Ancient Halloween Traditions

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To mark the occasion, fires used to be lit on hill tops. Witches, warlocks, ghosts and their kind were believed to roam and that the elves had power to grant wishes if approached in the proper manner. Here are Halloween traditions which some might find interesting or just crazy for this present age, but these happened just the same.

A tradition during this season was the “burning of the nuts” for couples. Two nuts are named after themselves. Courting couples watched anxiously to see if burned nuts would merge. If they did, the lovers were to have a happy future together. If the nuts separated, then the relationship may meet an ill fate.

One of the old ceremonies which survived the passage of time is “dooking for apples.” The fruits are placed in a basin filled with water to the brim and the fruits would bob tantalizingly. The participants with forks in their mouths would try to spear a fruit while kneeling. Another variation if this uses no forks. Participants would instead bite into the apple.

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Apples figured largely in many rites of Halloween. When a girl wishes to learn the name of her future mate, all she had to do was peel an apple taking care that the skin was unbroken. This successfully achieved, she tosses it over her shoulder and the peel would obligingly shape her future partner’s initial.

A girl could also take a candle and sit in front of a looking glass if she wants to see what her husband-to-be looked like. Then she had to eat the apple while combing her hair. If she watched carefully she would see her intended looking over her shoulder.

The history of wearing outlandish attire can be traced back prior to the 1800s. It was a common practice especially for those adults who would engage in wanton drunkenness and rough or dangerous fun. It eventually devolved to the more innocent practices of the children. image source

Some ancient Halloween rituals ventured into the macabre category. In Scotland, the festival of fire was documented in a century-old book from the parish of Callander. “When the bonfire was consumed, the ashes were placed in a form of a circle, and a stone for each person in the involved families put in the circumference… whatever stone is moved out of its place or injured before next morning, the person represented by the stone is devoted or fey, and will not live 12 months from that day.

These happened during a period when witches and black cats had the time of the their nine lives, and though the laws against witchcraft were repealed as long ago as 1735, it ill behooves us to indulge in self-satisfied sniggers, because old beliefs die very hard, indeed.