30/10/2025
Excellent article by Clydesdale's Heritage.
Bygone times of Halloween.
Halloween in Clydesdale
“The old customs are going fast, and at the present rate of decadence, a few years will wipe out effectively the keeping of Hallowe'en”. Writing in 1890, a correspondent to the Lanarkshire Upper Ward Advertiser was concerned that “a spirit of mischief had taken the place of former legitimate amusement.”
However local newspapers of that time provide evidence that many old (and sometimes strange) Halloween traditions were then still alive and celebrated at the end of the 19th century.
Tumshie lanterns brought a little light to Halloween celebrations. The biggest turnips were laboriously scooped out, and a grinning face cut through the skin allowing the yellow, flickering light of a candle to beam out into the night, as the lanterns were carried through the streets by children. Following the celebrations, many would nurse cut and blistered hands, and emit the distinctive smell of charred turnip. Of course, it is only in fairly recent times that the noble custom of tumshie lanterns has been swept away by the much easier American tradition of carving pumpkins.
Tradition of the kale runt may be less well known. Boisterous young men entered gardens and kail-yards on Halloween night to pull up a kale plant or other brassica. The shape of the stem or “runt” was said to reflect the outline of the lass that they would marry ( a “muckle ane” or a “straucht ane”), while large quantities of earth sticking to bushy roots represented wealth. The runt might be used to knock on the door of likely lasses, or else hung above a door, rather like mistletoe. This romantic ritual sometimes deteriorated into vandalism, and one account of 1891 reported that following Halloween, the streets of Carluke were strewn with cabbage leaves.
Local newspapers of that period carry surprisingly few references to guisers, only making occasional mention of children in masks (“false-faces”) or blackened with soot, who would perform and then pass around the “nobbing box”.
Indoors at Halloween, dooking for apples was a favourite party game. A convenient container, such as a tin bath, would be filled with water and apples floated on it. Children would swoop down (rather like gannets from Bass Rock) and plunge their head in the water, hoping to resurface with an apple between their teeth. Another game involved treacle scones, usually hung from a string, which had to be eaten while holding your hands behind your back.
Champit tatties (or champuck supping) involved eating large quantities of roughly mashed potatoes in order to foretell the future. A ring, or other objects such as a thimble, a button, or even a silver three-penny bit, was stirred into a large pot of potatoes. In a darkened room, each would take a spoonful in turn. Each foreign object encountered told something of the finder's fortune. A ring symbolised imminent marriage, a thimble found by a young woman indicated celibacy (or the opposite if a button was discovered), whilst the silver coin was an assurance of riches to come.
Roasting nuts also provided insight into the future. Two hazelnuts, representing a man and a woman, were placed in front of a fire. If both burned quietly together it promised a happy marriage, but if one or other of the nuts cracked or exploded, it seemed that love was doomed.
