Thread by @reviewwales

HALLOWEEN IN WALES:
A THREAD 🎃🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

"All Hallows Eve is by the Welsh called ‘Nos Calan Gaeaf,’ meaning the first night of winter. It is one of the three nights for spirits, upon which ghosts walk and fairies are abroad." 1/

#Wales #Halloween #HalloweenCountdown #folklorethursday

(I'll be updating this thread daily as we count down to Halloween, and all quotes are courtesy of the great Wirt Sikes 1880 unless otherwise stated)

On #Halloween (Nos Calan Gaeaf) in Wales: "ghosts walk, fairies are abroad, mysterious influences are in the air, strange sights are seen, and in short goblins of every sort are to be with special freedom encountered."

🎃🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Pic: Tintern Abbey

#Wales #HalloweenCountdown

On #Halloween, spirits "may be conjured to appear, by certain enchantments, and to give their visitors glimpses of the future, especially as regards the subject of marrying."

#Wales #HalloweenCountdown #mondaythoughts

Fancy some divination?

"On #Halloween it is customary for the young people, gathered in many a merry circle, to seek by tricks and charms of various sort to become acquainted with their future lovers and sweethearts."

#Wales #HalloweenCountdown #halloween2019

Halloween in #Wales is one of the three spirit nights, or 'Teir Nos Ysprydnos'.

"The two other two are May-day eve and Midsummer eve; which with #Halloween were three great festivals of the ancient Druids, when they commemorated the powers of Nature and love."

#halloween2019

To receive messages from the "phantoms of future" on #Halloween, you didn't always have to contact them:

"Thomas Williams, the preacher, slept in the hills on a Nos Ysprydnos (spirit night), and although he used no charms nor tricks of any sort, he saw his future wife."

#wales

"As he was just about putting out his light, having jumped into bed, the door opened and the goblin mother of the young woman he subsequently married walked into the room, leading her daughter. ‘Here, Thomas,’ said she, ‘I am going, but I leave you Mary.’"

"And when he came down home out of the mountains he found that the old mother had died in her bed at the very moment he saw her goblin. To have done less than marry the girl would have been to insult the old lady’s ghost, and cast reflections on the reputation of All Hallows eve"

"The festivities of All Hallows in #Wales are in the main like those of other Christian lands, consisting of feasting and making merry. Bonfires were kindled in pursuance of the Druidic rites, which the Church adopted and continued while changing their significance."

#Halloween

"A curious description of the autumnal fires kindled in North #Wales, and the attendant ceremonies, was running through the fire and smoke, and casting of stones into the fire, all running off at the conclusion to escape from the black short-tailed sow"

#halloween2019 #Halloween

"This custom of running through the fire is said to survive in Ireland. It is no doubt related to the ancient sacrificial rites. As testimonies to the kinship of our race, all these customs possess a deep interest, which is increased as they lose in the charm of the unique."

"On #Halloween, or any one of the 'three spirit nights,' the devil, in the shape of a pig, a sow, a horse, or a dog, prevented people getting over stiles; or, in the guise of an old woman, he frequented lonely spots and scared people away."
Folklore of #Wales

#folklorethursday

"On the Welsh Border there prevails a #Halloween custom among the children of going about to the houses singing the rhymes which follow:

Wissel wassel, bread and possel,
Cwrw da, plas yma:
An apple or a pear, a plum or a cherry,
Or any good thing to make us merry. 1/3

#wales

"Sol cakes, sol cakes,
Pray you, good missus, a sol cake;
One for Peter, and two for Paul,
And three for the good man that made us all... 2/3

#Halloween

"The roads are very dirty,
My shoes are very thin,
I’ve got a little pocket,
To put a penny in.
Up with the kettle and down with the pan,
Give us an answer and we’ll be gan.

(A loud rap at the door.)

Spoken: Please to give us a ’apenny." 3/3

#wales #halloween #halloween2019

"The puzzling jug is a vessel in use in some quarters as a means of increasing the hilarity of a #Halloween party. It is a stone jug out of which each person is compelled to drink. From the brim it has holes fantastically arranged so as to appear like ornamental work" 1/3

#wales

"Three projections, the size of marbles, are around the brim, having a hole the size of a pea in each; these communicate with the bottom of the jug which, with two of the holes being stopped by the fingers, and the mouth applied, enables one to suck the contents with ease." 2/3

"This trick is unknown to everyone, and consequently a stranger generally makes some mistake, perhaps applying his mouth as he would to another jug, in which case the contents (generally ale) issue through the fissures on his person, to no small diversion of the spectators." 3/3

"Another merry custom of All Hallows was — and is — twco am ’falau, bobbing for apples. A large tub (crwc) is brought into the kitchen of a farm-house and filled with water; a dozen apples are thrown in, and the rustic youths bob for them with their mouths" 1/3

#Halloween #Wales

"To catch up two apples at a single mouthful is a triumphant achievement. The revellers will form a semicircle before the fire, while there descends above their mouths from a hook in the ceiling, a string with a stick attached. At one end is an apple, at the other a candle." 2/3

"To snatch the apple with the lips, and yet avoid the candle, is the aim of the competitors. The bobbers often find themselves catching the candle in their hair while aiming at the apple. This appears to be a relic of the ancient Welsh game of quintain, or gwyntyn" 3/3
#Halloween

FIN... for now!

That's the end of this "Halloween in Wales" thread, but I've got lots more spooky goodness coming up between now and October 31.

Thanks for joining me for the ride, and feel free to add your own titbits of eerie info....

#Halloween19 #Halloween

Did I ever tell you about the Welsh jack-o'-lantern?
You can read all about the 'dreaded ghost' here:
nation.cymru/culture/hallow…
#wales #Halloween19 #halloween