Spirited Halloween Beliefs and Customs Around the World
Photo: Gleb Lucky
BY
RUTH EDNA KELLEY
An excerpt from
THE BOOK OF HALLOWE’EN
1919
Introduction
Ruth Edna Kelley's "The Book of Hallowe'en" is the first book dedicated entirely to the celebration of this beloved holiday. It details the origins, customs, and traditions of Halloween, weaving together a rich tapestry of folklore, mythology, and history.
Kelley's extensive research and deep appreciation for the holiday are evident throughout the book, which covers everything from the ancient roots of Halloween to the modern-day celebrations in America. She delves into the pagan origins of the holiday, tracing it back to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the darker half of the year. She also explores the Christian influence on Halloween, particularly the role of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day in shaping the holiday.
In addition to the historical and cultural background of Halloween, Kelley also includes numerous stories, legends, and poems associated with the holiday. From the Irish legend of Stingy Jack to the origins of the Jack-O'-Lantern, Kelley's book is a treasure trove of Halloween lore. She also describes the customs and traditions associated with the holiday, such as bobbing for apples, fortune-telling, and trick-or-treating.
Spirited Halloween Beliefs and Customs Around the World
Only the Celts and the Teutons celebrate an occasion actually like our Hallowe'en. The countries of southern Europe make of it a religious vigil, like in France.
In Italy on the night of All Souls', the spirits of the dead are thought to be abroad, as in Brittany. They may mingle with living people, and not be remarked. The Miserere is heard in all the cities. As the people pass dressed in black, bells are rung on street corners to remind them to pray for the souls of the dead. In Naples the skeletons in the funeral vaults are dressed up, and the place visited on All Souls' Day. In Salerno before the people go to the all-night service at church they set out a banquet for the dead. If any food is left in the morning, evil is in store for the house.
"Hark! Hark to the wind! 'T is the night, they say,When all souls come back from the far away—The dead, forgotten this many a day!
"And the dead remembered—ay! long and well—And the little children whose spirits dwellIn God's green garden of asphodel.
"Have you reached the country of all content,O souls we know, since the day you wentFrom this time-worn world, where your years were spent?
"Would you come back to the sun and the rain,The sweetness, the strife, the thing we call pain,And then unravel life's tangle again?
"I lean to the dark—Hush!—was it a sigh?Or the painted vine-leaves that rustled by?Or only a night-bird's echoing cry?"
Sheard: Hallowe'en.
In Malta bells are rung, prayers said, and mourning worn on All Souls' Day. Graves are decorated, and the inscriptions on tombs read and reread. For the poor is prepared an All Souls' dinner, as cakes are given to the poor in England and Wales. The custom of decorating graves with flowers and offering flowers to the dead comes from the crowning of the dead by the ancients with short-lived blooms, to signify the brevity of life.
In Spain at dark on Hallowe'en cakes and nuts are laid on graves to bribe the spirits not to disturb the vigils of the saints.
In Germany the graves of the dead are decorated with flowers and lights, on the first and second of November. To drive away ghosts from a church a key or a wand must be struck three times against a bier. An All Souls' divination in Germany is a girl's going out and asking the first young man she meets his name. Her husband's will be like it. If she walks thrice about a church and makes a wish, she will see it fulfilled.
Belgian children build shrines in front of their homes with figures of the Madonna and candles, and beg for money to buy cakes. As many cakes as one eats, so many souls he frees from Purgatory.
The races of northern Europe believed that the dead returned, and were grieved at the lamentations of their living relatives. The same belief was found in Brittany, and among the American Indians.
"Think of this, O Hiawatha!Speak of it to all the people,That henceforward and foreverThey no more with lamentationsSadden souls of the departedIn the Islands of the Blessèd."
Longfellow: Hiawatha.
The Chinese fear the dead and the dragons of the air. They devote the first three weeks in April to visiting the graves of their ancestors, and laying baskets of offerings on them. The great dragon, Feng-Shin, flies scattering blessings upon the houses. His path is straight, unless he meets with some building. Then he turns aside, and the owner of the too lofty edifice misses the blessing.
At Nikko, Japan, where there are many shrines to the spirits of the dead, masques are held to entertain the ghosts who return on Midsummer Day. Every street is lined with lighted lanterns, and the spirits are sent back to the otherworld in straw boats lit with lanterns, and floated down the river. To see ghosts in Japan one must put one hundred rush-lights into a large lantern, and repeat one hundred lines of poetry, taking one light out at the end of each line; or go out into the dark with one light and blow it out. Ghosts are identified with witches. They come back especially on moonlit nights.
"On moonlight nights, when the coast-wind whispers in the branches of the tree, O-Matsue and Teoyo may sometimes be seen, with bamboo rakes in their hands, gathering together the needles of the fir."
Rinder: Great Fir-Tree of Takasago.
There is a Chinese saying that a mirror is the soul of a woman. A pretty story is told of a girl whose mother before she died gave her a mirror, saying:
"Now after I am dead, if you think longingly of me, take out the thing that you will find inside this box, and look at it. When you do so my spirit will meet yours, and you will be comforted." When she was lonely or her stepmother was harsh with her, the girl went to her room and looked earnestly into the mirror. She saw there only her own face, but it was so much like her mother's that she believed it was hers indeed, and was consoled. When the stepmother learned what it was her daughter cherished so closely, her heart softened toward the lonely girl, and her life was made easier.
By the Arabs spirits were called Djinns (or genii). They came from fire, and looked like men or beasts. They might be good or evil, beautiful or horrible, and could disappear from mortal sight at will. Nights when they were abroad, it behooved men to stay under cover.
"Ha! They are on us, close without!
Shut tight the shelter where we lie;
With hideous din the monster rout,
Dragon and vampire, fill the sky."Hugo: The Djinns.
