Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-12-02

| Halloween weanF Is a phrase thGt may
even yet be occasionally heard mort. of
1 the Tweed, and in most of the popular ac-
/ counts of wizards and all uncanny folk
/ the date of their births is generally
/ set down as ON the last day of
I October. When, later on, All-hallow Eve
/ became a Christian observance, the
old customs pertinent to its celebration
\ did not pass into disuse; on the
/ contrary, they became more and
more deeply established, every here and
there accommodating some new supersti-
I ton, or anneXing some old belief that
I had long fingered without direct associa-
I ton with any special day, season or local
/ ity. Bonfires are still lit on Hallowmas
eve though perhaps only one or two here
and there among the members of the in
Vulnerable village communities who thus
celebrate the great event know that the
practice is a remnant of paganism. In
deed it is surprising, in the use of this as
of many other popular customs, to find
how few know anything whatever of the
significance of their celebrations. "We do
as our fathers did before us. is sufficient
to account for everything. In Protestant
countries the vigil of All-souls is no
longer religious observance, OF, at any
rate, is not so in Scotland, England, or
Germany. Is may be said that Halloween
we understand it, is only celebrated by
the Teutonic and Celtic races; with the
Latins ID is merely religious vigil,
round its observance clinging few if any
of those wild legends or superstions
that are so plentiful in Scandinavia,
Scotland and Ireland. The nearest APP
proach to the northern solmemnity, and
even weirdness is the enetian motto dciic
mort. or night of all the dead; but
the religious ceremonies attendant, there
on, take place not only on the 31st of
October, but on the eve of All.souls
day, that is, the day following
1t is in Scotland and Ireland that
Halloween is kept in its entirety; in the
former, curiously enough, moro in the
east, mid country, and Lowlands than in
the remoter Highland districts; in other
words, more among the Scots proser
than among the pure Celts, The best
chronicle of Hallowmas Eve that exists
is the well-known poem of Burns, con
tanning as it does some record of the
most generally practiced customs in con
nection with this really ancient vigil, but
considering the popularity of the subject
there is a wonderfully limited "Hallow-
cen literature. The succeeding threefold
chronicle may possibly, then, contain
something novel as well as of interest TO
many readers. 1t may lie that the time
is not far distant when All-hnllows Eve
will lose its hold upon rural as complete
ly as it has upon URBAN populations,
when bonfres will be lit only by a few
youngsters when apples will cease to be
ducked for, and when nuts will no longer
be set ablaze amid the red-hot Goals; but
the writer, for one, believes that such
time is not yet at hand and disbelieves
that Halloween wall disappear altogether
as a festival.
It is not only that there would be a rev
olution in the child world if such sacri-
legious dsuse were to become the fash
ion, but that there are too many older
children interested in the famous eve to
allow its celebration to drop altogether
yet awhile. At sea- in Canada the States,
Australia, even in Indit, wherever a true
Scottish or Irish family is located there
is sure TO be at least one voice raised in
favor of the genial old custom. Its su
perstitious obseryances must undoubted-
ly pass away have indeed, to great ex-
tent already become obsolete-but tho
good fellowship, the laughter, the nut
roasting, the apple-ducking, the candle
singeing ought long TO be specially ASSOC
ciated with the 3lst of October.