I HAVE been surprised to see the usual Halloween merchandise on sale in the supermarkets this year – rails of spooky costumes, bins of accessories like broomsticks and tridents, shelves of sweeties and mini choc bars and even little buckets for collecting the treats in. I’ve only seen one TV advert though, and that was desperately illustrating an indoor single-family event.

This commercialisation of All Hallows Eve, the day before the Christian All Saints Day on November 1, has really taken off over the last 20 or so years. “Trick or treating” has become a widespread activity blamed on the Americans. And while it is true that this version of it has come from America, it has only been popular there since the 1930s.

It is big in the US though. Yards are extravagantly decorated with skeletons and ghouls and ghosties and even mock tomb stones rising threateningly out of the lawn. I had the most surreal experience a few years back flying out of Berkeley in San Francisco Bay on the evening of October 31, where all the airport staff where dressed in Halloween costumes. Unfamiliar airports are disorientating enough, but when you hand your passport for checking to a ghost and get your baggage checked in by a witch it is truly mind-boggling.

In Scotland of course “guising” has a long tradition which can be traced back to the 16th century. The origin is thought to go even further back to the pagan Celtic festival of Samhain (Samhuinn in Gaelic), which marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the cold, dark, winter. It was the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Bonfires used to be lit to ward off the evil spirits that might be abroad but then the carving of turnip (now pumpkin – easier to carve) lanterns with candles inside placed in windows became more common. Robert Burns described various traditional activities in his 1785 poem Halloween.

The term “guising” is derived from the word disguise – it was thought that if the children were disguised they would blend with the evil spirits and not be harmed. As they arrived at each house they would perform a “trick” – a party trick – like reciting a poem or singing a song and be given an offering to ward off evil spirits – the “treat”. This used to be fruit or nuts but is now expected to be sweets! Extraordinarily the Witchcraft Act of 1735 contained a clause preventing the consumption of pork and pastry products on Halloween (I have no idea why!). It was finally repealed in the 1950s, so you can give out sausage rolls and pork pies without breaking the law!

The children here usually go guising around friends, relatives and neighbours but these aren’t usual times. The Deputy First Minister has made clear the Scottish Government’s advice not to go guising this year, saying: “The move is necessary to ensure that current restrictions on gatherings are adhered to.”

The pre-fives at the island school are organising a party for the school children with jelly and decorated cakes and spooky decorations with the children (and staff) encouraged to come to school in fancy dress.

It will be interesting to see how much the government advice is adhered to and how much of the supermarket merchandise is sold off cheaply next week.

Rosemary Barry

Lismore

JOHNSON has no authority nor is it in his gift to determine how Christmas should be celebrated under any circumstances, uniformly over all of Britain. This tinpot Dictator will next no doubt decide how all faiths should observe their events.

I think it would be to the advantage of all of Britain if he kept well out of a situation which can be coped with, with none of his very questionable and usually useless advice.

John Hamilton

Bearsden