses. They always had to do a song, a joke or recite a poem before they got peanuts or apples. Indoors we dooked for apples in a basin of water and told spooky stories. I miss the magical otherworldliness that’s lost in the commercialism of today.
Same here. Every year we went guising with a cardboard false face and home made costumes some mothers had amazing talent for making them. We had to do something, tell a joke or singing a song and got apples and nuts. Played dooking for apples or treacle scone. Had to have the candle in the turnip lantern with a hole in the top to let the smoke out. 🥜🥜😂😂
Yeah, growing up in the 80s in Glasgow we'd go out guising and you absolutely needed to sing a song, or tell a joke before you got anything, and you'd go into the house, not just stand at the door and expect sweets. Some houses they'd have bowls for dooking for apples, or sometimes on a string up high. As much as you got sweets, the main thing was nuts (monkey nuts/peanuts, or hazelnuts), or you got hit with Brazil nuts and walnuts which you could never open. Bonus points if you got a toffee apple (candy apple). And I definitely went through the pain of carving a turnip (Swede if you're English). Don't think I saw a pumpkin til mid 80s.
I'm an old UK lady, known to be a bit eccentric. On Hallow'een Night, I wear a floor length black dress, a grotesque witch's mask and a big pointy hat with long green hair attached. When young ones knock on my door, dressed in scary costumes, I scare them back, which is hilarious
In my native Wales, 31st Oct/1st Nov is called Calan Gaeaf (Winter's eve festival), when the harvest had been gathered in and the seasonal workers were paid off. As these workers were bade good-bye, not knowing if we'd see them next harvest, we thought also of those who had died the past year, to whom we'd also said farewell. My nain (grandmother) told me that it used to be a tradition to host a meal for the departing workers. The meal was comprised of the fruits of the harvest, both mutton and a mixture of nine root vegetables, mashed together with milk, butter and herbs. It was called Stwnsh Naw Rhyw (literally, mash of nine things). 🏴
I was always told that it was the Irish🇮🇪, not the Scots, who started the Halloween tradition... This is the first time I've ever heard it had originated in Scotland🏴 ... 🤔🥺
Both countries claim its origins. While it seemed to originated as per evidence around the same century, it had a stronger following in Scotland, so most historians believe it probably originated from Scotland. It was also followed in the north of France, so maybe even originated from there.
It's a pagan celebration. I think after the Roman invasion paganism was killed off and pushed out of England where it then clung on in the Celtic areas of Scotland and Ireland.
I can remember trying to carve a swede/rutabaga as a child. It was such a pain because of how many times the knife would slip, I'm surprised that I've got any fingers left!!!
I've never carved a pumpkin, but definitely carved turnips as a kid. It's bloody difficult scooping the inside out with a spoon too :) Also they look far more sinister than pumpkins
Everything here in the UK as well drags out for ages. Fireworks go off for weeks before Guy Fawkes Night/Bornfire Night for example, as well as Xmas, Halloween celebrations etc. It was never like that when I was a kid in the 70s.
I am an over 70 year old lady who was a child in Scotland. We did all these things for Halloween. Dug out turnips which was hard and took forever, cooking for apples for no reason but to see how good you were, dress up in anything dark we could get our hands on, and wore a mask. We went around the village and asked for our Halloween . You were invited in to the house , then you had to do something to get your treat. It could be sing a song on your own OR with other friends, tell a joke,do a bit of dancing. You only got a treat after you were finished. It was definitely worth it to get some homemade toffee, OR delicious homemade tablet!!! When I got older and was the age to receive the children, I made tablet, and word got around as to which house had tablet, kids told each other in passing on the street. Needless to say it did not last very long. This has brought back many memories of living in a small village where all the families knew each other well. So was always safe to go out with a friend !!!!
Growing up for me Halloween was something that I ONLY saw on American TV programmes. It seems that as shops realized they could sell more things based around this event that it has become more popular. WIth all these types of events I expect you will find that the modern celebrations are adaptations of much older celebrations that have been taken over.
Its the same with everything, all about consumerism for business and money. We used to love making our costumes with our mums help when I was wee. Didn't need much to have fun but it wasn't about looking the part, just fun and exciting. Now it's very different but i still love Halloween
My mum always carved turnips for us... my daughter still does now. She prefers to celebrate Halloween in the old ways. The only thing is turnips are so much harder to carve out. But the smell of them heating up with an inside candle brings back memories. We used to always do duck apples too, or bobbing for apples. Apples are floated on water and you have to grip the apples out of the water with your teeth. I always found the easiest way to do that was to hold ya nose and duck right to the bottom of the container holding the water. Then squish the apple on the bottom so it can't bob away. The only thing is, it gets water everywhere. Very fun though :D
It's interesting that you say Christmas starts after Thanksgiving in the US these days. I remember as a kid watching American films and TV programmes that were set at Christmas time, and it always seemed that everyone put their Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve, and then the adults would be back at work on the day after Christmas (what we know as Boxing Day). I used to feel sorry for you for having such short Christmases! In my experience of Christmases here in the UK, the decorations always went up at least a couple of weeks before Christmas, then the country would pretty much shut down from Christmas Eve to the day after New Year's Day, with many taking advantage of the three public holidays (four in Scotland these days), meaning that you only need to take three days of your leave entitlement to have over a week off work. That was something my parents always did, and something I still do to this day. 😊
It’s Pagan. It’s good now that there are more and more Pagans and it’s a recognised religion. You peel an apple, trying to keep the skin in one part then throw the peel in water and it would show the initial of your true love. When I was little we would carve turnips. Usually these days if a house is decorated you can go to it, otherwise, people don’t go to it.
@@helenroberts1107The above commenter is technically right. I'm a practicing "pagan", but this is an umbrella term for all indigenous pre-Christian European religions and some New Age. It isn't ONE religion. I practice Anglo-Saxon heathenry (or paganism) which is very different from Celtic forms of paganism, like Irish or Welsh, with very different holidays and gods. And then you have new age types of paganism invented over the past century like Wicca.
I remember in the 70's sat the kitchen table armed with a knife and a metal spoon and a huge solid turnip to carve out. It was hard going and blisters were common 😅 but it was all worth it when we went outside and lit the candle and got the spooky glow and weird smell of the turnip and candle. I can still remember the smell 😊
So in the US, if any resident answered the door and the kids asked "Trick or Treat?" And they answered "Trick", this would cause a major problem because the kids had no joke, song, or whatever prepared?!?
As a kid in the early 70's, two things stood out having turnip lanterns. The first was the wrist breaking effort to carve them but the strongest memory was the delicious smell that emanated as the candle inside slowly scorched the remaining turnip flesh.
As a Scot, I can confirm that as you went door to door to get Halloween treats (which included fruit and monkey nuts as well as sweets) you had to either sing a song, tell a joke or do a trick to get something in return. Also Halloween parties almost always had dookin for apples.
Growing up in Sussex during the 1950s I don't recall marking Halloween. We marked Bonfire Night and made a guy and would go around the neighbourhood saying 'penny for the guy' The Guy would then go on the top of the Bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night. Guising is an ancient custom I think
Neeps are also known as swede in England and are orange fleshed when cooked (rutabaga). Turnips are white fleshed. Neeps and tatties(swede and mashed potato) are served on burns night with haggis.
Where I live Turnips have orange flesh and swedes are white but the its different if if you drive 5 miles down the road. Same as baps, teacakes, breadcakes we're a nation divided by a common language
Ahh ! The original “ Jack o Lantern “ made from a turnip or Scottish word Tumshie , Neep . , I speak as a Scot who grew up with these . Sliced near the top for a future lid , carved out and a candle placed inside a hole on either side near the top for a string handle for carrying .
Was a task carving out your turnip and attaching your string to take your lantern out with you as a kid. Trick or treating used to be massively popular in the 80s and 90s where i am in Lancashire.
Apples as a metaphor for love (the forbidden fruit) comes from the temptation of Eve in the garden of Eden. In Scotland our teachers always made us learn a Halloween poem in school so that we had something to say when we went out guising. The older kids would always take the younger kids out and look after them as they went out and about. Edit: added note about apples
I am 58, from the north east of England. We dressed as witches, ghosts, spiders etc. Carved our turnips - southerners call them swedes - which needed an adult because turnip (rutabaga) is rock-hard.... pumpkins didn't grow here. The smell of burning turnip (rutabaga) was lovely, as we tore around playing 'knocky-door-neighbour' - knocking on the door and running away while cackling and laughing, 'incognito'. We played 'dookie apple' and Mr. Bainbridge set up a brazier in the middle of our street where we toasted marshmallows if we had 'dooked' for apples successfully... or half-drowned ourselves... or looked as though we were about to cry. We had a 'Mr Bainbridge' in our street. Other streets were available, but less fun.
@@kimberleyelizabethbailes-ql9qk Hilarious! We are all being swamped by the standardisation of English. But, hey ho, it's not all bad. 'American English', 'Australian English', 'Kiwi English', 'Caribbean English', 'Geordie English', 'Cockney English', 'Franglais', 'Double Dutch', 'Germanic nonsense', 'Indian English' and every other 'abomination'... is ... welcome to contribute. Our (English) language is ever-changing. Nothing is 'right' and nothing is 'wrong', it's just atune to what is 'commonly' accepted/understood. North of the Humber 'turnips' are brown/purple with orange flesh. South of the Humber, 'turnips' are pink and white, with white flesh and to be quite frank, I have no idea what they taste like. If you served the 'white flesh' variety at a 'Burn's Night' (Haggis, neeps and tatties) you would have failed. If you tried to make a Halloween lantern out of them, you're an artist! Standard English is like 'The Borg' - resistance is futile.
@@kimberleyelizabethbailes-ql9qk To be quite honest, I know that pink and white root vegetables exist, but I am not entirely sure that I have ever eaten one. Turnip, on the other hand, is a staple of a Sunday Dinner, boiled until soft and mashed with butter and pepper. Roast potatoes, mashed potatoes (cream and butter added), roasted parsnips, cauliflower cheese... and 'greens' - broccoli/ peas/mangetout/runner beans - fresh minted - and/or, cabbage - steamed, then fried in butter and whole-grain mustard - and the ubiquitous carrot... for colour (perk it up with a bit of orange juice, honey and butter). And/or, sweet potatoes - mashed with butter and maple syrup. Roast the 'roast' - Beef/Lamb/Pork/Chicken/Nut - throw in the Yorkshire puddings which are made with an egg, an eggs-worth of milk and an eggs-worth of flour per three Yorkshires. If Americans insist on using 'cups', I can use 'eggs' as a measure. Then, make the gravy. Sorry, but that is dependent upon the 'roast' and I can't be arsed to elaborate. After all that, the simple answer to your question is 'no'.
I expect my guisers to recite a wee poem or sing a song. Nowadays, they tell terrible jokes. I dress up my living room and do a window display around the middle of October. It's my favourite time of the year. We used to carve neeps. I tried a pumpkin once but prefer turnip. Happy Halloween!
In south west England (which is “Celtic” culturally), everybody celebrated Halloween. At primary school we’d bring our turnips in and carve them - (before risk assessments were invented). Hands used to ache for days afterwards. We would then put the lantern in the window at home, light the fire, turn off the lights and put candles up, occasionally dress as ghosts, tell ghost stories, bob for apples and I seem to remember making toffee apples some years. There was no trick or treating or dressing in stupid irrelevant costumes - Halloween was purely about ghosts and spirits. It was a lot of fun and helped make Autumn something to look forward to for us kids.
Here in Northern Ireland when I was young we carved turnips, dressed up, went round houses singing Halloween songs and got apples, oranges and peanuts as a reward.. we also visited houses and played bobbing for apples etc and played pranks. It was was all great innocent fun. It's all very commercialised now and I suspect children don't have as much fun as we did.
Sounds like a good time. I still can't imagine carving a turnip though, they seem so hard. We're going to have to give that a go at some point just to see what it's like.
@@reactingtomyroots 😂😂😂 It'll be fun but make sure you set aside an entire evening, those things are TOUGH to hollow out. Mum and Dad always ended up finishing the hollowing job for me and wee sis to come back for the fun part of carving the face. Ah good times
Yes older generations find it quite gauche when people put their trees early too 😂 I don’t mind it, but I wait till it’s mid December so I can enjoy my tree before travelling to my family for Christmas
@@sarahkelly473 In our house it was always 12 days before and after Christmas, Halloween was always a one day event, ok maybe the preparations started a few days prior, but not weeks before, unlike now with Christmas, some shops local had Christmas decorations on sale in mid September WTF !!!
In my family the artificial tree and the other decorations were kept in the attic or later in the loft(roof space) and we didn’t bring them down stairs until Christmas Eve usually around 1 or 2 in the afternoon and the paper chains and the holly branches which were cut off local trees were pinned to the walls and around mirrors and picture frames would be the first decorations to be put in place but the tree was left untouched until after the evening meal. Once the table was cleared and the washing up was completed then the tree was erected on the table and we all would sit around the table and start hanging the bauble’s on the tree and draping the tinsel over the branches. Once completed dad would pick up the tree by the base to carry it to the location that we had pre-selected and that is where it would remain until the evening of the twelfth night of Christmas when we would return the tree and the other decorations to their hiding place. By dawn on the 13 day of Christmas every trace of the seasons festivities would be gone.
As a child I was always told that it was bad luck to have the Christmas tree up outside of the 12 days of Christmas, so ours went up on Christmas Eve and came down on 12th night. It kept it special, whereas today Christmas is 'diluted' over such a long period for some people it seems a shame.
@@MisterChrisInTheUK I think it loses a lot of the excitement with the way Christmas seems to start in the middle of October for stores and the likes, as a child growing up, Christmas was full of anticipation and excitement, when the tree went up 12 nights before christmas, and to get up on Christmas morning and find all those presents under the tree, and the mince pie's and carrots left out for santa and the dears were gone too
First off. We DON'T call it a " holiday" . We call it a celebration , just like CHRISTMAS, NEW YEAR and EASTER are celebrations also. I'm 69, and being Scottish we always used a turnip, as pumpkins were not available in the UK. There was none of this dressing up as super heroes or film characters etc either. We call it " GUISING". A form of the word DISGUISING. We used to say " the sky is blue, the grass is green, may we have our Halloween". It took ages to carve the NEEP as it's a lot denser and harder than a pumpkin. They used to be a round shape when I was a lad NOT pointy. We used to get them from my dad's vegetable plot.
I can still remember the lovely smell of the turnip lantern and having to keep running home to get your candle re-lit because we weren't allowed matches. And mischievous night the night before bonfire night.
Born in 1956 the UK, the most we celebrated Halloween was hollowing out a Swede(turnip) and putting a candle in it, if you have ever tried that you can imagine how many times we just gave up, on a whole Halloween passed us by, Bonfire Night was brilliant, the whole family in our back garden with fireworks and a small bonfire, mom cooking all day, Sausage whirls, cheese straws, then freshly made hotdogs, Proper sausage and fried onions, not horrible wet boiled onions, you are right about holidays stretching out, all about the money! Christmas me and my siblings went to bed Christmas Eve, everything normal, my parents would stay up bringing the 6ft tree in, decorating it and decorating the room with crepe paper garlands and balloons, dad used to put our presents on the foot of our bed for us to wake up to, children today have had the excitement taken out of everything, by Christmas day everyone just wants it to be over, it's a shame, there is such joy in simplicity, but that doesn't make enough money in our materialistic world.
Born in the same year as you and don’t remember doing anything other than collecting bonfire wood and making a Guy for 5th November. Plack peas baked potatoes Parkin and treacle toffees were the food’s of choice in our house It was only in the seventies when I was in the sixth form that we would do something at school to entertain the younger kids
@@susansmiles2242 I'm not saying everyone celebrated bonfire night that way, it may have been just my family, but there was around 100 houses in our street and most celebrated, I started work in 1971 and that bought about completely different works parties.
When Swedes were introduced to Britain from Scandinavia they were initially known as Swedish turnips. in most of the UK this was shortened to Swedes whereas Scotland shortened the turnip part of the name to Neeps. As a child I was used to carving Swedes for halloween as Turnips are too small.
The turnip lantern was a lot more difficult to make than one made with a pumpkin. I learned some very ‘ interesting ‘ words from my father sometimes when he’s was carving it.
When I was a child we lived by a very old Castle mainly ruins, but on Halloween or All Hallow Eve as my folks called it we would walk to the castle and scare ourselves silly very joyful memories. But no trick or treating never a thing then
I'm from Yorkshire, (the place I'm from was a small village originally, but is now an outer suburb of a large city). In our village, we celebrated Mischievous Night and Halloween on Oct 29th/31st respectively. On Mischievous Night, kids would tie their neighbours door handles together & play "knack-door-run" or throw eggs at houses. On Halloween, we carved turnips/Swedes for lanterns, as pumpkins aren't native to the UK.Turnips smell divine once the candles are lit inside them. I've only seen pumpkins in the shops for the last 15 yrs or so. The inside of the turnip was usually boiled with carrots or potatoes & mashed with butter, salt & pepper to go with a hearty stew for the evening meal, known as tea in Yorkshire (we have dinner as a mid-day meal). It's traditional in Yorkshire to make Parkin, the week before Halloween, it's a sticky ginger cake made with black treacle & golden syrup as well as ginger. After baking, it was wrapped in greaseproof paper & put in a cake tin, over the next week the cake became softer & more sticky... it's still a big favourite here in Yorkshire. We also had Bonfire toffee, which is a hard toffee made with black treacle & we ate toffee apples too. Parkin, Bonfire toffee & toffee apples are still eaten today at Halloween & also on November 5th, Guy Fawkes night (also a Yorkshireman). I remember bobbing for apples on Halloween & girls that peeled apples in a graveyard, throwing the peel on the ground to see who their true love would be, or they looked through their dressing table mirror at midnight eating an apple to see the face of their future husband. The more superstitious folk always warned of going out after midnight as that was when the Wild Hunt took place & the Lord of the Hunt on his horse would take you to his layer in the underworld, he was said to be a headless horseman. I also remember seeing people have iron horse shoes above the lintel of their doors so that fairies couldn't take children on Halloween or on May 1st, both nights when the veil between our world & the spirit world is thinner, as iron was said to be poisonous to the fey. Brides were usually given an iron horse shoe on their wedding day to place over the door lintel of their new home to bring luck & keep the fairies out. Which is why silver coloured cardboard covered horse shoes are still given to brides on their wedding day now. Bonfires we're lit at Halloween & people would throw a stone into the edge of the fire, if they could find it the next morning, they were said to have good luck for the next year. As far as I know, Halloween has always been celebrated in the north of England, Scotland & Ireland. The Welsh had Nos Galen Gaeth (? not sure of the spelling, apologies to Wales xx). As Scotland ruled the north of England & was linked to Ireland in ancient times, it would make sense to have similar customs that crossed over & ones that are still carried on today.
There's an old saying about eat an apple thinking about the one you fancy, throw an apple pip in the fire after saying if he loves me pop and fly, if he doesn't lay and die.
In modern Irish Samhain is also the word for November. Halloween is Oíche Shamhna which means "Night of Samhain". Btw your pronunciation of Samhain is perfect ❤
The idea of trick or treating, was because as the guest you had to show your worthiness to receive the hospitality of the house. As such the guisers would give some form of entertainment. Once done they would receive a “treat” from the house. A coin, or food to sustain them on their travels and a drink before leaving. If they left without a treat, the spirits protecting the house would see them as unworthy and punish them for their bad manners by playing a “trick” on them. When I was a child, in the highlands of Scotland, all children would be sure not to risk the wrath of mischievous spirits so would be sure to practice what they would do to entertain at each house, so it was a good standard. Schools would allow children to practice songs for 2-3 weeks before Halloween. The guisers were always dressed as spooky people as they had to pass unhindered by the dead or those that commune with the dead (Witches, Warlocks etc), so did so by pretending to be one of them. The lanterns were carried for protection, and placed at entrance to house to welcome the spirits of the house to find their way home. Actually there is a dispute about which country it originated in with Scotland, Ireland and the North of France laying claim to its origins. Unfortunately historians can’t say for sure which country it was, as all have evidence of it being celebrated around the same century, and it’s so far back, they can’t narrow it down more than that. They know it’s Celtic origin (although some things may have stemmed from other countries like the bobbing for apples with was Roman). It believed it probably originated in Scotland by the majority of historians, simply because more evidence exists of it being celebrated in Scot than in other countries from the earliest evidence. But this is assumption based on the amount of references found to its celebration rather than known fact.
A shop i went to in September was taking their Halloween range down to make way for their xmas range and you can buy easter eggs from Xmas till a day or two before easter. If you leave it till the day before, you have to actually hunt multiple shops to find any. Its crazy.😂
As a child in Northern Ireland many years ago we always celebrated Halloween but England didn't . They had Guy Fawks night instead . As far as I can see Halloween went from here to America and then , in recent years , to England , bigger and better than ever . I see now that it was also Scottish as well as Irish .
I think the Liverpool/Wirral area did. My mum always carved out turnips etc, for Halloween. We still celebrated Bonfire Night too, and whatever else cropped up was included.
Yes & because they were little, we actually carried them with us when we went Halloweening. They were very hard to carve. I didnt see my first pumpkin until I was 19 & that was back in 1991 haha For us, Guy Fawkes night, November 5th 'bonfire night' was the bigger celebration.
Us kids of the 60's - 70's used to carve out turnips with our penknives made in Sheffield. We'd eat the excavated flesh too, no lunch, just bellyache that day.
Pumpkins were not a common grown item back in the day, turnips were cheap and available. They were a vicious beast to carve though and got so many cuts from doing it ….
I was born in 1954. Growing up in Yorkshire we never did Halloween. I also never heard of pumpkins. On November 4th we had mischief night where we played tricks on people and on November 5th we had Bonfire night. I think we were Americanised in the early 80s and our kids started with Halloween trick or treating.
Ha yeah, mischief night :D we always used to plan things, then get grounded. Used to make the turnip(swede?) lanterns growing up near Wetherby(yorks), even did a spooky night(well evening) walk down the probably ancient path down to the river.... pitch black apart from the candles, it was scary for a kid. We tried doing trick or treat as teens, but most of the adults hadn't watched ET so had no idea what was going on! I kinda enjoy the night now, but I normally miss it due to work, we get a few young kids in costume knock on the door (with mums) and hand out some sweets (and if there left, oh no, I have to eat them ;) ). I had to tone down my outfit though, once scared the bejesus out of a kid :D. I did one halloween in america due to work.. It was amazing how people went into the office dressed in costume!
In the south west we'd carved mangolds, a type of root vegetable that was grown for animal feed. It was a pretty hazardous business, as the shape is not even, so my dad mainly did the carving!
Northern Ireland we used Turnip (Swede) as a lantern. Pumpkin wasn't native to the UK or Ireland. Children don't trick or treat... they go "Halloweening" dressed up they knock door and sing a song for sweets and money. The song goes.. "Halloween is coming and the Geece are getting fat, would you please put a penny in the old man's hat. If you havnt got a penny a happany will do. If you havnt got a happany, God Bless you and the Old man too."
Used to be very big in NI but died a death due to the firework ban, very rare to even see a bonfire nowadays though the big event in London/derry is well worth a visit weather providing.
I used to carve turnips as a kid in 70s & 80s - pumpkins didn’t commonly show up until I was in my teens. Carving a turnip will keep a kid occupied for hours…. Dooking or bobbing for apples was a staple at every Hallowe’en party growing up - mostly as an excuse for small kids to waterboard their friends but also fairly cheap & easy for adults to organise. The other staple was eating donuts or scones suspended on strings with no hands. Guising was and still is huge in Scotland. I had 50+ kids at my door this year until I ran out of sweets. It’s no longer mandatory to do a turn to earn your treat but it’s still fairly common. About half the wee guisers told me a joke as their ‘party piece’ but there were a couple of dances too. I’ve had poems or songs in the past too.
In Ireland at Halloween we have a sweet loaf of bread called Barn Brack which has a ring placed in it before baking. Who ever finds the ring (and doesn't break their teeth) will be married within the year.
The Real Story of Europe's Traditional Samhain Festival (Origins of Halloween) Long before the modern judeo-Christian corruption called Halloween the Ancient European Celts were celebrating Samhain a great druidic festival that marked the boundary between our world and the spirit world. In druidic times Samhain marked the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year. The Celtic New Year Eve was a mysterious moment which belonged neither to the past nor the present. Samhain was considered the third and last harvest of the growing year. Fruit and nuts were the last gifts of nature to be gathered and the apple in particular was the symbol of this harvest. Traditionally great bonfires were lit at Samhain upon which in druidic times animal sacrifices were offered to ensure that the winters reign was not unending. FEILE NA MARBH - the dead walk abroad At Samhain the spirits of the dead sought the warmth of the fireside and communion with their living kin. This time was also known as Féile na Marbh (the Feast of the Dead). As the veil between worlds thinned, all manner of spirits walked abroad at Samhain, including those of loved ones passed on. An empty chair by the fire was often left free along with a candle in the window to guide the ghosts home for comfort and seek their blessing for the coming year. In time the candle was placed inside a turnip lantern upon which a demon (Jewish) face was carved to scare off unfriendly spirits. The tradition of wearing of costumes and masks at Samhain developed to deceive these same unfriendly spirits lest they recognised you and called you to the Otherworld before your time. Nervous living folk would attempt to appease the wandering spirit with gifts of fruit and nuts. APPLE MAGIC Samhain was also a time for divination and apples were predominant among the tools used to tell the future. Bobbing for apples or snapapple (duck apple) was used as a race among unmarried contestants the winner who took the first bite of the apple was destined to be the first to wed, alternatively the winner was destined for good luck in the coming year. An unmarried girl would attempt to peel an apple in one long strip and cast the peel over her shoulder. The peel would reveal the initial of her future husband. Before the stroke of midnight a person would sit in a room in front of a mirror lit by only one candle and cut an apple into nine pieces. With their back to the mirror they would ask the question they wanted answered and eat eight of the apple pieces. The ninth would be thrown over their left shoulder. Then they would turn and look over the same shoulder into the mirror where they would see a symbol or image that would answer their question. BARM BRACK A fruit loaf called barm brack was baked at Samhain with tokens wrapped in greaseproof paper. If you found a token in your slice of barm brack this also foretold your future. The type of tokens varied by family but common examples were: A ring marriage within the year A silver coin riches A rag or pea poverty A stick an unhappy marriage In some areas Colcannon, a dish of mashed potatoes, cabbage with either ham or bacon, was cooked with similar tokens placed into the dish. HOW SAMHAIN BECAME HALLOWEEN With the coming of Judeo-Christianity to Ireland in the 7th century Pope Boniface IV introduced All Saints Day, a time to honour Judeo-Christian saints and martyrs, to replace the traditional native European festival of the dead. It was originally celebrated on May 13th but in 834 Pope Gregory III moved All Saint Day to 1st November and it became the opportunity to remember all Saints who had died and all of the dead in the Judeo-Christianised community. October 31st became All Hallows Eve (or Halloween)
October/November is also conker picking & soak them in viniger to harden them, put a hole in the middle & put a string in it, & have conker competitions,
Yes the holidays sart earlier and earlier some of the shops in my area had xmas stuff alongside the haloween stuff in September. When i was a kid the tree and decorations went up when we got our advent calendar. And they would come down on 2cnd of January.
This brought back memories of school Halloween partys and having to take your carved turnip/swede with you, with a wee half of a white candle in it, (that was usually reserved for use in a power cut, early 80"s in Edinburgh😂) no tea lights back then, and I wonder how many spoons got bent out of shape trying to carve the thing🤔🤭
I never ate pumpkin pie until I had a colleague who had lived in America, so we celebrated Thanksgiving with her. She had to get a relative to send The can of pumpkin, or find a shop with American goods. She's the only one I've ever had it with. One thing I can't get behind is sweet potato covered in marshmallow baked until it's as hot as lava!!
One Scottish comedian described it as this. “Kids today never learn the pain of life by carving pumpkins instead of neeps. Life is tough, neeps are tough, therefore life is neeps!”
They are known to be the same today by many, it just evolved. Most who celebrate Samhain celebrate very differently ofc. If you want proper info on it I can recommend a very good, thoroughly researched book. There's slightly off info here and it's very simplified. We used to have harvest festival as a big thing in the countryside, sadly this is rarer now, and apple bobbing etc was always a feature. I've carved a swede, it's tough lol pumpkins are much easier. We don't do pumpkin pie. Soup , yes. I made a pumpkin cheesecake one year, very nice. I like roasting the seeds. Halloween is more of a thing now but nothing like America. I loved dressing up and still will haha. I also love decorating and celebrate both festivals. Plus it's my birthday.
I remember carving turnips in the 80s. Pumpkins are readily available now, and so much softer to carve. The kids are still expected to perform at the door - a joke or something. It’s not a holiday; it’s an evening only.
I've heard a bunch of different stuff to do with the apple . One was hold a candle in the mirror whilst eating an apple, and you would see your future spouse over your shoulder. And another was to do with cutting an apple into 9 segments, and as you eat them , your future partner is revealed to you after the 8th piece
I come from the North east of England, we "celebrated " Halloween, but we had many traditions, like 1st footing at New years eve that are Scottish rather than being aligned to the English approach. I used to make "turnip" (swede) lanterns, but in the North East we didn't get the small turnips that are available in the south of England (which is were I have lived for the last 40 years). Carving a Swede is very difficult and at times dangerous as the knife slips and the flesh is too hard to scoop out with a spoon. We now grow pumpkins to eat and to carve. I have tried to make pumpkin pie a couple of times, its very sweet! But I have never found a shop that sells them.
@@suzannewaltom as a 70's and 80's NE kid I had the job of first footing at my grandparents houses on new years day and no one was allowed over the threshold until we arrived with a saucer with a piece of coal, some salt and a coin before letting in the new year. No idea why
@@2old2GAF666 They were to take good luck into the house for the New Year. Coal - so they would never be out of fuel, The salt I assume to represent food. My family always gave the 1st foot a mince pie or piece of Christmas cake (your salt)to represent that the household would always have enough food. Rather than a coin, an alcoholic drink to represent good cheers through out the year. I assume you have dark hair as this was the last requirement of the 1st footer other than it had to be a man. My husband has reminded me the first foot was supposed to be a dark headed stranger, which is why so many people visited each others homes in the small hours of News Year day.
I live in England & growing up from the 70's my mum always stood for ages digging the middle out of a swede & putting a candle in.. every Halloween.. Swedes are so hard it hard work.. we carried them around on a piece of string trick n treating ..
Its definitely more of a big deal in America. I see lots of shows often doing a Halloween gimmick, but you don't really get that over here. I never really see any houses done up for Halloween anymore
It's the opposite back home in Scotland near my parents place. There are streets that are decorating all the houses very intensively! And I notice on social media everyone is taking their kids to "pumpkin patches" on the local farms.
That reminds me, I should have taken a picture of our old neighbors house. She moved, but always goes nuts with her Halloween decorations. 🤣 I've never seen anything quite like it. The City always puts on a contest and I think she wins it almost every year. As for me, we carve three pumpkins, one for each of us, but that's about it. lol
Yup… 1970s Yorkshire….and my mum gave me a spoon to do it with….took me bloomin weeks! The smell of turnips prevails throughout. Also we didn’t have costumes… just eggs to chuck at the neighbours houses. There were no treats…just tricks…heh heh heh.
when we went "trick or treating" we used to sing " The sky is blue the grass is green have you got a penny for halloween. if you havent got a penny a ha'penny will do if you havent got a ha'penny god bless you. a ha'penny is a halfpenny but we pronounced it haypenny because i live up north in stockton on tees between yorkshire and newcastle.
Quite a lot of pagan Celtic traditions have found their way into Christian festivals, as stated in the videos, the easiest way to convert the European pagans to Christianity was adopt and adapt their festivals. For example, Jesus wasn’t likely born on 25th December, the church simply adopted the Yuletide celebrations of the pagan celts. Christmas trees have a pagan origin too and were introduced to the UK by Prince Albert husband of queen Victoria who was German. Queen Victoria popularised other throughout the world.
Tbh everyday is Halloween in our house we put A LOT of decorations up on September the 1st (all indoor) then take them down on January the 2nd having had a black Christmas tree with spooky Christmas decorations. I'd leave them up all year if i didn't feel the need to clean lol.
I live in Dublin, Ireland, and Halloween is still huge here. We have a Public Holiday to celebrate and there's lots of parties, decorated houses and trick or treaters. The original Samhain festival marked the beginning of the Celtic New Year and was a celebration of the dead as the veil between the two worlds was believed to be thinner. There are Neolithic passage tombs that align with the sunrise, and the night was celebrated with bonfires, which still happens today along with fireworks. As well as apples, we have a sweet fruit loaf called a Barm brack, which contains a ring. It's believed that whoever gets the slice of cake with the ring will be married first.. according to my mum, her sister always got the ring, and she was indeed married first in the family!! Happy Halloween to y'all there 🙂
I was carving turnips until the early 2000s, we don't remember seeing pumpkins before then in northwest Rep of Ireland. What made it a bit easier was to buy a large turnip a week or so before Halloween and by Halloween it was a good bit softer to carve. We never put up decorations, it wasn't a thing when I was growing up.
I’m Wiccan and have been for over 60 years, Samhain is my favourite time of the year it marks the end of harvest and the beginning of the darker months. It’s also the time when the veil between those that have died and ourselves is at its thinnest so we are able to commune with departed loved ones, it’s not scary or weird it’s calming and centres me for the coming months. I do this every year but I celebrate all the Sabats
Such a treat to be reminded of Halloween as it was in my childhood in Scotland! Guising, dooking for apples, turnip lanterns - although my mother interpreted the last very flexibly, so if it could be hollowed out, it could be made into a lantern. I remember melons, oranges, beetroot even being carved and producing different coloured glows. Also less hard work than the traditional neep!
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I used to carve Halloween lanterns out of turnips, the smell of the turnip lid being burnt by the candle is so evocative of my childhood Halloweens in the UK.
Same here. Hard work, but I loved the smell.
@@beverleyrankin3482 Me too, I was going to say exactly the same thing
@@clymtcAt school on Tyneside, in 1963, our entire class brought in their turnip lanterns. Late in the afternoon as the light faded in the classroom on an overcast day, under our class teacher's direction, the candles in all 40 of our lanterns were lit. The combined smell of wax, smoke and cooking turnip was overpowering as you can imagine and wafted beyond our classroom.
Swede is called turnip in the North East of England, by the way, as it is in other places. We never used the term "swede".
And me, really hard work carving a turnip!
My husband and I agree 100% we both remember carving turnips. Horrendously time consuming, but worth the effort.
Halloween, otherwise know as 'draw your curtains and switch off the lights night'.
PMSL, that is sooooo true!
Absolutely 😂😂
You know it! 😂
😂
Meany.
I've never even seen a pumpkin pie let alone eaten one.
I've never seen a pumpkin!
You're not missing much 😀
I had a slice of pumpkin pie, made for my workmates and I, one year as a thankyou gift for us teaching an American lady how to ride horses (which she had paid for, and it was our job, in a London riding school, so though her food gift was kind - and tasty - it was unnecessary.
I told my Mum about it and she was quite miffed as she said "I've made pumpkin pie for you before and you said you didn't like it!!"
So my Mum must've made a savoury version, which I didn't like, as the one the American lady made for us at the riding school, was sweet...and very moreish!!!!
Pumpkins were totally unheard of until fairly recently. You couldn't buy them.
Not something I'd like - look like they taste like cucumber which I detest😄
I can smell the burning turnip right now. Once smelt, never forgotten. Exactly how I never lost a finger whilst trying to carve one is beyond me. Tough going, but rather satisfying when you discover a technique that works!
I LOVE these two genuine, non-fake, original Americans, I watch some other RUclips channels BUT these two find and watch things no other channel does, for eg three other channels, one by one have reacted to "dire straits, brothers in arms", keep on finding and watching original content you two and stay happy, safe and healthy ALL three of you ✌️
When I was little in the Highlands of Scotland in the 1970s, we went guising, did the song, dance or told a bad joke to earn our rewards, which were often, Apples, Peanuts in shells, some sweets and a few coins, occasionally other nuts and fruits were included. My sisters and I would come home with 1 or even 2, full carrier bags of this and it kept us going for the next couple of weeks or more. Edit: Our Turnips (they were actually the Swede variety) were a fair bit larger than the one in this video, closer to the size of that pumpkin.
The turnip v swede is still confusing to some people, down south they call a turnip a swede turnips were called tonjies in our Yorkshire slang
@@dcallan812 They are called Tumshies in the part of Scotland I'm from.
I remember Guising in the 1950’s in Central Scotland. Children dressed in adults old clothes with soot blackened faces, to disguise them from the spirits out that night, would come round he houses. They always had to do a song, a joke or recite a poem before they got peanuts or apples. Indoors we dooked for apples in a basin of water and told spooky stories. I miss the magical otherworldliness that’s lost in the commercialism of today.
Same here. Every year we went guising with a cardboard false face and home made costumes some mothers had amazing talent for making them. We had to do something, tell a joke or singing a song and got apples and nuts. Played dooking for apples or treacle scone. Had to have the candle in the turnip lantern with a hole in the top to let the smoke out. 🥜🥜😂😂
I knew a guy at schoo whose nickname was tumshie. Think it was the shape of his heed @TheJpf79
Yeah, growing up in the 80s in Glasgow we'd go out guising and you absolutely needed to sing a song, or tell a joke before you got anything, and you'd go into the house, not just stand at the door and expect sweets. Some houses they'd have bowls for dooking for apples, or sometimes on a string up high. As much as you got sweets, the main thing was nuts (monkey nuts/peanuts, or hazelnuts), or you got hit with Brazil nuts and walnuts which you could never open. Bonus points if you got a toffee apple (candy apple).
And I definitely went through the pain of carving a turnip (Swede if you're English). Don't think I saw a pumpkin til mid 80s.
😂 The pain trying to carve our turnips was so real they are rock hard xx
I'm an old UK lady, known to be a bit eccentric. On Hallow'een Night, I wear a floor length black dress, a grotesque witch's mask and a big pointy hat with long green hair attached. When young ones knock on my door, dressed in scary costumes, I scare them back, which is hilarious
My kinda person lol😂
You say eccentric I say epic stay spooky duck 😂.
Hahaa brilliant 🎃👍I love Halloween too
@@ElunedLaine hilarious 😂 🤣😆🤣 I used to love scaring Halloweeners
Excellent 👌 lol. Nice to see you get in the spirit.
In my native Wales, 31st Oct/1st Nov is called Calan Gaeaf (Winter's eve festival), when the harvest had been gathered in and the seasonal workers were paid off. As these workers were bade good-bye, not knowing if we'd see them next harvest, we thought also of those who had died the past year, to whom we'd also said farewell. My nain (grandmother) told me that it used to be a tradition to host a meal for the departing workers. The meal was comprised of the fruits of the harvest, both mutton and a mixture of nine root vegetables, mashed together with milk, butter and herbs. It was called Stwnsh Naw Rhyw (literally, mash of nine things). 🏴
I was always told that it was the Irish🇮🇪, not the Scots, who started the Halloween tradition... This is the first time I've ever heard it had originated in Scotland🏴 ... 🤔🥺
Both countries claim its origins. While it seemed to originated as per evidence around the same century, it had a stronger following in Scotland, so most historians believe it probably originated from Scotland. It was also followed in the north of France, so maybe even originated from there.
It's a pagan celebration. I think after the Roman invasion paganism was killed off and pushed out of England where it then clung on in the Celtic areas of Scotland and Ireland.
Same here
it was called all sants day untill the scots got holed of it
@@stevensmiththebrit
*hold. What got "holed" was the RMS Titanic
I can remember trying to carve a swede/rutabaga as a child. It was such a pain because of how many times the knife would slip, I'm surprised that I've got any fingers left!!!
Probarly could be done under a magnifying glass
Mangel Wurzels = Turnips.
@@susanwestern6434Definitely turnips
Cattle fodder = turnips.
A swede is a type of turnip. A turnip is not a swede. @@susanwestern6434
I've never carved a pumpkin, but definitely carved turnips as a kid. It's bloody difficult scooping the inside out with a spoon too :) Also they look far more sinister than pumpkins
The smell of scorched turnip is one that is never forgotten!
@@carlh429you're so right
Growing up in Norfolk we used sugar beets to carve out and the smell was also great
Everything here in the UK as well drags out for ages. Fireworks go off for weeks before Guy Fawkes Night/Bornfire Night for example, as well as Xmas, Halloween celebrations etc. It was never like that when I was a kid in the 70s.
Yep... I carved turnips throughout my childhood... would take all night lol!
I am an over 70 year old lady who was a child in Scotland. We did all these things for Halloween. Dug out turnips which was hard and took forever, cooking for apples for no reason but to see how good you were, dress up in anything dark we could get our hands on, and wore a mask. We went around the village and asked for our Halloween . You were invited in to the house , then you had to do something to get your treat. It could be sing a song on your own OR with other friends, tell a joke,do a bit of dancing. You only got a treat after you were finished.
It was definitely worth it to get some homemade toffee, OR delicious homemade tablet!!! When I got older and was the age to receive the children, I made tablet, and word got around as to which house had tablet, kids told each other in passing on the street. Needless to say it did not last very long. This has brought back many memories of living in a small village where all the families knew each other well. So was always safe to go out with a friend !!!!
Growing up for me Halloween was something that I ONLY saw on American TV programmes. It seems that as shops realized they could sell more things based around this event that it has become more popular. WIth all these types of events I expect you will find that the modern celebrations are adaptations of much older celebrations that have been taken over.
Its the same with everything, all about consumerism for business and money. We used to love making our costumes with our mums help when I was wee. Didn't need much to have fun but it wasn't about looking the part, just fun and exciting. Now it's very different but i still love Halloween
Stores around here definitely milk all the holidays, including Halloween. It's like non stop holidays. 🤣
My mum always carved turnips for us... my daughter still does now. She prefers to celebrate Halloween in the old ways. The only thing is turnips are so much harder to carve out. But the smell of them heating up with an inside candle brings back memories. We used to always do duck apples too, or bobbing for apples. Apples are floated on water and you have to grip the apples out of the water with your teeth. I always found the easiest way to do that was to hold ya nose and duck right to the bottom of the container holding the water. Then squish the apple on the bottom so it can't bob away. The only thing is, it gets water everywhere. Very fun though :D
I haven't bobbed for apples in forever, but that's actually a really great idea. Head right to the bottom and get the apple.
It's interesting that you say Christmas starts after Thanksgiving in the US these days. I remember as a kid watching American films and TV programmes that were set at Christmas time, and it always seemed that everyone put their Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve, and then the adults would be back at work on the day after Christmas (what we know as Boxing Day). I used to feel sorry for you for having such short Christmases!
In my experience of Christmases here in the UK, the decorations always went up at least a couple of weeks before Christmas, then the country would pretty much shut down from Christmas Eve to the day after New Year's Day, with many taking advantage of the three public holidays (four in Scotland these days), meaning that you only need to take three days of your leave entitlement to have over a week off work. That was something my parents always did, and something I still do to this day. 😊
Yeah carving out a turnip is a pain in the ass, I used to do it a lot when I was a kid.
A preferred "Penny For The Guy" growing up
Guy falks so different
It’s Pagan. It’s good now that there are more and more Pagans and it’s a recognised religion. You peel an apple, trying to keep the skin in one part then throw the peel in water and it would show the initial of your true love. When I was little we would carve turnips. Usually these days if a house is decorated you can go to it, otherwise, people don’t go to it.
'Pagan' isnt a religion.... there are many diffferent types of pagan religions, but they aren't 'pagans'
@@AlwaysRightAllNight ask the Pagan Federation about that
@@helenroberts1107The above commenter is technically right. I'm a practicing "pagan", but this is an umbrella term for all indigenous pre-Christian European religions and some New Age. It isn't ONE religion. I practice Anglo-Saxon heathenry (or paganism) which is very different from Celtic forms of paganism, like Irish or Welsh, with very different holidays and gods. And then you have new age types of paganism invented over the past century like Wicca.
I remember in the 70's sat the kitchen table armed with a knife and a metal spoon and a huge solid turnip to carve out. It was hard going and blisters were common 😅 but it was all worth it when we went outside and lit the candle and got the spooky glow and weird smell of the turnip and candle. I can still remember the smell 😊
yeah hah
A smell never forgotten, and the sight of the blackened turnip lid.
So in the US, if any resident answered the door and the kids asked "Trick or Treat?" And they answered "Trick", this would cause a major problem because the kids had no joke, song, or whatever prepared?!?
Scotland 🏴 here.. We used turnips when i was wee.. Called it Guising (in disguise) not trick or treat lol
I always keep a bucket of water by the front door at this time of year!
I remember when young we carved a turnip
Me too, but it was so difficult in comparison with carving a pumpkin!
Same here my dad used to carve a turnip and the contents were cooked with carrots and used as part of our meal that night.
Not something I have tried, but next time I buy a turnip I might give it a go.
@@medic1627 You might actually need a medic if you do. All I remember is almost breaking my wrists, and a fear of losing fingers.
As a kid in the early 70's, two things stood out having turnip lanterns. The first was the wrist breaking effort to carve them but the strongest memory was the delicious smell that emanated as the candle inside slowly scorched the remaining turnip flesh.
As a Scot, I can confirm that as you went door to door to get Halloween treats (which included fruit and monkey nuts as well as sweets) you had to either sing a song, tell a joke or do a trick to get something in return. Also Halloween parties almost always had dookin for apples.
Growing up in Sussex during the 1950s I don't recall marking Halloween. We marked Bonfire Night and made a guy and would go around the neighbourhood saying 'penny for the guy' The Guy would then go on the top of the Bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night. Guising is an ancient custom I think
Neeps are also known as swede in England and are orange fleshed when cooked (rutabaga). Turnips are white fleshed. Neeps and tatties(swede and mashed potato) are served on burns night with haggis.
And damn fine dish may I add 😋 yum yum
A Swede is a turnip, just a different variety.
A Swede is a turnip variety.
In American English they're known as rutabaga.
Where I live Turnips have orange flesh and swedes are white but the its different if if you drive 5 miles down the road. Same as baps, teacakes, breadcakes we're a nation divided by a common language
Ahh ! The original “ Jack o Lantern “ made from a turnip or Scottish word Tumshie , Neep . , I speak as a Scot who grew up with these .
Sliced near the top for a future lid , carved out and a candle placed inside a hole on either side near the top for a string handle for carrying .
Was a task carving out your turnip and attaching your string to take your lantern out with you as a kid. Trick or treating used to be massively popular in the 80s and 90s where i am in Lancashire.
It was a good time, I loved it in 70's and 80's Durham
Apples as a metaphor for love (the forbidden fruit) comes from the temptation of Eve in the garden of Eden.
In Scotland our teachers always made us learn a Halloween poem in school so that we had something to say when we went out guising. The older kids would always take the younger kids out and look after them as they went out and about.
Edit: added note about apples
I am 58, from the north east of England.
We dressed as witches, ghosts, spiders etc. Carved our turnips - southerners call them swedes - which needed an adult because turnip (rutabaga) is rock-hard.... pumpkins didn't grow here.
The smell of burning turnip (rutabaga) was lovely, as we tore around playing 'knocky-door-neighbour' - knocking on the door and running away while cackling and laughing, 'incognito'.
We played 'dookie apple' and Mr. Bainbridge set up a brazier in the middle of our street where we toasted marshmallows if we had 'dooked' for apples successfully... or half-drowned ourselves... or looked as though we were about to cry.
We had a 'Mr Bainbridge' in our street. Other streets were available, but less fun.
Sounds like some really great memories. I've never smelled turnip burning before, we're going to have to try carving one of those.
@@reactingtomyroots Ha! Best of British luck to you!
I remember when moving to the Midlands asking for a turnip and being given a swede. Did you light your sparklers through the nose?
@@kimberleyelizabethbailes-ql9qk Hilarious!
We are all being swamped by the standardisation of English. But, hey ho, it's not all bad.
'American English', 'Australian English', 'Kiwi English', 'Caribbean English', 'Geordie English', 'Cockney English', 'Franglais', 'Double Dutch', 'Germanic nonsense', 'Indian English' and every other 'abomination'... is ... welcome to contribute.
Our (English) language is ever-changing.
Nothing is 'right' and nothing is 'wrong', it's just atune to what is 'commonly' accepted/understood.
North of the Humber 'turnips' are brown/purple with orange flesh. South of the Humber, 'turnips' are pink and white, with white flesh and to be quite frank, I have no idea what they taste like.
If you served the 'white flesh' variety at a 'Burn's Night' (Haggis, neeps and tatties) you would have failed.
If you tried to make a Halloween lantern out of them, you're an artist!
Standard English is like 'The Borg' - resistance is futile.
@@kimberleyelizabethbailes-ql9qk To be quite honest, I know that pink and white root vegetables exist, but I am not entirely sure that I have ever eaten one.
Turnip, on the other hand, is a staple of a Sunday Dinner, boiled until soft and mashed with butter and pepper.
Roast potatoes, mashed potatoes (cream and butter added), roasted parsnips, cauliflower cheese... and 'greens' - broccoli/ peas/mangetout/runner beans - fresh minted - and/or, cabbage - steamed, then fried in butter and whole-grain mustard - and the ubiquitous carrot... for colour (perk it up with a bit of orange juice, honey and butter). And/or, sweet potatoes - mashed with butter and maple syrup.
Roast the 'roast' - Beef/Lamb/Pork/Chicken/Nut - throw in the Yorkshire puddings which are made with an egg, an eggs-worth of milk and an eggs-worth of flour per three Yorkshires. If Americans insist on using 'cups', I can use 'eggs' as a measure.
Then, make the gravy. Sorry, but that is dependent upon the 'roast' and I can't be arsed to elaborate.
After all that, the simple answer to your question is 'no'.
I expect my guisers to recite a wee poem or sing a song. Nowadays, they tell terrible jokes. I dress up my living room and do a window display around the middle of October. It's my favourite time of the year. We used to carve neeps. I tried a pumpkin once but prefer turnip. Happy Halloween!
In south west England (which is “Celtic” culturally), everybody celebrated Halloween. At primary school we’d bring our turnips in and carve them - (before risk assessments were invented). Hands used to ache for days afterwards. We would then put the lantern in the window at home, light the fire, turn off the lights and put candles up, occasionally dress as ghosts, tell ghost stories, bob for apples and I seem to remember making toffee apples some years. There was no trick or treating or dressing in stupid irrelevant costumes - Halloween was purely about ghosts and spirits. It was a lot of fun and helped make Autumn something to look forward to for us kids.
Here in Northern Ireland when I was young we carved turnips, dressed up, went round houses singing Halloween songs and got apples, oranges and peanuts as a reward.. we also visited houses and played bobbing for apples etc and played pranks. It was was all great innocent fun. It's all very commercialised now and I suspect children don't have as much fun as we did.
The big festival in Derry is good
Sounds like a good time. I still can't imagine carving a turnip though, they seem so hard. We're going to have to give that a go at some point just to see what it's like.
@reactingtomyroots it was dangerous when I think about it, and if took ages to hollow it out, but they looked brilliant, very rustic 😂😂😂
It is really good... And apparently the biggest celebration in Europe too @@Deranged316
@@reactingtomyroots 😂😂😂
It'll be fun but make sure you set aside an entire evening, those things are TOUGH to hollow out. Mum and Dad always ended up finishing the hollowing job for me and wee sis to come back for the fun part of carving the face. Ah good times
Most Christmas trees go up the week before Christmas in the uk and come down on 12th night. Halloween is only one night.
Yes older generations find it quite gauche when people put their trees early too 😂 I don’t mind it, but I wait till it’s mid December so I can enjoy my tree before travelling to my family for Christmas
@@sarahkelly473 In our house it was always 12 days before and after Christmas, Halloween was always a one day event, ok maybe the preparations started a few days prior, but not weeks before, unlike now with Christmas, some shops local had Christmas decorations on sale in mid September WTF !!!
In my family the artificial tree and the other decorations were kept in the attic or later in the loft(roof space) and we didn’t bring them down stairs until Christmas Eve usually around 1 or 2 in the afternoon and the paper chains and the holly branches which were cut off local trees were pinned to the walls and around mirrors and picture frames would be the first decorations to be put in place but the tree was left untouched until after the evening meal. Once the table was cleared and the washing up was completed then the tree was erected on the table and we all would sit around the table and start hanging the bauble’s on the tree and draping the tinsel over the branches. Once completed dad would pick up the tree by the base to carry it to the location that we had pre-selected and that is where it would remain until the evening of the twelfth night of Christmas when we
would return the tree and the other decorations to their hiding place. By dawn on the 13 day of Christmas every trace of the seasons festivities would be gone.
As a child I was always told that it was bad luck to have the Christmas tree up outside of the 12 days of Christmas, so ours went up on Christmas Eve and came down on 12th night. It kept it special, whereas today Christmas is 'diluted' over such a long period for some people it seems a shame.
@@MisterChrisInTheUK I think it loses a lot of the excitement with the way Christmas seems to start in the middle of October for stores and the likes, as a child growing up, Christmas was full of anticipation and excitement, when the tree went up 12 nights before christmas, and to get up on Christmas morning and find all those presents under the tree, and the mince pie's and carrots left out for santa and the dears were gone too
I always thought it was Baldrick who started the tradition of turnip carving.
You need to check out a video on Halloween in Derry. It’s the biggest Halloween festival in Europe.
First off. We DON'T call it a " holiday" . We call it a celebration , just like CHRISTMAS, NEW YEAR and EASTER are celebrations also.
I'm 69, and being Scottish we always used a turnip, as pumpkins were not available in the UK.
There was none of this dressing up as super heroes or film characters etc either. We call it " GUISING". A form of the word DISGUISING.
We used to say " the sky is blue, the grass is green, may we have our Halloween".
It took ages to carve the NEEP as it's a lot denser and harder than a pumpkin. They used to be a round shape when I was a lad NOT pointy. We used to get them from my dad's vegetable plot.
I can still remember the lovely smell of the turnip lantern and having to keep running home to get your candle re-lit because we weren't allowed matches. And mischievous night the night before bonfire night.
When I was a child we used to say, the sky is blue, the grass is green, may we have our Halloween,
Born in 1956 the UK, the most we celebrated Halloween was hollowing out a Swede(turnip) and putting a candle in it, if you have ever tried that you can imagine how many times we just gave up, on a whole Halloween passed us by, Bonfire Night was brilliant, the whole family in our back garden with fireworks and a small bonfire, mom cooking all day, Sausage whirls, cheese straws, then freshly made hotdogs, Proper sausage and fried onions, not horrible wet boiled onions, you are right about holidays stretching out, all about the money! Christmas me and my siblings went to bed Christmas Eve, everything normal, my parents would stay up bringing the 6ft tree in, decorating it and decorating the room with crepe paper garlands and balloons, dad used to put our presents on the foot of our bed for us to wake up to, children today have had the excitement taken out of everything, by Christmas day everyone just wants it to be over, it's a shame, there is such joy in simplicity, but that doesn't make enough money in our materialistic world.
Born in the same year as you and don’t remember doing anything other than collecting bonfire wood and making a Guy for 5th November. Plack peas baked potatoes Parkin and treacle toffees were the food’s of choice in our house
It was only in the seventies when I was in the sixth form that we would do something at school to entertain the younger kids
@@susansmiles2242 I'm not saying everyone celebrated bonfire night that way, it may have been just my family, but there was around 100 houses in our street and most celebrated, I started work in 1971 and that bought about completely different works parties.
'Neeps' are turnips in Scotland. Some parts of the U.K. they are 'swedes' (in the U.S.A. they use the German 'rutabaga'.
neeps are cooked and mashed turnips, but a raw whole turnip is just called a turnip
No, what Scots call neeps are swedes (full name, Swedish turnips)
Highlander here. Swedes are a larger slightly sweeter variety of Turnip (from Sweden), they are not the same.
When Swedes were introduced to Britain from Scandinavia they were initially known as Swedish turnips. in most of the UK this was shortened to Swedes whereas Scotland shortened the turnip part of the name to Neeps. As a child I was used to carving Swedes for halloween as Turnips are too small.
Turnips and Swedes are different things in the UK. Swede is not a regional name for turnips
The turnip lantern was a lot more difficult to make than one made with a pumpkin.
I learned some very ‘ interesting ‘ words from my father sometimes when he’s was carving it.
When I was a child we lived by a very old Castle mainly ruins, but on Halloween or All Hallow Eve as my folks called it we would walk to the castle and scare ourselves silly very joyful memories. But no trick or treating never a thing then
I'm from Yorkshire, (the place I'm from was a small village originally, but is now an outer suburb of a large city).
In our village, we celebrated Mischievous Night and Halloween on Oct 29th/31st respectively.
On Mischievous Night, kids would tie their neighbours door handles together & play "knack-door-run" or throw eggs at houses.
On Halloween, we carved turnips/Swedes for lanterns, as pumpkins aren't native to the UK.Turnips smell divine once the candles are lit inside them. I've only seen pumpkins in the shops for the last 15 yrs or so.
The inside of the turnip was usually boiled with carrots or potatoes & mashed with butter, salt & pepper to go with a hearty stew for the evening meal, known as tea in Yorkshire (we have dinner as a mid-day meal).
It's traditional in Yorkshire to make Parkin, the week before Halloween, it's a sticky ginger cake made with black treacle & golden syrup as well as ginger. After baking, it was wrapped in greaseproof paper & put in a cake tin, over the next week the cake became softer & more sticky... it's still a big favourite here in Yorkshire.
We also had Bonfire toffee, which is a hard toffee made with black treacle & we ate toffee apples too. Parkin, Bonfire toffee & toffee apples are still eaten today at Halloween & also on November 5th, Guy Fawkes night (also a Yorkshireman).
I remember bobbing for apples on Halloween & girls that peeled apples in a graveyard, throwing the peel on the ground to see who their true love would be, or they looked through their dressing table mirror at midnight eating an apple to see the face of their future husband.
The more superstitious folk always warned of going out after midnight as that was when the Wild Hunt took place & the Lord of the Hunt on his horse would take you to his layer in the underworld, he was said to be a headless horseman.
I also remember seeing people have iron horse shoes above the lintel of their doors so that fairies couldn't take children on Halloween or on May 1st, both nights when the veil between our world & the spirit world is thinner, as iron was said to be poisonous to the fey. Brides were usually given an iron horse shoe on their wedding day to place over the door lintel of their new home to bring luck & keep the fairies out. Which is why silver coloured cardboard covered horse shoes are still given to brides on their wedding day now.
Bonfires we're lit at Halloween & people would throw a stone into the edge of the fire, if they could find it the next morning, they were said to have good luck for the next year.
As far as I know, Halloween has always been celebrated in the north of England, Scotland & Ireland. The Welsh had Nos Galen Gaeth (? not sure of the spelling, apologies to Wales xx).
As Scotland ruled the north of England & was linked to Ireland in ancient times, it would make sense to have similar customs that crossed over & ones that are still carried on today.
There's an old saying about eat an apple thinking about the one you fancy, throw an apple pip in the fire after saying if he loves me pop and fly, if he doesn't lay and die.
In modern Irish Samhain is also the word for November. Halloween is Oíche Shamhna which means "Night of Samhain". Btw your pronunciation of Samhain is perfect ❤
My grandad used to carve turnips for me in the late 80's. I was in my 20's when I first ever carved a pumpkin for my daughter.
The idea of trick or treating, was because as the guest you had to show your worthiness to receive the hospitality of the house. As such the guisers would give some form of entertainment. Once done they would receive a “treat” from the house. A coin, or food to sustain them on their travels and a drink before leaving. If they left without a treat, the spirits protecting the house would see them as unworthy and punish them for their bad manners by playing a “trick” on them. When I was a child, in the highlands of Scotland, all children would be sure not to risk the wrath of mischievous spirits so would be sure to practice what they would do to entertain at each house, so it was a good standard. Schools would allow children to practice songs for 2-3 weeks before Halloween. The guisers were always dressed as spooky people as they had to pass unhindered by the dead or those that commune with the dead (Witches, Warlocks etc), so did so by pretending to be one of them. The lanterns were carried for protection, and placed at entrance to house to welcome the spirits of the house to find their way home. Actually there is a dispute about which country it originated in with Scotland, Ireland and the North of France laying claim to its origins. Unfortunately historians can’t say for sure which country it was, as all have evidence of it being celebrated around the same century, and it’s so far back, they can’t narrow it down more than that. They know it’s Celtic origin (although some things may have stemmed from other countries like the bobbing for apples with was Roman). It believed it probably originated in Scotland by the majority of historians, simply because more evidence exists of it being celebrated in Scot than in other countries from the earliest evidence. But this is assumption based on the amount of references found to its celebration rather than known fact.
Its never been American - as a child we would have mischief night,, roast chestnuts, have duck apple and carve turnips into jack o lanterns 🏴🇬🇧
We saved horse chestnuts for Bon fire night, with jacket spuds, soup, treacle toffee and Parkin cake!
Oh yes have them again too! We'd stick the spuds in the fire but never tasted good! Happy days
Sweet chestnuts not horse they are full of toxins and inedible for humans
The commercial part is most assuredly American, though.
@@chadjcraselike everything else ;
A shop i went to in September was taking their Halloween range down to make way for their xmas range and you can buy easter eggs from Xmas till a day or two before easter. If you leave it till the day before, you have to actually hunt multiple shops to find any. Its crazy.😂
As a child in Northern Ireland many years ago we always celebrated Halloween but England didn't . They had Guy Fawks night instead . As far as I can see Halloween went from here to America and then , in recent years , to England , bigger and better than ever . I see now that it was also Scottish as well as Irish .
I think the Liverpool/Wirral area did. My mum always carved out turnips etc, for Halloween. We still celebrated Bonfire Night too, and whatever else cropped up was included.
Hallowe'en was celebrated in England by the early 70s.
I live in Lancashire and we celebrated Halloween in the 1950's when I was a child. I remember getting blisters from carving my turnip lantern
I remember carving a turnip and how hard it was to do and the putrid smell of rotting vegetables once it was lit.
Yes & because they were little, we actually carried them with us when we went Halloweening. They were very hard to carve.
I didnt see my first pumpkin until I was 19 & that was back in 1991 haha
For us, Guy Fawkes night, November 5th 'bonfire night' was the bigger celebration.
Us kids of the 60's - 70's used to carve out turnips with our penknives made in Sheffield. We'd eat the excavated flesh too, no lunch, just bellyache that day.
I think the usual go to video for learning about Bonfire Night is by Biographics
"Guy Fawkes and the Conspiracy of the Gunpowder Plot"
Pumpkins were not a common grown item back in the day, turnips were cheap and available. They were a vicious beast to carve though and got so many cuts from doing it ….
I was born in 1954. Growing up in Yorkshire we never did Halloween. I also never heard of pumpkins. On November 4th we had mischief night where we played tricks on people and on November 5th we had Bonfire night. I think we were Americanised in the early 80s and our kids started with Halloween trick or treating.
I was going to mention the same, mischief night, went out annoying people, eggs on windows, knock door run.
Ha yeah, mischief night :D we always used to plan things, then get grounded. Used to make the turnip(swede?) lanterns growing up near Wetherby(yorks), even did a spooky night(well evening) walk down the probably ancient path down to the river.... pitch black apart from the candles, it was scary for a kid. We tried doing trick or treat as teens, but most of the adults hadn't watched ET so had no idea what was going on!
I kinda enjoy the night now, but I normally miss it due to work, we get a few young kids in costume knock on the door (with mums) and hand out some sweets (and if there left, oh no, I have to eat them ;) ). I had to tone down my outfit though, once scared the bejesus out of a kid :D.
I did one halloween in america due to work.. It was amazing how people went into the office dressed in costume!
In the south west we'd carved mangolds, a type of root vegetable that was grown for animal feed. It was a pretty hazardous business, as the shape is not even, so my dad mainly did the carving!
Northern Ireland we used Turnip (Swede) as a lantern. Pumpkin wasn't native to the UK or Ireland. Children don't trick or treat... they go "Halloweening" dressed up they knock door and sing a song for sweets and money. The song goes.. "Halloween is coming and the Geece are getting fat, would you please put a penny in the old man's hat. If you havnt got a penny a happany will do. If you havnt got a happany, God Bless you and the Old man too."
Yip, Halloween was a big thing when I was a kid in N.I.
Used to be very big in NI but died a death due to the firework ban, very rare to even see a bonfire nowadays though the big event in London/derry is well worth a visit weather providing.
@@georgebarnes8163 lmao I hear nothing but fireworks round my way every night. Ban dosnt stop them haha
Same here in North Wales. Remember all too well my Mum yelling at me for bending her spoons from trying to hollow out turnips 😂
I'm from Northern Ireland and never once had kids singing at my door or called it Halloweening, it was always trick or treating.
I used to carve turnips as a kid in 70s & 80s - pumpkins didn’t commonly show up until I was in my teens. Carving a turnip will keep a kid occupied for hours….
Dooking or bobbing for apples was a staple at every Hallowe’en party growing up - mostly as an excuse for small kids to waterboard their friends but also fairly cheap & easy for adults to organise. The other staple was eating donuts or scones suspended on strings with no hands.
Guising was and still is huge in Scotland. I had 50+ kids at my door this year until I ran out of sweets. It’s no longer mandatory to do a turn to earn your treat but it’s still fairly common. About half the wee guisers told me a joke as their ‘party piece’ but there were a couple of dances too. I’ve had poems or songs in the past too.
Pumpkin pie ive never had. Loads of apple pies yum
In Ireland at Halloween we have a sweet loaf of bread called Barn Brack which has a ring placed in it before baking. Who ever finds the ring (and doesn't break their teeth) will be married within the year.
My granny used to do this but do it in an apple tart instead lol
The Real Story of Europe's Traditional Samhain Festival (Origins of Halloween)
Long before the modern judeo-Christian corruption called Halloween the Ancient European Celts were celebrating Samhain a great druidic festival that marked the boundary between our world and the spirit world.
In druidic times Samhain marked the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year. The Celtic New Year Eve was a mysterious moment which belonged neither to the past nor the present. Samhain was considered the third and last harvest of the growing year. Fruit and nuts were the last gifts of nature to be gathered and the apple in particular was the symbol of this harvest.
Traditionally great bonfires were lit at Samhain upon which in druidic times animal sacrifices were offered to ensure that the winters reign was not unending.
FEILE NA MARBH - the dead walk abroad
At Samhain the spirits of the dead sought the warmth of the fireside and communion with their living kin. This time was also known as Féile na Marbh (the Feast of the Dead). As the veil between worlds thinned, all manner of spirits walked abroad at Samhain, including those of loved ones passed on. An empty chair by the fire was often left free along with a candle in the window to guide the ghosts home for comfort and seek their blessing for the coming year. In time the candle was placed inside a turnip lantern upon which a demon (Jewish) face was carved to scare off unfriendly spirits.
The tradition of wearing of costumes and masks at Samhain developed to deceive these same unfriendly spirits lest they recognised you and called you to the Otherworld before your time. Nervous living folk would attempt to appease the wandering spirit with gifts of fruit and nuts.
APPLE MAGIC
Samhain was also a time for divination and apples were predominant among the tools used to tell the future. Bobbing for apples or snapapple (duck apple) was used as a race among unmarried contestants the winner who took the first bite of the apple was destined to be the first to wed, alternatively the winner was destined for good luck in the coming year. An unmarried girl would attempt to peel an apple in one long strip and cast the peel over her shoulder. The peel would reveal the initial of her future husband. Before the stroke of midnight a person would sit in a room in front of a mirror lit by only one candle and cut an apple into nine pieces. With their back to the mirror they would ask the question they wanted answered and eat eight of the apple pieces. The ninth would be thrown over their left shoulder. Then they would turn and look over the same shoulder into the mirror where they would see a symbol or image that would answer their question.
BARM BRACK
A fruit loaf called barm brack was baked at Samhain with tokens wrapped in greaseproof paper. If you found a token in your slice of barm brack this also foretold your future. The type of tokens varied by family but common examples were:
A ring marriage within the year
A silver coin riches
A rag or pea poverty
A stick an unhappy marriage
In some areas Colcannon, a dish of mashed potatoes, cabbage with either ham or bacon, was cooked with similar tokens placed into the dish.
HOW SAMHAIN BECAME HALLOWEEN
With the coming of Judeo-Christianity to Ireland in the 7th century Pope Boniface IV introduced All Saints Day, a time to honour Judeo-Christian saints and martyrs, to replace the traditional native European festival of the dead. It was originally celebrated on May 13th but in 834 Pope Gregory III moved All Saint Day to 1st November and it became the opportunity to remember all Saints who had died and all of the dead in the Judeo-Christianised community. October 31st became All Hallows Eve (or Halloween)
October/November is also conker picking & soak them in viniger to harden them, put a hole in the middle & put a string in it, & have conker competitions,
Yes the holidays sart earlier and earlier some of the shops in my area had xmas stuff alongside the haloween stuff in September. When i was a kid the tree and decorations went up when we got our advent calendar. And they would come down on 2cnd of January.
Years ago we never gave Halloween a thought. We had bonfire night with fireworks.
Dont go up on dartmoor on haloween the hairy hands and fairies will lead you astray.
Piskies. In the West Country.
@susanwestern6434 and dartmoor fairies 🧚♂️. Pixie led is a term we use in devon
This brought back memories of school Halloween partys and having to take your carved turnip/swede with you, with a wee half of a white candle in it, (that was usually reserved for use in a power cut, early 80"s in Edinburgh😂) no tea lights back then, and I wonder how many spoons got bent out of shape trying to carve the thing🤔🤭
I never ate pumpkin pie until I had a colleague who had lived in America, so we celebrated Thanksgiving with her. She had to get a relative to send The can of pumpkin, or find a shop with American goods. She's the only one I've ever had it with.
One thing I can't get behind is sweet potato covered in marshmallow baked until it's as hot as lava!!
One Scottish comedian described it as this. “Kids today never learn the pain of life by carving pumpkins instead of neeps. Life is tough, neeps are tough, therefore life is neeps!”
They are known to be the same today by many, it just evolved. Most who celebrate Samhain celebrate very differently ofc.
If you want proper info on it I can recommend a very good, thoroughly researched book.
There's slightly off info here and it's very simplified.
We used to have harvest festival as a big thing in the countryside, sadly this is rarer now, and apple bobbing etc was always a feature.
I've carved a swede, it's tough lol pumpkins are much easier.
We don't do pumpkin pie. Soup , yes. I made a pumpkin cheesecake one year, very nice.
I like roasting the seeds.
Halloween is more of a thing now but nothing like America.
I loved dressing up and still will haha. I also love decorating and celebrate both festivals. Plus it's my birthday.
I remember carving turnips in the 80s. Pumpkins are readily available now, and so much softer to carve.
The kids are still expected to perform at the door - a joke or something.
It’s not a holiday; it’s an evening only.
I very much doubt that Rabbie Burns wrote a poem in 1759 as that is the year in which he was born. The poem was written in 1785.
I dont know how my dad managed to scrape out a turnip but I used to love the smell of the candle burning the lid.
I've heard a bunch of different stuff to do with the apple . One was hold a candle in the mirror whilst eating an apple, and you would see your future spouse over your shoulder. And another was to do with cutting an apple into 9 segments, and as you eat them , your future partner is revealed to you after the 8th piece
im 51 turnip carving was the done thing in the UK during the 80's, we never had pumpkins over here until mid-late 90's
I come from the North east of England, we "celebrated " Halloween, but we had many traditions, like 1st footing at New years eve that are Scottish rather than being aligned to the English approach. I used to make "turnip" (swede) lanterns, but in the North East we didn't get the small turnips that are available in the south of England (which is were I have lived for the last 40 years). Carving a Swede is very difficult and at times dangerous as the knife slips and the flesh is too hard to scoop out with a spoon. We now grow pumpkins to eat and to carve.
I have tried to make pumpkin pie a couple of times, its very sweet! But I have never found a shop that sells them.
@@suzannewaltom as a 70's and 80's NE kid I had the job of first footing at my grandparents houses on new years day and no one was allowed over the threshold until we arrived with a saucer with a piece of coal, some salt and a coin before letting in the new year. No idea why
@@2old2GAF666 They were to take good luck into the house for the New Year. Coal - so they would never be out of fuel, The salt I assume to represent food. My family always gave the 1st foot a mince pie or piece of Christmas cake (your salt)to represent that the household would always have enough food. Rather than a coin, an alcoholic drink to represent good cheers through out the year.
I assume you have dark hair as this was the last requirement of the 1st footer other than it had to be a man.
My husband has reminded me the first foot was supposed to be a dark headed stranger, which is why so many people visited each others homes in the small hours of News Year day.
@@suzannewaltom your husband's absolutely right! Haha thanks for the info it's been really nostalgic
I live in England & growing up from the 70's my mum always stood for ages digging the middle out of a swede & putting a candle in.. every Halloween.. Swedes are so hard it hard work.. we carried them around on a piece of string trick n treating ..
Its definitely more of a big deal in America. I see lots of shows often doing a Halloween gimmick, but you don't really get that over here. I never really see any houses done up for Halloween anymore
It's the opposite back home in Scotland near my parents place. There are streets that are decorating all the houses very intensively! And I notice on social media everyone is taking their kids to "pumpkin patches" on the local farms.
@@andrewcoogans471I'm 8n kent England and plenty of pumpkin patches here and very busy too. 😊
That reminds me, I should have taken a picture of our old neighbors house. She moved, but always goes nuts with her Halloween decorations. 🤣 I've never seen anything quite like it. The City always puts on a contest and I think she wins it almost every year. As for me, we carve three pumpkins, one for each of us, but that's about it. lol
Yup… 1970s Yorkshire….and my mum gave me a spoon to do it with….took me bloomin weeks! The smell of turnips prevails throughout. Also we didn’t have costumes… just eggs to chuck at the neighbours houses. There were no treats…just tricks…heh heh heh.
I always thought carving turnips or potatoes came from Ireland dude called john/jack altho that might just be jack-o-lantern.
I remember carving a turnip when I was a child in the uk. We never had pumpkins
when we went "trick or treating" we used to sing " The sky is blue the grass is green have you got a penny for halloween. if you havent got a penny a ha'penny will do if you havent got a ha'penny god bless you. a ha'penny is a halfpenny but we pronounced it haypenny because i live up north in stockton on tees between yorkshire and newcastle.
Used to do them for my daughter back in the day, lived in the country, no pumpkins around.. Lawdy, I had blisters on my hands every year! Hahaa xx
English Apple pie is the best I have tried American apple pie 🤣🤣🤣
Stifflers mam 😂
My Mum was Scottish and used to tell us ghost stories etc and me and my dad would carve a tirnip .... Love the smell
No pumpkin pie. not a thing in my childhood.
Everyone used turnips back in the 80s .i used to love the smell of them when the candle was lit😊
Pumpkin pie isn't made here. I've never seen, heard of anyone baking/eating it. Not sold in shops either in all my 57 years of life to my knowledge
Ps, ita actually from Ireland x
Quite a lot of pagan Celtic traditions have found their way into Christian festivals, as stated in the videos, the easiest way to convert the European pagans to Christianity was adopt and adapt their festivals. For example, Jesus wasn’t likely born on 25th December, the church simply adopted the Yuletide celebrations of the pagan celts. Christmas trees have a pagan origin too and were introduced to the UK by Prince Albert husband of queen Victoria who was German. Queen Victoria popularised other throughout the world.
Tbh everyday is Halloween in our house we put A LOT of decorations up on September the 1st (all indoor) then take them down on January the 2nd having had a black Christmas tree with spooky Christmas decorations. I'd leave them up all year if i didn't feel the need to clean lol.
I live in Dublin, Ireland, and Halloween is still huge here. We have a Public Holiday to celebrate and there's lots of parties, decorated houses and trick or treaters. The original Samhain festival marked the beginning of the Celtic New Year and was a celebration of the dead as the veil between the two worlds was believed to be thinner. There are Neolithic passage tombs that align with the sunrise, and the night was celebrated with bonfires, which still happens today along with fireworks. As well as apples, we have a sweet fruit loaf called a Barm brack, which contains a ring. It's believed that whoever gets the slice of cake with the ring will be married first.. according to my mum, her sister always got the ring, and she was indeed married first in the family!! Happy Halloween to y'all there 🙂
This explains a lot about America...St. Patrick's Day etc.
I was carving turnips until the early 2000s, we don't remember seeing pumpkins before then in northwest Rep of Ireland. What made it a bit easier was to buy a large turnip a week or so before Halloween and by Halloween it was a good bit softer to carve. We never put up decorations, it wasn't a thing when I was growing up.
I’m Wiccan and have been for over 60 years, Samhain is my favourite time of the year it marks the end of harvest and the beginning of the darker months. It’s also the time when the veil between those that have died and ourselves is at its thinnest so we are able to commune with departed loved ones, it’s not scary or weird it’s calming and centres me for the coming months. I do this every year but I celebrate all the Sabats
Such a treat to be reminded of Halloween as it was in my childhood in Scotland! Guising, dooking for apples, turnip lanterns - although my mother interpreted the last very flexibly, so if it could be hollowed out, it could be made into a lantern. I remember melons, oranges, beetroot even being carved and producing different coloured glows. Also less hard work than the traditional neep!