Halloween in South Uist nearly a century ago

Photos from the 1930s show the creativity and resourcefulness of youngsters dressing up for Oidhche Shamhna - the night now called Halloween in the English language.

Indeed, the tradition of guising and receiving treats from householders is deeply rooted in traditional Gaelic and Celtic culture.

Oidhche Shamhna as it is called in Gaelic - Halloween is a relatively more modern term in the Hebrides - marked the change from summer to dark winter. People would dress up in disguise, in home-made costumes devised from material found around the house and croft - mostly wool, hay, corn stalks, as well as old or borrowed clothes - before plodding around the village using a lit peat as a torch.

It was also known as Oidhche nan Cleas (‘the Night of Tricks’) when youngsters would play pranks on their neighbours.

Photographs depicting the practice 90 years ago were snapped by folklorist, Margaret Fay Shaw, who lodged with two sisters in North Glendale, South Uist, for a period, recording local customs and islanders’ way of life.

The National Trust for Scotland has released some of her photos saying “Halloween on South Uist in 1932 looked pretty terrifying.

“Children made homemade costumes from sheepskins, haystack wigs, scraped-out skulls and sheep ears.

“One boy spent an entire day peeling the skin from a sheep skull to make his mask.”

Margaret Fay Shaw of Pennsylvania was one of the first female photographers of the 20th century.

Her collection of almost 9,000 images is kept in the archives of Canna House on the Isle of Canna, where she lived with her husband, the renowned Gaelic folklorist John Lorne Campbell, from 1938 when they bought the island. She died in 2004.

Throughout her lifetime, she took thousands of photos documenting life in the Hebrides. Her work is significant for its scale and its subject matter

The couple were both fascinated by folklore and ancient culture and language, especially Gaelic, and during their lifetimes collected – and indeed created - an enormous amount of information of historical importance.

Halloween in South Uist nearly a century ago

1 November 2022