Tradition – Fairytales, Folklore & Fables – Tell me a Story

I was thinking about Scottish Halloween traditions which are part of oral folklore and stories that have been passed down from generation to generation, adapted and used by other cultures and some of which are archaic and perhaps forgotten.

Dooking (ducking) for apples was/is a Halloween game where you had to try and grab a bobbing apple from a large container of water whilst keeping your hands behind your back and using only your mouth/teeth.  There is another version of this hands-free game where you have to try and eat a toffee apple hanging from a string.
Guising is the origin of today’s trick or treating.  Children would disguise themselves to blend in with the evil spirits that walked on Halloween, thus protecting themselves from harm.  They would also perform songs, stories, tricks etc and be rewarded with gifts designed to ward off evil spirits.  Now of course, kids just turn up and expect treats for doing nothing!

Neep (turnip) lanterns were also designed to ward off evil spirits and again are the origin of pumpkin lanterns.  It is much easier to carve a pumpkin than a solid turnip!

Other seasonal things I remember my mum doing when I was a kid were all about food and quite often involved treacle.  She used to make treacle toffee and treacle scones, both of which were delicious.  I would be tempted to make treacle toffee this month if I thought my teeth could handle it but it is more likely that I would lose a filling or two lol, but I might be tempted to make treacle scones which were my all time favourite scones she used to make for me.  I just have to remember to pick up some treacle and I might do that at the weekend.

What are your favourite Halloween traditions?

Hope you feel inspired to join in the challenge this month and have fun with it!  Let me know what you think in the comments.   As always, thanks for reading!

Ingredients
my handmade journal, watercolour paper, watercolour, Pitt artist pens,

Challenges

Art Journal Journey – Fairytales, Folklore & Fables

Daily Prompts

Here are the prompts I will be using and you can probably tell that a lot of them are related to fairytales, but you don’t have to use them that way or you don’t have to use them at all.  I will be attempting all 31 days but I may not make it and that’s OK too.  The prompts are there if you feel stuck or in need of extra inspiration.   I just respond well to a daily prompt and I will also be sharing my pages on Instagram.  If you share your work on Instagram there is a hashtag.  Please note, that to enter the Art Journal Journey challenge using the Mr Linky tool, you will have to link from a blog since it is a blog challenge.

Or you can ignore the daily prompts completely and focus on the overarching theme for the month.  The daily prompts are there if you want to make more pages but need some extra prompting.