The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1910-10-27
SOME CUSTOMS
OF HALLOWEEN
ORIGIN OF CELEBRATION AU-
TUMN FESTIVAL OF DRuiDS
FINDING ONES "AF-
FINITY."

Next Tuesday is All Saints day and
the evening of Monday Is Halloween.
that witching time when fun and frolic
come i'm grotesque, unique, comic or
sentimental form to relieve the tedium
of the daily life led by the small boy
and those about him. The happy GUS
toms that are the inheritance of an
other age have not been forgotten i'm
Calumet and the observance OF Hal
lowe'en will be carried out i'm many
homes as the town clock chimes
the hour of midnight. Monday.
Many Halloween parties have been
arranged and IL is likely that the fes-
tival will receive "a general observance.
The spirits that walk abroad upon that
night as embodniod i'm the small boy
and his brother on mischief bent, will
be sternly repressed 10y the police, but
the gentler shades, with a reverence
for the festival and a disposition to
observe 1t properly. will be welcomed
as they sweep through the city on
their brooms, or more likely i'm these
modern and prosabc times, their tonr-
ing cars and runabouts.
For the original Halloween one
TO the autumn festival to the sun
which the Druids celebrated at the
harvest season with hugh bonfires and
feasting and to the Roman celebration
i'm honor of Pomona, goddess of fruits
and seeds. The Druids believed in the
RECONSIDERATION OF the soul and that on
the eve of the autumn festival the
wicked souls, that during twelve
months had been condemned to in
habit the bodies of animals were call
cd together by Saman, the lord of
death.
While the Romans, Celts and
Druids were earliest i'm their observ-
ance of an autumn festival, is is to, the
happy hearted, laughter loving, super
sttious children of Erin that we owe
the perpetuation of the mysterious
customs incident to Halloween.
Scottish Customs.
In Scotland, after the manner of the
the ashes were raked into a circle.
Just within the hollow were placed
stones. one for each person present. In
the morning If one of the stones was
found TO have been disturbed the own
err regarded 1t as an omen of death.
1t was long a custom i'm Scotland to
fasten combustible materials to the
ends of long poles and bear these blaz-
ing beacons about the country viii
lagos. This custom was popular i'm
merry England as late as 1874 when
historian of the late Queen Victoria
records that she and the Princess
Beatrice. celebrating Halloween at
Balmoral castle. each bore a large
torch as they drove i'm an open phae
ton at the head of their tenants and
servants.
At the Roman festival to Pomona
the stores laid up for winter use were
first opened and as fruits and nuts are
staple products Of Italy and grow in
such abundance it became custom
of later civilized countries to make a
gastronomic feature of fruits. espe-
cially apples and nuts in celebrating
the autumnal feast.
In Warwickshire. England. seed
cake, at Halloween indicated the end
Of the harvest. This quatrain written
i'm the sixteenth century is still quot
ed by folk in Wawickshire:
Wife. some time this week, If the
wether hold cleere.
An end of wheat sowing we make for
this ware
Remember you, therefore, though l do
IL not,
The seed cake. the pastries, the fur
mentie pot"
Hemp seed and kali have long been
known to impart the most mysterious
secrets by sowing hemp seed alone
i'm the night and looking over the left
shoulder ones future sweetheart can
be seen gathering the seeds of hemp
You should Immediately reach back
and pull up a stalk of the kali just
sown. Your lover will have gold or
gear" according as the earth clings
10 the roots.
Nuts have been fortune tellers since
the old Dr-uids threw them into the
aSneS OF Vnclr nFcS. III lne NUS Dulh-
ed well, prosperity was indicated but
IL the nuts turned black and smould-
cred sad days were at hand. How
many pair of bright eyes has watch
ed two nuts burning together on the
bars of the CRATE or on the hearth be-
fore the glowing embers waiting with
lily yelled impotence to see If the
nuts would burn together,-fateful
portent of happy marriage. The old
rhyme has it,
These glowing nuts are emblems
true.
OF what I'm human life we view.
The Unmatched couple fret and
fume,
And thus in strife themselves con-
sumo,
Or from each other wildly start.
And with a noise forever part.
But see the happy happy pair,
OF genuine love and truth sincere,
With natural fondness while they
burn.
Still to each kindly turn.
And as the vital sparks decay
Torether gently sink away,