Bizarre Victorian fact of the day...

In 19th century Britain, Halloween was celebrated differently from region to region. More religious communities, particularly Northern areas with a traditionally Catholic population, focused their activities on remembering departed relatives in accordance with the Christian All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day. Other more superstitious regions, particularly rural areas, were more concerned with the supernatural forces associated with ancient festivals, such as the Celtic Samhain, and their own local legends.

However both types of celebration shared an emphasis on fire. On Halloween night some Catholic families (who had been discouraged from openly practicing their religion since the 16th century) would travel to remote hills where one person would hold up a bunch of burning straw on the end of a pitchfork. The others knelt in a circle around them and prayed for their relatives in purgatory until the flames burnt out. Other rural communities would gather in their fields and walk around the perimeter with a burning branch to ward off witches and bad luck. Bonfires were also popular and youngsters would lay down as close to the fire as they could to let the smoke wash over them as it was thought to possess protective powers.

Queen Victoria witnessed Halloween celebrations of this kind on one of her many visits to Scotland. In her diary on 31st October 1866 she wrote “While we were at Mrs Grant’s we saw the commencement of the keeping of Halloween. All the children came out with burning torches, shouting and jumping…When we drove home [to Balmoral] we saw all the gillies [Scottish men and boys who acted as attendants on hunting trips] coming along with burning torches, and torches and bonfires appeared also on the opposite side of the water. We went upstairs to look at it from the windows, from whence it had a very pretty effect.”