{"id":1494,"date":"2020-10-31T13:11:47","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T13:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=1494"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:25:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:25:56","slug":"halloween-in-the-pagan-borderlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/31\/halloween-in-the-pagan-borderlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Hallowe\u2019en in the \u2018pagan borderlands\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hallowe\u2019en is a subdued affair in 2020, due to Covid-19 and lockdowns. But then in the UK, it mostly always was. The short history is that it became a Big Thing in the US, due to Scottish and Irish imigrants. Was expanded there with the whole \u2018trick or treat\u2019 thing. And then exported back to the whole of the UK \u2013 I\u2019d estimate in the early 1990s \u2013 thanks to US children\u2019s TV programmes and canny British retailers keen to supply a new market with plastic skeletons and LOTS of sweets.<\/p>\n

But Hallowe\u2019en was very much on the British calendar before then \u2013 just totally overshadowed by Bonfire Night<\/a> five days later\u00a0<\/span>when it came to parties and food.<\/p>\n

Hallowe’en: ‘a forgotten festivity’<\/h2>\n

The first reference to Hallowe\u2019en I could find in the Carlisle Patriot<\/em> was in 1819 \u2013 but related to Scotland.<\/p>\n

In 1859, it was suggested that but for a Robert Burns poem, the memory of local superstitions of Hallowe\u2019en \u2018might have been obliterated\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Carlisle Patriot<\/i>, also in 1859, refers to Hallowe\u2019en as \u2018that now almost forgotten festivity\u2019.<\/p>\n

Carlisle Amateur Glee Union gave a concert at the county asylum (Garlands) in November 1863. The writer says \u2018few people know how much real good such entertainments do to the inmates of asylums\u2019. And puts the rest straight about the pleasure that dances, games and concerts bring to the residents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And if they* had seen the merriment caused by Mr McMillan, the ventriloquist, when he was lately at Garlands, or the celebration of Hallowe\u2019en at the asylum, or best of all\u2026 the concert there they would require no argument to convince them of the benefit of such sources of innocent entertainment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*the doubters<\/p>\n

Pagan indifference<\/h2>\n

In 1867, Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological Society had as the topic for one meeting: State of Religion in the Border Country. An anonymous paper was read which stated that while poeple in \u2018the south\u2019 observed strictly Christian festivals, people in the borderlands peppered theirs with pagan touches.<\/p>\n

In the matter of fairies and Brownies, the superstitions in the Border country were also more devloped and lasted longer than in the rest of England and belief in spells and enchantments was common\u2026. in the Middle Ages, religion as it was then taught did not exercise a great influence in the Border.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The author contended:<\/p>\n

The borderers\u2026 had many superstitious fears and observances and the penances they had to pay for their misdeeds were a heavy tax upon them. It was to get rid of this yoke that they embraced the Protestant religion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, having done so, those on the English side of the border:<\/p>\n

\u2026would not lead the life of purity and self-denial which Christianity required\u2026 and remained in a state of indifference until a comparatively recent period.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

‘Less of the pagan, eh?’<\/h2>\n

The Rev James Simpson, vicar of Kirkby Stephen, begged to differ. He didn\u2019t think Cumbrians were more heathenish than people in the south. He supposed the writer referred to Hallowe\u2019en especially, but that was observed equally in the south and the north.<\/p>\n

The chairman of the meeting, the honourable Percy Scawen Wyndham MP, also thought that as much faith existed in the old superstition of witchcraft in the south as in the north. He also thought that Henry VIII\u2019s dissolution of the monasteries had left a religious vacuum in Cumberland and Westmorland that remained until after the Union of England and Scotland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This may have been \u2018hey, who are you calling heathens?\u2019 But for sure, in the centuries when the borders were \u2018the debatable lands\u2019 \u2013 lawless and uncontrolled \u2013 there may have been less \u2018purity and self-denial\u2019 than churchmen would like.<\/p>\n

Turnip lanterns and mashed potato<\/h2>\n

In 1870, the Patriot<\/em> described Hallowe\u2019en festivities \u2013 in Scotland. Boys and girls parading the streets with turnip lanterns. While families at home feasted on nuts, apples and mashed potatoes, and \u2018the fates of lovers were prognosticated\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Queen Victoria may not have been amused by some things, but she enjoyed a good party, and Hallowe\u2019en festivities were a regular on the calendar at Balmoral Castle. Recording the latest, in 1881, the Carlisle Express and Examiner<\/em> referred to Hallowe\u2019en as \u2018the Scottish festival\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1886, the Anchor Lodge of Good Templars, Carlisle, were entertained with a Hallowe\u2019en Splore. This included \u2018vocal entertainment\u2019, fruit cake, and sweets. But no alcohol, as this was a temperance association. A splore<\/a> = a Scottish word for a revel, a carousal.<\/p>\n

But what about Cumbria?<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s not until 1892 that any Carlisle paper (in this case, the Carlisle Express and Examiner) refers to wider Hallowe\u2019en celebrations in Cumberland\/Westmorland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It mentions the:<\/p>\n

games and pseudo-incantations indulged in by the lads and lasses of the scattered farmsteads and communities in the more thinly populated districts at Hallowe\u2019en. Which, not so long ago, was almost as much observed in Nichol Forest and Bewcastle as on the Scottish side of the Esk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A short word on Hallowe\u2019en customs<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s hardly surprising that Hallowe\u2019en customs involve things like nuts and apples and other foodstuffs that were in season in October.<\/p>\n

Burning nuts on Hallowe\u2019en as a charm is one that has passed me by. But as child, I\u2019d happily (and carefully, under supervision!) peel an apple and throw the peel over my shoulder, to see the initial of the man I would marry.<\/p>\n

Of course, it always either fell as an S, or broke into C and some bits. Don\u2019t try it should the person you secretly hope to marry have the initial K or H!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hallowe\u2019en is a subdued affair in 2020, due to Covid-19 and lockdowns. But then in the UK, it mostly always was. The short history is that it became a Big Thing in the US, due to Scottish and Irish imigrants. Was expanded there with the whole \u2018trick or treat\u2019 thing. And then exported back to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,320,3],"tags":[321,322],"class_list":["post-1494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cumbria-history","category-customs-and-traditions","category-social-history","tag-border-life","tag-debatable-lands"],"yoast_head":"\nHallowe\u2019en in the \u2018pagan borderlands\u2019 - Cumbrian Characters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hallowe\u2019en was never a Big Thing in Cumberland\/Westmorland in bygone days \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean it was ever forgotten by borderers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/31\/halloween-in-the-pagan-borderlands\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hallowe\u2019en in the \u2018pagan borderlands\u2019 - Cumbrian Characters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hallowe\u2019en was never a Big Thing in Cumberland\/Westmorland in bygone days \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean it was ever forgotten by borderers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/31\/halloween-in-the-pagan-borderlands\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cumbrian Characters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-31T13:11:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-15T14:25:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Halloween.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"373\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"HarrietP\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GnaOxdown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GnaOxdown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"HarrietP\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hallowe\u2019en in the \u2018pagan borderlands\u2019 - 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