At Odds with Mainstream Scottish Culture
Hello friends of Blue Noun English Language School – and a Happy Halloween! Or is it?
Just remind me, what are we actually celebrating?
This blog looks at Halloween celebrations in Scotland – their origins and the way they are evolving. It is intended as a way to learn English through Scottish culture, but looking at contemporary, societal culture with a critical lens.
A Serious Look at Halloween
I quite often find myself at odds with my own culture and get accused of taking things too seriously. (Like when there’s a comedy show with people falling over – I wince while most others laugh).
This might be about to happen. Let me know in the comments!
By the way, all the images on this page were taken at our local Drummond Castle Gardens Halloween celebrations – they put on quite an event! All photo credits: Blue Noun
“Halloween is one of those occasions in which I feel myself outside of mainstream Scottish culture – and not admiring what I see.”
Ruth, English teacher, 2019
1. The erosion of local traditions by American ones?
In Scotland, traditionally we go ‘guising’ instead of ‘trick or treating’ and there’s an important difference: To guise, you first learn a poem or a joke in order to have something to offer in exchange for your goodies: Trick or Treating demands a reward – or else.
However cute our wee devils are looking, this practice is essentially teaching blackmail. While the Scottish tradition brings communities together, its modern counterpart can alienate lonely or vulnerable people.
Traditionally in Scottish culture we made neep (turnip) lanterns. There’s no doubt that pumpkins are easier (and safer) to carve, but (unlike in America) as they are not part of our cultural lexicon, few UK people bother to use their lovely flesh for food.
“Most cattle had to be slaughtered at the beginning of Winter, and those that were kept only barely made it through until the new feed grew in late spring. So weak were they that that had to be carried out to pasture”.
2. Talking of Bins… Insane Quantities of Single-Use plastic?
Halloween is commercially bigger than ever before, with shops selling plastic pumpkins, glow-in-the-dark masks, laughing gravestones, bendy skeletons etc.
Most of this gets made from single-use plastic. Few people have a Halloween box in the attic beside the Christmas box. Halloween decorations are manufactured to spend one week in a garden and 500 years (the next 10 generations of your family) decomposing in a landfill.
3. Celebrating the Torture of Women?
An estimated 4,000 to 6,000 Scottish women were tried for witchcraft between 1563 (the passing of the Witchcraft Act) and 1597 (the date of The Great Scottish Witch Hunt) with at least 1,500 executed.
Witch Trials, Witch Hunts and executions continued for a further two centuries (until the British Parliament finally repealed the Act in 1736).
Although Witch Trials happened across much of Europe, Scotland suffered an extremely high number for such a small nation (with less than a quarter of England’s population at this time, Scotland had three times the number of trials).
Not coincidentally, accused women were often landowners, with the accusation of being a witch used a legal way to free up her land.
Learn English with Scottish Culture | It’s Time to Remember!
The history of Witch Trials in Scotland is the story of our women: the stigmatisation of female powers being perceived as evil-female and needing repressed – and is still to this day characterised by revulsion and distaste of women ageing.
Still widespread across large parts of Europe, the traditional cures of herbal medicine have all but died out within contemporary British culture.
Herbal medicine is niche not mainstream, but at what detriment to our nation’s health?
A Call for Not Trivialising The Witch Trials
While a national day of remembrance for the Witch Trials is a long way off, there are growing calls for a national monument in Scotland.
Public Memorial Fife
Some local authorities are making headway, including a proposal in Fife to rebuild a lighthouse as a national memorial to victims of the Scottish witch trials – and commemorative plaques placed along the Fife Coastal Walk.
Read more about it here.
If you were at our language school, we could discuss what an appropriate memorial may look like – there’s really all kinds of discussions to be had when you learn English with Scottish Culture.
“Mostly – but not exclusively – older women were accused of witchcraft or of talking to the devil and were strangled and then burned. The charges against them include healing the sick (the accusers assuming if a person could heal she could also harm).
Not coincidentally, accused women were often landowners, with the accusation of being a witch used a legal way to free up her land.”
An Alternative Halloween for an Alternative English Language School
Instead, turn towards your community at this time of year. A Polish student told me today that her Halloween tradition used to be visiting the graves of ancestors – which must be just one more hard aspect of leaving her homeland.
Let’s help people feel welcome in their new communities and participate in public Halloween events – pool resources and keep the plastic to a minum.
As well as a party in Crieff town square, this year, Drummond Gardens ( a courtly, 17th century Scottish Renaissance garden) put on a fabulous fund-raising spooky show with creepy games and sights.
Local care homes also often invite children to guise to adults in their care: a pleasure for everyone involved.
Buy second-hand clothes to turn into costumes, or, if you don’t have the imagination (or time), simply buy your costumes second-hand.
Learn English with Scottish Culture
As you can see, there’s lots to talk about when you learn English with Scottish culture.
Have your own opinion about contemporary celebrations of Halloween?
Let us know in the comments!
Want to know more bout Scottish cultural celebrations? You might like to read:
Learn English with Scottish History | Saint Andrew’s Day