Growing up in Scotland in the 1950s, Halloween was all about guising — as we called trick or treating. This neighborhood event was strictly for children. Any teenager or adult attempting to muscle in on the activities would be resolutely mocked as acting like a bairn (baby). I don’t remember any outside guisers attempting to visit our street. Somehow, we all knew our territories and respected the unwritten rules. Halloween (often spelled Hallow’een) was uncommercialized and local – no decorations or shop-bought costumes and no events at school or adult parties.
In the days leading up to Halloween, children assembled their own outfits from old clothes and other available items, although parental help was sometimes involved. By the time I was growing up, few children wore the traditional “back tae frontie man” costume that required wearing all clothes from cap to trousers backwards. The theory behind that was to confuse any spirits wandering loose on Halloween and give the wearer more time to run away. As I remember, the most popular costume was a witch, requiring only a long black skirt and top with a hat made out of cardboard. The easiest transformation was into a ghost, if a mother would give up an old white sheet or tablecloth for the occasion. Children were innovative and emerged for guising disguised as pirates, cowboys, princesses, nurses and other characters.
Scotland is so far north that by early evening, it was very dark and suitably spooky. The traditional light for guising was a neep’s heid lantern, similar to a jack-o’-lantern but carved from a large rutabaga (neep). Believe me, pumpkins are much easier to carve. Most children were forbidden to attempt preparing the lanterns, and many parents had blisters or worse from wrestling the solid neep into shape with a sharp knife!
We went around the neighborhood in groups of about four to six. Sometimes a parent accompanied a very young child, but usually the older kids were responsible for the group. Most adults stayed at home, awaiting visits from groups of guisers. At each house, the adult opening the door feigned shock and surprise at the costumed visitors and pretended not to recognize any of the children. Some called out to the adults assembled in the main room of the house to beware of the incoming spirits. In each house, a table was laid with offerings for the guisers in hopes of placating these wandering spirits. Store-bought candies were becoming more common, but most treats were homemade biscuits (cookies) or traditional sweets like toffee, tablet (a kind of crumbly fudge) and coconut ice (a bright pink sugar and coconut concoction) — all super sweet and addictive. We didn’t think highly of houses that offered fruit instead. Ginger ale and IRN-BRU (Scotland’s most popular soft drink) were usually provided for children while the adults often enjoyed something stronger.
The offerings were not given freely; each guiser had to perform to earn the rewards. Each visit thus turned into a mini concert as every child sang a song, recited a poem, danced or came up with some other way to entertain the audience. Rewards were dispensed by the lady of the house only after approval by the audience. In some houses, participation in traditional games was offered as an alternative to performing. These games were always messy and had a high probability of participants making fools of themselves, especially if hampered by costumes. The most common and benign game was dookin’ for apples. Without using their hands, guisers had to grab an apple floating in a basin of water. This is surprisingly difficult, especially for those children missing front teeth. It was usually safer to perform than accept the game challenge.
Once every house had been visited, the guisers trooped home, keeping wary eyes out for any witches, warlocks or other spirits that might be hiding in the dark. Safely indoors, we eagerly compared our hauls and opinions of the hospitality of each neighbor. By this time, it was late, Halloween was over and we could start anticipating and preparing for Scotland’s next major event – Guy Fawkes (Bonfire) Night on Nov. 5.
Anne Walling is a retired Wichita physician and the author of “Women in Medicine: Stories from the Girls in White,” published earlier this year.
