The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1897-10-31
Today Comes Halloween With lis Legends
and Memories Of Long Ago.
FALLEN INTO IRAOCU0us DEsUETUDE
I'm Former Ycnrs It was q Night when
Witches Walked ana Gruesome
COLLINS Played Their Ghouiish
Pranks-when Lucky ana LuolrIcss
Lovers Found Their Fato.
Halloween falls on to-day.

+ nuocuous dessuetude."
In the olden times, on Hallowe' en-, the
masculine youth took to themselves
!. strange and unwarrantable liberties
with the property and even the lives of
other people. On that night farm gates
mysterlously disappeared, public high
ways were fenced across with rails pur-
Joined from nearby fields, black horses
We're painted white and vice versa
cows were discovered on top Of hay
stacks munchinG scontentedly away
many feet above earth In the city door
bells were rung by mysterious and in
visible hands and all kinds of pranks
were played.
Woe betide the luckless lover who left
his horse tied to the front yard gate
post on Halloween. His rashness in
vited q walk home over the eternal
nils: Equally unfortunate, too, the
blissful beau who called upon his sweet
heart in the suburbs. He did not
even have an opportunity to walk home
He had to run
Once on a time. too. young men and
maidens were gifted with second sight
on Halloween. and 1t was then they
discovered their true lovers either In
the bottom of a well or in the curlings
OF an apple peel flung anXIously over
the left shoulder. Nowadays youth
has Just as hard a time finding its
twin heart on Halloween as on any
other day in the prosalc year.
On Halloween long ago the witches
were supposed to walk and ghosts
prowled abroad to the despair of the
superstitious and nervous. But in these
times the most eternal ghost that
walks is your landlord and the most
frightful spook you meet Is the collcc-
tor of rents and other revenues.
Many OF the strange ceremonies pc
culiar to this holiday date from pagan
times and are relics of semi barbarlsm
A writer on the New York Tribune
has collected some facts relating 10
Halloween, which are given in an ar
ticle of which the following is all alb
stract.
Writers of antiquity trace the festi-
val even into the shades of the dusty
Orient. Greeks. Romans and Druids
observed Halloween with peculiar SOL
emnity and All Hallow's Day (Novem-
Der 1sD is probably from the Anglo
saxon word 'haligan," meaning holy.
The Druids believed In the transmit
grafton of souls, and according to their
teaching, every year on Hallowe en- the
Lord of Death, called Saman, brought
together for final judgment the souls
that had been living in the bodies of
the lower animals during the twelve
preceding months. But by Offering sac
arr1IhGes: magic charms and propitiotions
the Using had 1t in their power to
sgrently lSSssen the punishment OF wicked
FOULS, ~ It became the custom to make
presents to Me priests that these holy
.athers mfght"be induced in intercede
or the pnfortuM@tes. RATED calves and
black sheep we've the customary sac
ri1ces, and long, before the institution
of All Souls Dav \the ancient Irish used
to knccl to S,n,p in front of lighted
candles beseecbine{ him for the souls
of their departed rcFatives.
Among the Rop.rAS there was a GUS
tom of lighting 6ras Upon the neighbour
Ing hills on UalIowcien, fire being an
emblem of Immortality, htly calculated
20 typify the ascent 1, or the soul into
heaven. Some tbouph the brilliancy of
the flames lighted tn r redeemed souls
out of nurEatory AMI SshHwed them the
glory of tho inward /, bath 10 the shin
ING White City OF Hsnts,' In north
ern Wales there is ,eleculinr custom of
making a great fire cs. tied Coal Certh,
from which each fatalily III the neigh
borhood takes a brand ipr coal aid starts
ponfre In an openU space near the
mouse When the DO infire has burned
down to n bed of glow ying embers every
member of the famil ~ throws in a
smooth, white, water fworn stone, hay
sng first carefully ma1FRed win a sharp
pointed instrument 4 each person
walks slowly around o the fire once. re-
peatinG his prayers Ytl.en he returns ST.
lently to the house SSundresScs without
speaking, and goes tt 81 bed. In the morn
ing, soon as thrST family is up and
dressed the membe, PFt go out and search
IN the pale ashes for the stones. Ii
anyone of them IS r8H1lSsing 1t Is believed
that the person tefS whom it ! ,longcd
Eili die before the ,Rlslext All Sal Is 1--we
Sometimes the al{lhcient, unoouth Sax
ons baked large tFfake made OF wheat,
oat ar rye flour wi get with water upon
which the full, silIf,Fery light OF the Oc-
:ober moon had ffkfllen and left mys-
io tint and properEty. pinch of coarse
'alt and few HIdrops OF apple juice
we're dropped intES the flour Us 1T was
,eing made into r. dough, and the cake
vas set to bake An rude oven covered
With glowing coal&ts. Before 1t was per-
ectly baked It Villas cut into small tri-
ngular bits andy distributed in utter
Hence TO each H{nember OF the house
old who ate it ,WSolemnly, without say
rs q word, and rAThen went TO bed.
A funny and 81 rather risky rite was
Celebrated by tn. ia Q early Irish peasantry.
nd consisted C&Af tying a cord to the
fiddle OF SIN MAIL stick on one end OF
'hlch an RpDle@B had been stuck and n
ghtcd candle @$ ornamenting the other.
he end Of th&Xe cord was fastened Sc
lrely to a ,&beam overhead and the
lex was ther whirled around. though
ut SO rapldlM3y as to extlngush the
andle. Eve E;sFy one had 10 make a