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 'Teir Nos Ysprydnos' - three nights for spirits - upon which ghosts walk and fairies are abroad."

#Wales #Halloween #Ghosts #Folklore

I'll be updating this thread daily with snippets of Welsh folklore from various sources (references to follow) as we count down to October 31.
Oh, and for lots more Halloween history, be sure to check out the GHOSTS & FOLKLORE podcast... if you dare! 🎃
markreesonline.com/ghosts-folklor…

"Nos Calan Gaeaf or All Hallows' Eve was a time of much festivity. In the days of old it was attended by many superstitious rites & ceremonies. A huge log was thrown on the fire for heat & light. As a rule, the only illumination was that of the ruddy fire-glow."
#Halloween #Wales

Nos Calan Gaeaf (Halloween in Wales) was the "weirdest of all the Teir Nos Ysbrydion, or three spirit nights, when the 'wind blowing over the feet of the corpses' bore sighs to the houses of those who were to die during the ensuing year."
#Halloween #Wales 🎃

"If you sit in the church porch at midnight on Hallowe'en, or all through the night, you will see a procession of all the people who are to die in the parish during the year, and they will appear dressed in their best garments."
#Halloween #Wales 🎃🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

"It was firmly believed in former times that on All Hallows' Eve (in Wales) the spirit of a departed person was to be seen at midnight on every cross-road and on every stile."
#Halloween #Wales 🎃

"If at midnight (on Halloween) any persons had the courage to run three times around the parish church and then peep through the keyhole of the door, they would see the apparitions of those who were soon to die."
#Halloween #Wales 🎃

"In some parts of Wales the girls (on Halloween) used to go at midnight and strip the leaves from a branch of the sage-bush. The apparitions of their future husbands were supposed to pass at the time."
#Halloween #Wales 🎃

"If people on this night (Halloween) go to crossroads and listen to what the wind has to say, they can thereby learn all the most important things that concern them during the next year."
#Halloween #Wales 🎃

"If crows caw round the house in the afternoon of Hallowe'en, there will be a corpse of an inmate or the dead body of an animal belonging to the inhabitant soon."
#Halloween #Wales 🎃

"All sorts of tricks were performed and charms were tried. All kinds of games were the order of the evening. The younger folk amused themselves by catching apples with their teeth from a tub of water, or suspended from a cord tied to the rafters."
#Halloween #Wales 🎃

How to play apple bobbing:
"The cord was strung with apples and had a farthing dip (candle) at the end. The greatest fun arose when somebody took a bite of candle and missed the apple. With the tub, those who entered had their hands tied behind their backs."
#Halloween #Wales 🎃

"When the people were tired they congregated around the old hearth and became attentive and scared listeners while the aged grandfather or grandmother related fairy-tales and ghost-stories in the fire-glow. Meanwhile in secret & silence tricks were attempted."
#Halloween #Wales🎃