Halloween in Aberdeen

Happy Halloween, everyone! I didn’t anticipate writing a post for Halloween because I was unsure whether it was really celebrated in Scotland… but here we are! I’ve learned quite a bit about the Halloween traditions over the past few days, so I thought I would share some fun facts with you all.

Samhain

Halloween originated from the Gaelic festival “Samhain”, which celebrates the end of summer and beginning of winter. During the festival, people disguise themselves in the scariest way possible in order to prevent evil spirits from finding them. There is a Samhain Fire Festival in Edinburgh this year that looks absolutely incredible. Unfortunately, I just found out about the festival last Friday, so the tickets were sold out already. I’m definitely adding the Fire Festival to my bucket list!!!

Neeps

Today in my Doric tutorial, I learned that instead of carving pumpkins, the Scottish have traditionally carved neeps (turnips) for Halloween. Here are some step-by-step instructions (in Doric) on how to carve neeps:

1. Get yersel tae the shoppie an pick oot the bonniest, roondest-lookin neep ye can find.
2. Gaither yer neep an hackin boord. Deein ess in the licht o a full meen, riggit-oot as a guiser, is best…
3. Plunk yer neep doon on the hacking boord (pick oot a spooky playlist an lug intae some creepy tunes file ye wirk… jist tae set the mood, ken?)
4. Riddy yersel wi the sharpest knife ye can find an carefully tak the heid aff yer neep.
5. Get hud o a speen an stairt howkin the flesh oot the neep. Warnin: it’ll be gey teuch. Nae an easy job bit we maun suffer fir wir airt.
6. Hing on tae the howkit flesh. It’ll dee fine fir cookin up somethin imorn. Or jist hud on til’t fir efter an pelt ony unwantit guisers wi’t.
7. Bore the sides o the lantren tae mak holes fir een, a moo, an a hunnle made o tow (fir cairryin it aboot the toon). Ging canny wi the borin — ye dinner went tae loase ony fingers at ess stage efter aa yer hard wirk.
8. If ye’re feelin funcy or affa artistic, ye micht wint tae carve the coorse face o some sort o bogle or aul witch ontae the front o yer neep…
9. Carve the flesh fae the heid ye chapped aff earlier tae mak a boo’d lid. Noo tak a rest an took yer sair haans in a suppie waarm watter.
10. Pit a sma cunnle inside the neep (a muckle een’ll jist burn the lid an ye dinna wint aat).
11. Licht the cunnle, pit the lid on tap o the lantren, staan back, enjoy the reek o a sung neep, an gie yersel a clap on the back fir a job weel din.
12. If we’re happy eneuch tae hae guisin geets chappin yer door, pit yer neep in the winda an see if ye can fleg onybody passin by. Keep it awa tae the curtains though — we dinna wint a Halloween bleeze!

P.s. these instructions came from my Doric professor, not my brain 😉

Even though many people carve pumpkins now instead of turnips, my classmate told me that she and her friends will be carving neeps tonight. So fun!

Guising

You may have spotted the word “guiser” in the neep-carving instructions above. This term is related to the word “disguise”, and that’s exactly what it means. As part of the Samhain (and now Halloween) tradition, people disguise themselves using face paint and masks. So, anyone who dresses up on Halloween is called a “guiser”.

Trick-or-Treating

The trick-or-treating in Scotland is different from the trick-or-treating we do in the United States. While we are usually able to receive treats simply by knocking on our neighbor’s doors, the Scottish bairns actually have to perform in order to receive anything. My classmates mentioned that they used to sing or tell jokes in order to receive a treat.

Monkey Nuts

Speaking of treats… my Scottish classmates also mentioned receiving “monkey nuts” after performing their tricks. They said they would usually just give the monkey nuts to their grandpas because they didn’t want them. I had to ask what a “monkey nut” was.

It’s an unshelled peanut!

I will end this post with a quote from Alyssa, who is currently dressing up to go out to the clubs… “what color lipstick do you think William Wallace would wear?”

Until next time,

Clara