GUISING IN HALLOWEEN

Class: PET | Teacher: Dina BrancoCastelo Branco, 31st October 2015

guising1. (Theatre) (in Scotland and Northern England) the practice or custom of disguising oneself in fancy dress, often with a mask, and visiting people's houses, especially at Halloween.

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/guising

Since the Middle Ages there had been a tradition of mumming on certain holidays. It involved going door-to-door in costume, performing short plays in exchange for food or drink.

The custom of trick-or-treating at Halloween may come from the belief that supernatural beings, or the souls of the dead, roamed the earth at this time and needed to be appeased.

The wearing of costumes, or "guising", at Hallowmas (All Saints), had been recorded in

Scotland in the 16th century and was later recorded in other parts of Britain and Ireland.

There are many references to mumming, guising or souling at Halloween in Britain and

Ireland during the late 18th century and the 19th century.

In parts of southern Ireland, a man dressed as a Láir Bhán (white mare) led youths house-to-house reciting verses—some of which had pagan overtones—in

exchange for food. If the household donated food it could expect good

fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune.

According to one 19th century English writer "parties of children, dressed up in fantastic costume […] went round to the farm houses and cottages, signing a songsong, and begging forcakes (spoken of as"soal-cakes"), apples, money, or anything that the goodwives would give them".

Guising at Halloween in Scotland is recorded in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit

homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. The practice of Guising at Halloween in North

America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children

going "guising" around the neighborhood

THE END

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/guising

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/10/how-the-tradition-of-trick-or-treating-got-started/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-or-treating

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-trick-or-treating