Glasgow's Halloween in days gone by - a spooky stroll back in time

Halloween has Glasgow in its grip this weekend, albeit a very different one from previous years.

Our sister newspaper The Glasgow Herald noted in 1938 that it’s not just for the kids, pointing out that the Glasgow Saint Andrew Society had celebrated the event every year since its inception in 1912.

The 1938 party, staged at the city’s Saltire House, was for the grown-ups. The official programme was written entirely in broad Scots, remarking that the guisers “merched roon’ the lecture ha’ and showed aff their cantrips and camperlecks.”

One attraction offered what the paper described, hilariously, as “illuminating peeps into the future ... accomplished in a dim light over kail stems and with the assistance of a small boy hidden away in a cupboard.”

Damian Barr, writer and host of Sunday night’s The Big Scottish Book Club on BBC Scotland, remembers Halloween fondly.

“Long before the days of pumpkins I remember stubbornly trying to carve rock-hard neeps,” he says. “One year I used the ‘big knife’ , quickly resulting in lots of seasonally appropriate blood and an actual bandage.

“I still went out that night - dressed as a ghost in a sheet. I remember learning to chant ‘the sky is blue the grass is green now please may I have my Halloween?’

“Probably not the most original but it worked. I loved, and still love, the transformative thrill of dressing up. For one night you can be anyone.”

Don’t miss tomorrow’s Times Past for more spooky memories of Halloween...get in touch to share yours, too.