Happy Halloween in Welsh is Nos Galan Gaeaf Hapus.
Halloween has become more and more popular since the American-style celebration made its way across the Atlantic. Homes are decked out in spooky decorations, kids go door-to-door trick-or-treating and there are various Hallowen events, including discos, pumpkin picking and scarecrow contests etc,
While modern-day Halloween is a recent innovation, Nos Galan Gaeaf, as it's called in Wales, is actually a very ancient tradition and similar to the Celtic festival of Samhain. Calan Gaeaf is celebrated on November 1st as the first day of winter, and a celebration of the summers harvest. (From the 9th Century onwards, this became bound up with the Christian festivals of All Saints and All Souls Day, after the Church moved these from spring to autumn.) The night before (Nos Galan Gaeaf - translated
as 'first day of winter night') became synonymous with the spirits of the dead - a night when the veil between the living and the dead became thin enough for the spirits to come through and walk the earth with the living, and an opportunity for folk to be re-united with their departed loved ones.
Stwmp naw rhyw
The end of October being the end of harvest time, if the weather had been kind and the crops bountiful, the stores would be full for the hard winter months ahead. Giving thanks for the harvest, people would eat a special meal on Nos Cala Gaeaf, called stwmp naw rhyw. Containing a selection of vegetables, this hearty dish would be cooked in a large cauldron over a roaring fire. It traditionally contained nine main ingredients including carrots, parsnips, potatoes, turnips, leeks, peas, milk and butter - although other ingredients could also be used if they were plentiful. (Nine was significant in Celtic folklore.) This meal was believed to keep evil spirits at bay. Sometimes a wedding ring would be concealed in the casserole type mash, and whoever found it would be married within the year, or so it was said.
Other harvest games played on Nos Galan Gaeaf included twco fala or bobbing for apples, and hiding the harvest mare - a little horse made from stalks of corn. caseg fedi This was a 'corn dolly' formed from the very last sheaf of corn, and would eventually take pride of place above the fire hearth as a sign that all the corn was gathered in. The women would have been preparing the harvest feast as the harvest finished. The men would throw their reaping hooks at the Mare and the one who was first to hit it would have the honour of bringing it into into the house with much merriment and jollity, past the women who would attempt to prevent its entry by trying to soak the mare with water, while the men did their best to keep it dry until they had entered the house with it. If successful, the reaper who had brought down the mare and carried it in would be rewarded with beer, if not he would have to sit at the end of the table in disgrace.
People would try to predict the future by running around the church three times and peering through the keyhole at midnight.
Coelcerth
Coelcerth (bonfires) were lit on village greens, in town squares and on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits and allow revellers to recognise the friendly faces of their family spirits. Bonfires were also used to tell fortunes. One popular pastime on Nos Galan Gaeaf was to scratch your name onto a stone and throw it into the flames. The next day, revellers searched among the ashes for their stone. If it was found burned clean, the owner would receive good luck. If a stone was lost, it was believed the owner would die within the year.
Spirits of Nos Galan Gaeaf
Being a supernatural festival, less welcome spirits could also enter the world.
Y Ladi Wen (the White Lady) was said to guard crossroads and graveyards against other, more sinister spirits. In North Wales, Hwch Ddu, the Black Sow, was one of Calan Gaeaf's more frightening apparitions. At the end of the celebration a shout would be heard for everyone to return home before the black sow appeared, and they would all run to their houses to avoid being eaten by the dreadful creature.
In some parts of Wales, young men would dress up in girls clothing and young women dressed as men. Known as gwrachod or witches, they would go from house to house singing and chanting in the hope of food and drink. They were seen as bringers of good fortune, flushing evil spirits from households.
These days many of these customs have largely died out, replaced by the more modern ways of celebrating Halloween, although some, like 'bobbing for apples' still remain.
I thought I'd finish with a short excerpt from the first book in the Destiny trilogy, Starquest. I think this part has a really 'spooky' feel to it, although it's SF romance rather than witches or vampires!
My heroine is stranded on an uninhabited planet with her companion Dahll, who has been badly wounded She keeps guard during the night, watching over him and trying to tend to his wounds, but has a feeling they are not alone.
Then tiny, dancing pinpoints of light appear...
EXCERPT FROM STARQUEST
I began to grow very tired. It was a few hours before dawn, and I’d had no sleep since the previous evening. I slowly eased my aching limbs into a more comfortable position. As I did so, my eyes caught a flicker of light moving toward the entrance of the shelter.
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After a while I decided it was just marsh gas, but as I watched I became aware that the 'flames' were orderly. They moved in groups of threes and fours, gliding in straight lines and then circling to retrace their steps in what seemed to be a methodical fashion, as no Will o' the Wisp ever did. I began to feel I was in the presence of something malevolent...evil. Then I heard the voices. Strange, unearthly voices, which had nothing to do with flesh and blood.
"Take the male," they hissed, "while he yet lives. Before the life-force within him dies and is of no use to us."
"Wait. The female is stronger," came another voice. "Stay until she sleeps. Then will be our chance, and we can take them both."
I reached for my blaster, by now fully charged, and fired a steady beam in the direction of the 'flames.' When I laid down the gun there was nothing, only the darkness. Had the voices been in my imagination, or was it a dream? But I knew I had not slept. Trying to recall the experience, as I record this, I realise they did not speak in words at all. Yet I had understood... I've always loved the night, the beauty of the darkened, star-filled skies. Here, however, on this forsaken and perilous planet, it is menacing, with the sense of something lurking, lying in wait.
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