HALLOWE'EN OBSERVANCES.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 10 April 1914, Page 7

HALLOWE'EN OBSERVANCES.

The night of All Hallows' Eve (October 31) is, perhaps, more remarkable than any other, both on account of the extraordinary opinions popularly entertained concerning it, and the peculiar observances by which it has been, and still is, so widely and uniformly distinguished. The notions and customs are obviously of Pagan origin, for there is nothing,, in jthe next day's festival to have given rise to them. The superstitions still survive to a considerable extent in Scotland, Ireland, and remote country places. The leading idea respecting Hallowe'en is that it is the time of all others when supernatural influences prevail. It is the night set apart for a universal walking abroad and bustling about of spirits and all sorts of beings not of this world. In Lancashire it was at one time firmly believed that pn this night the witches assembled together at their general rendezvous in the Forest of Pendle, a ruined and desolate farmhouse, termed the Malkin Tower, from the awful purposes to which it was devoted.. This superstition led to a curious ceremong called "lating," or "lecting," the witches. It was supposed" that if a lighted candle were carried about the fells or hills from eleven to twelve at night, and burned all that time steadily, it had so far TRIUMPHED OVER THE POWER OP THE WITCHES, who, as they passed the Malkin Tower, would employ their utmobt efforts to extinguish the light, and hence the person whom it represented might safely defy their malice. If, however, the candle by any chance went out, it was deemed highly inauspicious. Hallowe'en superstitions are also as general in France as in Scotland. Thus a child born on All Saints' Eve is supposed to have the gift of sec-ond-sight, while should you wish to know whether \ou will live long you must light a' huge fire, and throw into it several white stones. If these stones are consumed by the morning you will die within the year. Another popular species of vaticination practised is that of the Three Dishes. Two of these are filled respectively with clean and dirty water, and one is empty. They are ranged on the hearth, and then all the young men, blindfolded, approach in succession, and dip their left hands into one of the dishes. If they dip into the clean water they are to marry a spinster ; if into the dirty wafer, a widow ; but if they put their hands into the empty dish, they will not marry at all.