What do you do for Halloween?

The nights are drawing in, the weather is getting colder and the leaves are falling from the trees. As we reluctantly switch on our heating, we look forward to the end of October, to Halloween and the start of a programme of winter festivities.

Here in the UK, and Scotland specifically where I’m from, Halloween is celebrated in good style. Our children dress up as witches and zombies and tv characters and, fed-up parent in tow, knock neighbours’ doors for a bag of treats.

Called guising in Scotland, this trick or treat tradition has been going on in the British Isles for centuries. Children knock the door and then must do a trick (usually telling a joke) to receive the treat.

Years ago, guising bags were stuffed full mainly of tangerines and peanuts, but nowadays it’s big business and confectionary companies must be rubbing their hands in glee at the amount of produce they shift at this time of year.

Another tradition in Scotland at Halloween is called Dooking for Apples. Dooking (or ducking) entails a large basin of water and apples. You place the apples in the basin and, putting your hands behind your back, you try and grab an apple using your teeth. Another way to do this is to place a fork in your mouth (grip the handle) and drop it at the apples. The person who spears an apple with his or her fork is a winner.

Talking of apples, the Scots also enjoy toffee (or candy) apples at this time of year along with sweets and cakes decorated to look like ghouls and witches. Parties are often held on the Saturday nearest to Halloween where adults and children alike dress up and enjoy a night of dancing and Halloween themed food and drink.

Houses too receive the Halloween makeover with the decorations often spilling out into our gardens. A big part of the fun and decorations is the carving of the pumpkins into Jack o’ Lanterns and these are placed on doorsteps, lit candles placed inside, to act as an indicator that children can come guising.

Before large orange pumpkins hit the shelves of UK supermarkets sometime in the 90s or 00s, the vegetable of choice (well in Scotland anyway) for making into a Jack o’ Lantern was the humble turnip (known as a Swede in England or rutabaga to our American friends). Many a Scottish child nearly hacked the tops off their fingers trying to carve out the hard flesh of this Celtic favourite.

Talking of our USA cousins and their neighbours in Canada, what do they do for Halloween? Like the UK, their children dress up to go trick or treating and they decorate their homes to celebrate the day.

But what happens elsewhere in the world? Depending where you stay, Halloween might be better known by its other names of All Hallows Eve or All Saints’ Eve.

In Belgium, some places celebrate Halloween whilst others celebrate November 1, All Saints’ Day, lighting a candle the evening before to remember the dead.

The Austrians like to take it one further by holding the Kürbisfest im Retzer Land pumpkin festival and they dress up in costumes and hold processions not on October 31 but on November 11. It is on this night they believe the dead can come back to Earth so they leave out bread, water and a lighted lamp to welcome them.

Next door in Germany, locals usually start decorating their homes for Halloween in mid-October. They continue this on until November 11 when they celebrate Matinstag, which, like the celebrations in Austria, includes a procession and dressing up.

Halloween is a relatively new celebration for the French and many do dress up in scary costumes and attend parties.

Elsewhere in the world and the pleasures of Halloween have even reached China. Foreigners brought the tradition to the east and where there are ex-pats, you’ll usually see Halloween decorations and people dressed up on October 31. The Chinese, however, do have special festivals to commemorate the dead including the Hungry Ghost Festival, the Spring Festival and the Qing Ming Festival.

In Japan, Halloween enjoyed its first big celebration when Tokyo Disneyland held its Halloween event in 2000. Since then, Halloween’s popularity has grown and the Japanese have embraced it by putting up decorations and dressing up.

So, what do you do for Halloween? I’d love to know.