The McNairn Times

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Publisher: Cheryl "Zetta McNairn" Grice Volume No. 2 Issue No.7 Date: October, 2002

The word "Halloween" has its origins in the Catholic Church. It is a corruption of the contraction of All Hallow’s Eve, the night before All Saint’s Day (Nov.1). But the holiday itself originated in Celtic Ireland in the 5^th century BC . It was Samhain, the beginning of the Celtic New Year. It was said that the spirits of people who had died during the previous year would come back on that night in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. So people would extinguish the fires in their homes, making them undesirable for the spirits to enter. It is not known for sure, but it is thought that people would then relight their home fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.  

The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

 The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

 The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, a notorious drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. After Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. So, the devil gave him a single ember, placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer, to light his way through the frigid darkness. (The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips.)

Here are some interesting Irish Halloween traditions:

In England, the celebrating of Halloween as we know it in the US slowly ceased as the Protestant Reformation spread and Catholic holy days (like All Saints Day) were outlawed. Since the Protestants didn’t believe in saints, there was no reason to celebrate the eve of All Saints Day. However, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated around this time. Guy Fawkes was part of a band of conspirators who were accused of attempting to blow up the Houses of Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605. They wanted to overthrow the king and return England to the Catholic faith. They were apprehended, and Guy Fawkes was put to death. The following year, Parliament declared the fifth of November a day of public thanksgiving. Because Halloween was associated with the Catholic church calendar, its importance diminished in English social life, but many Halloween traditions were shifted to Guy Fawkes Day. Today, English children spend late October building dummies, known as "Guys". They set them out on street corners and beg passers-by for "a penny for the Guy". The evening of Nov. 4 is known as Mischief Night, when children are free to play pranks on adults. On the night of Nov. 5, the "Guys" are burned in bonfires.

In Scotland, current Halloween customs consist chiefly of children going door to door "guising" (or "Galoshin" on the south bank of the lower Clyde) --dressing up and offering entertainment of various sorts in return for gifts. Also, instead of carving a pumpkin, it appears that in Scotland a turnip is used. Halloween parties often consist of various games, for instance 'Dooking fur aiples' where the children bite apples floating in a basin of water. Sometimes flour is sprinkled on the surface of the water. For younger children a game is 'Forkin fur aiples', an easier task, where the children stand on a chair and hold a fork handle in their teeth, take aim, and release it into the basin of apples and water and retrieve and keep any apple they so skewer. Another game is 'treacle scones' where children eat a scone covered in treacle hanging on a piece of string.

In Canada, Halloween is celebrated pretty much the same as in the United States: children dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating, play games like bobbing for apples at parties, and try to scare each other with ghost stories!

In Australia, Halloween is not an official holiday and still somewhat unfamiliar to most of the population, although it seems to be gaining in popularity, especially among retailers who are trying to push costume and candy sales and encourage trick-or-treating.

Halloween is not a public holiday in Jamaica, although many popular tourist locations have parties to attract people. No wonder, since tourism is Jamaica’s main industry! Several web searches brought up mentions of Halloween celebrations, but these were at nudist clubs and other places that would be inappropriate for children.

Don’t forget to send me your reunion surveys that were sent out with last month’s newsletter. We have gotten a couple of responses but not many! So if you are planning on coming and would like to have some input , please send it to cheryllgrice@cs.com as soon as you can! Thanks!

In Scotland in the past few centuries, families named their children in a particular pattern with only occasional variations. This makes it easier to figure out some of families of the parents or sometimes if you know the families it helps in figuring out the order that the children were born.  

I will use as an example this family, William McNairn (1819-1898) and Margaret Russell, and their children William McNairn (b1857), Sarah Wallace McNairn (b1859), Mary McNairn (b1862), Agnes McNairn (b1864), Margaret McNairn (b1866) and Jessie McNairn (b1870). 

For a start the first born son would be named after the father’s father and the first daughter would be named for the mother’s mother. In this case William McNairn’s (b1819) father was William McNairn (b1780), and Margaret Russell’s mother was Sarah Wallace. The next son would be named for the mother’s father, and the third for the father - in this case William (b1857) is the only son I have record for. However the daughters are named thus: the second daughter for the father’s mother and the third for the mother. Here it comes close to working in this example - Mary is the second daughter and William’s mother was Mary Thomson. Now the third daughter is named Agnes instead of being named after the mother but Agnes was William’s grandmother. The fourth daughter Jessie should be named for the mother’s oldest sister or the father’s second oldest sister. I don’t have a Jessie in William’s family so I can presume that most likely Margaret Russell’s oldest sister was named Jessie.

 As I said there are variations, this is not a concrete rule - but it can help when looking at families and trying to figure out which ones go together. It definitely doesn’t work in all of our families that I have but it does in some.

 In some cases you will find that the order is reversed with the first and second children, i.e. the First born son being named after the Mother's father and the Second born son after the Father's father. If this is the case then the daughters are also reversed.

Family News

Well, not a whole heck of a lot to report this month…..we did have a few birthdays though! Brian McTaggart (Judi McNairn’s son) turned 18 on Oct. 10^th… My brother, Paul Moore, had a birthday on the 7^th…Kaye Pryor (my brother’s wife’s daughter from a previous marriage) had a birthday on the 24^th…and Ken and Lois Barron (nee McNairn) had their 35^th Wedding Anniversary on the 14^th ! Congratulations all!

Let’s see…..what else…..well, Alex Grice (my son) has joined Boy Scouts and got his Bobcat Badge on the 15^th (his first badge).

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Not published to the web to Protect Privacy

Not published to the web to Protect Privacy

Soft Sugar Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (Actually I used PAM spray) In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, blend completely. In medium sized bowl combine all of the dry ingredients. Working in thirds, add the dry ingredients first and alternate with the milk, mixing between each addition. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto parchment lines sheet pans and bake for 12 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are lightly browned. Cool on rack and sprinkle with additional sugar, if so desired.

From Cheryl’s Recipe Book

Cheryl