Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-12-02

Halloween wean" is phrase that may
even yet be occasionally heard north of
the Tweed, and in most of the popular &C
counts of wizards and all uncanny folk
the date of their births is generally
set down as on the last day of
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-
ton, or anneXing some old belief that
had long fingered without direct associa-
ton with any special day, season or local
ity. Bonfires are still lit on Haliowmas
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 u.s." is sufficient
to account for everything. In Protestant
countries the vigil of All-souls is no
longer religious observance, or, at any
rate, is not so in Scotland, England, or
Germany. Is may be said that Halloween
as we understand it, is only celebrated by
the Teutonic and Celtic races; with the
Latlns 1T is merely religious vigil,
round its observance clinging few if any
of those wild legends or supersitions
that are so plentiful in Scandinavia,
Scotland and Ireland. The nearest APP
proach to the northern solmemnity, and
even weirdness, is the Venetian Note dele
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, more in the
east, mid-country, and Lowlands than in
the remoter Highland districts; in other
words, more among the Scots proper
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 be that the time
is not far distant when Au-hallows 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 will disappear altogether
as a festival.
It is not only that there would be a rev
olution in the child world if such a sacri-
legious disuse 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 India, wherever 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 SUI
perstitious observances must undoubted-
ly pass away-have indeed, to great ex-
tent already become obsolete-but the
good-fellowship, the laughter, the nut
roasting, the apple-ducking, the candle
smuggling, ought long to be specially asso-
ciated with the 31st of October.