Guising and the Origin of Trick or Treating

There will be more on today's topic at the end of this post, for it relates to our last morning in Albany. After we had bid our hosts Andy and Sheila (and the two wee dogs) goodbye, we had to make a stop at Molly and Mark's to pick up my handbag before getting on the road back to the Hamilton, Ontario, airport. They were getting the kids ready to go to the First Unitarian Society of Albany where their Sunday School was having a Halloween costume party. We're so glad we had to make this little stop because it allowed us to see how cute both children looked in their costumes as well as to say farewell one more time with hugs and kisses all around. (Warning: I had to do major red-eye fixes to both children so if you enlarge this photo, don't be shocked at how their eyes look in close-up. They don't really have cat's eyes!)

Last Sunday was a very long day. We began driving from Albany at 9:45 and arrived at the outskirts Buffalo in time to stop at Ted's for one more hot dog lunch (Oh yeah!) before getting back on the road for the airport. We arrived at 6 p.m. but still had to refill the hired car with gas. The nice lady at the airport carhire desk checked us in on time so that we didn't have to pay for another day's rental and then gave us directions to the nearest filling station (15 minutes away). It was close to 7 by the time we had finished the gassing up, returned to the airport, parked the hired car, dragged our luggage to the terminal, and finished the carhire paperwork. Our plane didn't leave until 9 p.m. for the overnight flight.

The flight back to Glasgow was pleasant enough, as pleasant as transatlantic flights can be--no screaming babies, no loud and raucous passengers, and a minimum of interruptions. Still, neither Don nor I got more than off-and-on fitful catnaps. With a tailwind, though, the eastward flight was only 5 hours and 25 minutes so with the change in time, we arrived in Glasgow at 6:25. We got through passport control, collected our luggage, got the shuttle to our off-airport carpark, drove to Dunblane, did a short shop at Tescos, and still made it home by 9:30 on Monday morning. We were pretty exhausted, having been up at that point for 22 hours. We got unpacked and put away the groceries, unpacked our bags, checked mail, phone, and e-mail messages, and had a light breakfast before crashing for a nice long nap.

Now to today's topic: Guising and the Origin of Trick or Treating. Way back in Pagan times in Scotland, the completion of the harvest and the marking of the change from autumn to winter was celebrated. The ancient holiday was called Samhain (pronounced "SOW-en"), which signifies the end of summer. Bonfires were lit to reassure that the sun would return again after the winter. (In fact, some people in Scotland still build bonfires in their back gardens at times during the winter.)

Those who had prospered and had stocks of food set-by for winter, celebrated with their families and prosperous neighbours. Those who were less fortunate, dressed up in some sort of costume (or "guise"), usually a spooky one, and went door-to-door begging for some food. In return, they performed a song or a skit and gave some sort of blessing upon the bestower of extra food and the household. These guisers then took the food donations back to store for the winter. You can see origins of the American Thanksgiving and the food drives that generally occur at this time of year.

Scots adults remember "guising" rather than "trick or treating" as children. They'd dress up not in storebought costumes but, rather, in what was available at home--Mum's old party dress and shoes or Dad's waistcoat (vest), braces (suspenders), and flat cap. You only went to your nearest neighbours' homes where you would be invited in and asked to do your "party piece" (sing a song, tell a story or a joke, recite a poem, or do a dance) before being given a sweet to take away with you.

In fact, when I was a little girl in Jacksonville, Florida, I recall a few people in our neighbourhood asking us in to perform just such party pieces for them prior to giving out sweets at Halloween. It really was a great tradition in that time of innocence and openness. How much things have changed!

Around here, Trick or Treating has never been very big. Apparently, it did get popular for a while, especially in the cities, after children had seen the film E.T. Mostly, however, children in Scotland are raised to believe it isn't polite to go bothering the neighbours--much less strangers--in their homes. They either go to parties or they just knock on the doors of their grandparents and their aunts and uncles. For the fourth year in a row we have bought some candy to give out but have had no trick or treaters, nor have we even seen or heard any. We miss seeing the children in their costumes and so it was a super treat for us to get to see Iris and Cameron in theirs.