Kindling the Hallow Fire.
In the days when the “hallow fire” was kindled, various magic ceremonies preceded its lighting. These exorcised the demons and witches and rendered them powerless. When the ceremonies were finished, the fire was lighted and carefully guarded by the men of the family from the depredations of certain societies which were formed, sometimes through pique and at other times for fun alone, for the purpose of scattering these fires. The attack and defense were often “conducted with art and fury.”
The first ceremony of Hallowe’en was pulling the kail (stalk). By its shape and size the young women determined the figure and size of their future husbands, while any “yird,” or earth, sticking to the roots meant fortune. The taste of the “custoc,” or heart of the stalk, showed the temper and disposition, and finally the stems or “runts” are placed above the door, and the Christian name of the person whom Fate sends first through the door gives the name of the gentleman.
In an old book of the early part of the sixteenth century there is a passage as follows:
“We rede in olde tyme good people wolde on All Halowen daye bake brade and dele it for all crysten soules.”
This refers to the ancient custom of the poor going “a-souling,” or asking for money which they earned by fasting for the souls of the alms-givers and his kinsfolk. Presumably the “brede” was not eaten until the day after.
In some places these loaves were called “sau’mas loaves”—soul-mass—and were kept in the house for luck. Bakers gave them to their customers, and thus they resembled the Good-Friday bread and cross-buns.
The vigil and ringing of bells all night long upon All Hallows was abolished under Henry VIII, but, in spite of this, half a century later, under Elizabeth, a special injunction forbade all superfluous ringing of bells. Evidently the laws were not enforced then any more than now, and the nerves of the people were tried as they are in these days. It is our doorbells, however, not church-bells, that keep us on edge, with the small boy at the button.