Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Halloween History Countdown - Day 4



From the Wikipedia article:

"Hop-tu-Naa is a Celtic festival celebrated in the Isle of Man on 31 October. Predating Halloween, it is the celebration of the original New Year's Eve (Oie Houney). The term is Manx Gaelic in origin, deriving from Shogh ta’n Oie, meaning "this is the night". Hogmanay, which is the Scottish New Year, comes from the same root.

For Hop-tu-Naa children dress up as scary beings and go from house to house with the hope of being given sweets or money, as elsewhere. However the children carry turnips rather than pumpkins and sing an Anglicized version of Jinnie the Witch. The changeover from turnips to pumpkins has also happened in Scotland, where the similar practice is called "guising".

In older times children would have also brought the stumps of turnips with them and batter the doors of those who refused to give them any money! (An ancient form of trick or treat, however this practice appears to have died out.)"

More info (and, heh, what looks like the source of the Wikipedia article) from the BBC on Hop-tu-naa!

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