[Christine O’Keeffe’s Halloween Customs ]
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Ancestor Night or November Eve Ireland, Scotland. People visit elderly relatives, family, and friends and make food that was special to honored friends and relatives. Old ways of looking at things are abandoned. It is a time of self reflection.

Buadh: Divining: (pron. BOO-ah) Ireland, Scotland. Divining games are performed on Halloween by some in order to see their fortune for the New Year. A black cat is good luck, a white cat is bad luck. Halloween symbols are poisonous herbs. Three luggies: bowls with handles like Druid lamps are filled, one with clean, one with dirty water, and one left empty. The man is blindfolded and turned three times. If his left hand touches clean water, he marries a maiden; dirty, a widow; empty dish, not at all. He tries until he gets the same result twice. The dishes are changed each time. (7, 26)

Valloo: Dumb Supper A meal eaten in silence to which the dead are invited. The dead are present as invisible entities. Doors and windows are left unlocked to let them in the house. soddag valloo: dumb cake. The Samhain ritual, preparation of the ceremonial food, etc. must be overseen by nine women. On Bealtaine it is nine men. Girls are given a small piece of dough, mixed with any but spring water. They knead the dumb cake with their left thumbs, in silence. Before midnight they prick initials on them with a new pin, and put them by the fire to bake. At midnight each lover enters and lay his hand on the cake marked with his initials. (7, 15)


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© 1998. Christine O’Keeffe, Ver. 3.0. Sunday, October 3, 2004