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Those of you who have followed our blogs & publications over the years will know at the heart of what we aim to do at Talking Trees is ‘Keeping Alive the Old Ways & Celebrating the Year’ which includes both new traditions as well as the ancient. Halloween as we know it today is probably the best and most successful example of a mash folklore. At the heart of folklore is the root of the word itself – Lore - ‘a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth’. And as we all know that as we pass things on, they change and become of the place, the time and often of the people themselves. Halloween has certainly done just that and has become a ‘folklore’ phenomenon in and of The USA to the point where I’d cite it as being the ‘origin’ place of it in its current form and popularity, with its roots coming from the Scottish, Irish and other European settlers.

We are currently ‘touring’ America and Canada and over the past month have seen a level of preparation and anticipation of this folklore event in these countries that is not matched anywhere else.

Its easy as a folklorist from Britain to become a bit ‘sniffy’ when it comes to folklore because of our long history, our hybrid culture developed from being a conquered and conquering nation and our roots as agricultural/pastoral, all of which has resulted in a wealth of past traditions, superstitions and annual celebrations. However, our ‘younger cousins’ have masterfully taken the core elements of a summers end festival, originating in our isles, to great heights of new ‘join-in’ festivity.

Our blend of Halloween connects Gaelic Samhain, marked particularly in Ireland, Scotland and Isle of Man and Nos Galan Gaeaf in Wales, that marked the end of summer and beginning of winter, together with the Christian church’s marking All Saints Day and Catholic All Souls Day, a tradition of seasonal bonfires, initially part of the end of the pastoral cycle, and Bonfire traditions following The Gunpowder Plot’s notoriety particularly in Southern England and into the Midlands, all of which led to a version of Halloween that was particularly celebrated in the Northern regions of the UK. A recent survey showed that people aged 60 plus had little or no association or memory of celebration of Halloween as children if they lived in the South or Midlands and that only northern and particularly Scottish people had recollections of the time being marked in any way. What we do know is that turnip carved lanterns, apple bobbing, divination games and guising door to door ‘begging ‘was part of the ‘northern’ traditions apparently influenced by wanting to recognise the change of season and with an inherent fear of the dark months and association with ghosts and the fey folk that have been recorded by that age group. But it appears that it began to spread, to become more present over the past 30 years, into all of the UK as America’s celebrations influenced us.

The key elements of ‘our’ Halloween were taken over to the States by those first settlers, together with a sprinkling of Victorian revival folklore ‘traditions’ and the writings of the likes of James George Frazer (1854–1941), who was a famous British anthropologist of his day, and who wrote the phenomenally successful book The Golden Bough in which he attempted to explain a history of our traditions - not always very accurately some would say - giving versions of how and why things were done.

What followed became America’s own full-on take which has now been brought back to us and the rest of the world, such is its popularity.

I could be cynical that the ‘candy’producers, modern popular culture such as films and TV and all types of commercial gain have fuelled the development of this seasonal celebration, however when we look at many a tradition there have always been ‘facilitators’ that financially benefit as interest and opportunity present themselves, with their contributions adding to the occasion. I think of the monks back in Chirbury in the late 12th and 13th centuries, who made tiny saint figures, to be purchased aiding connection and prayer, basically holy merchandise, that were sold to people who attended the gatherings on the borderland hills in places such as nearby Rorrington, where we once lived, and that even now they could occasionally be found ‘littering’ the banks of the stream.

What we have noticed here in the States is not just the pumpkin ‘Jack-a-lanterns’ grotesque carved faces but that many, many homes have pumpkins, squash, corn cobs and all manner of vegetables, corn, flowers adorning their porches and as wreaths on doors and swags along balconies that seem to hark much more to a celebration of harvest end. The popularity of Farmer’s Almanacs over here in some way has helped perpetuate and keep alive the seasonal influences, often referencing the origins and beginnings back to the early settlers’ countries and linking it to Summers end and the end of the agricultural cycle. The other influence seems to be the proximity to Mexico and Latin-American culture which has its own celebration of Día de los Muertos- Day of the Dead, that takes place over a couple of days incorporating Catholic All Souls Day on November 2nd. The beautiful decoration on many of the rather grisly skulls and skeletons that populate these celebrations really bring a different level of creativity and colour into proceedings, as life as much as death is honoured and have spilled into Halloween decorations and costumes.

We have of course also seen streets, shops, homes ‘dressed’ in suitably scary and very commercial looking Halloween merchandise and shops filled with so many sweet items for ‘Trick-or-Treat’ purposes that one can only imagine dentists gleefully rubbing their hands as they deal with the aftermath. But there really is a palpable excitement here as suitably themed music permeates the air, flyers and posters for events are everywhere and there is a real feeling of marking the day. This is after all at the heart of many a folklore tradition – it is of the moment; it is of the people now and it is being shared not only through generations but back to the ‘origin’ countries – showing them/us how to do it. I should add that not all Americans mark Halloween in this manner and some prefer not to mark it at all, but it is hard to get away from being involved, such is its popularity, especially if you have children, but not exclusively.

And yes there is a big part of me that craves a quiet private bonfire of lawn raked leaves & garden cuttings, a simple jacket potato, a baked apple, candlelight and only an owl serenading my marking the cross-quarter day of Samhain (a tradition I have taken on from our Gaelic neighbours traditions) where I remember my recent and past ancestors, have time to contemplate summers end and mark winter’s beginning. But being in the USA & Canada, seen through my folklorist eyes, has made me realise the true celebration is that we are united as people still wanting to keep alive the old ways and celebrate the year. The enthusiasm is catching.

Thank you to all the lovely people in the USA and Canada that we have met on our travels and for sharing your folklore and ways of celebrating with us.

Here are some Folklore Traditions in the UK that are rather calming compared to our USA cousins and that you may want to try as part of your celebrations today.

Listen to or try singing some ‘Souling’ songs – these were songs traditionally sung for the dead that became taken around houses in return for a soul cake or other financial or food recompense. By singing a souling song the soul of recently departed loved ones , that may be in purgatory would come closer to their heavenly goal. (Most associated with All Soul’s Day – 2ndDecember) it became one of many ‘begging’ traditions to support the poor and needy, together with ‘guising’ (the tradition of disguising yourself) then going door to door or in a central location to achieve food or finance to help survival when work was short.

Make some Soul Cakes- certainly nowhere near the intake of sugar of current ‘trick or treat candy! The Soul cake would traditionally be marked with a cross cut into it. Large estate houses were recorded as having cooks bake many batches made to hand out to the poor and needy. Or perhaps a bowl of Frumenty, a porridge like meal that could be sweet or savoury and was recoded as given to the ploughmen on finishing the harvest as well as featuring in Christmas meals in poorer households.

Divination Games – became popular as this time of the year has become associated with our ancestors and the dead. One such game was looking into a mirror at midnight and seeing who appears to predict a future spouse.

Apples are particularly associated with this time of year with apple bobbing, apples on strings and even the pips in apples being utilised into divination games.

It is hardly surprising that minds became focussed on death as the winter began and the vulnerable were picked off by illness, cold and famine. It is thought that by wearing costumes, lighting bonfires and making merry was a way to face up to the demons lurking and waiting to get us in the dark winter nights.

Ghostly Tales – the telling of ghostly tales over the winter months has long been popular, as we are in the darker part of the year and we find ourselves more easily frightened by the shadows, we become drawn to reading, listening to or sharing tales – true or otherwise.

However you choose to mark this time of the year we wish you more treats than tricks, happiness, a bit of frightening fun and that you have a cosy late-autumn and wintertime . Make time to remember those who are no longer with us and invite them into your hearts and homes to mark summers end with you and the transition into winter.

You may want to take a look at our new Countdown ‘Advent’ Calendars from our shop

Both have a slightly more folklore and ghostly look. The Winter Wassailing Countdown shows mummers visiting the crab apple tree to wassail it for a bountiful supply of fruit in the following year to benefit the animals of the woods and The Yuletide Hauntings Countdown includes famous December Hauntings behind each door and shows a ghostly Mari Lwyd on its front.

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The place names are familiar Halifax, Loch Lomond, Chelsea, Cornwall intermingled with the exotic sounding Martinique Beach and Musquodoboit harbour. A couple of hours down the road is Oak Island where a real life treasure hunt is televised in the belief of Templar treasure, maybe even the grail, being buried there.  Almost like Blighty but not quite. The Union Jack flows freely with the Canadian Maple and Nova Scotia flags in this warm summer ending and beginning of Autumn.

We have been travelling over the past weeks and find ourselves in Nova Scotia, ‘New Scotland’ so named by Sir William Alexander having been given the land by King James VI of Scotland in 1621. Originally this was the land of the Mi’ kmaq people and first colonised by the French who created the capital Arcadia. Needless to say the history of this area is fraught with land grabs and fighting which to an outsider visitor is invisible on the surface of a beautiful, peaceful area with a chilled out vibe.

And so we are celebrating the Autumn Equinox here, a moment in time when there is balance, a halfway point between the longest and shortest days before we move towards change -less daylight and the beginnings of winter. It’s the official date of the start of Autumn but it has felt like there is change for some weeks now.

I decide to record the days leading up to the equinox with snaps of my surroundings as I would do in Britain and to take note of the changes with an interest of what will Autumn be like here.

I’m surprised to find so much of what I know,  well what I almost know - there is familiarity in colour, light, flora and fauna but it’s not quite the same.

The Atlantic roughs up the golden beach most days here making a surf worthy of being ridden by the most experienced to beginners , but at sunrise and sunset it seems to settle, to quieten and take on Turneresque colours that are so hard to find on a paint palette. Stunted, almost Scott’s pine trees silhouette making ‘fake’ looking views of cheap art. But it’s real as are the deer on the lawn, the Snowshoe Hares who are getting a first dot of winter white on their foreheads.

Plovers and Sanderlings - not quite our type- busy up and down the sand like mice. Amongst them are locusts,  just landed, and bright yellow butterflies.

The sand dunes have clover, solidago and  Michaelmas Daisies - all out at the ‘right’ time but not quite the ‘right’ place.

It makes me consider how do things become familiar, how long does it take know these plants and animals, to know the approach of Autumn, its smell, its light, its feel before announced and how I somehow know all the indicators that align to make me feel and live the British Autumn. So now I find myself feeling slightly discombobulated in this different place - the Atlantic separating me from my British Autumn but I’m comforted too - we are not so different and people here are anticipating the Autumn and enjoying the late harvest just as we do in Blighty.

The Autumnal Equinox has been and is still known by other names, some call it Second Harvest, some call it Mabon, Alban Elfed. Autumn is known simply and beautifully as Fall in Canada and the States. The word transition is used by many people here to describe this time, it feels gentler than the word change.  Gratefulness for the harvest is percieved as corncobs, brassica and fruits are bought from roadside stalls - made all the better by the chat with the stall holder who cares about the food they are selling and an air of contemplation about winter ahead. I’m told that this time of the year can bring Hurricanes to Nova Scotia and I think of the fresh Autumn winds we get back home that whilst problematic not wreckers at the scale experienced here many years.

Perhaps this unfamiliarity is making me more receptive and considerate of a need to be open to what comes our way. I’m feeling such joy seeing the familiar, not only reminding me of home but also that it lives here too just slightly differently. And after all isn’t this time of the year just about things being slightly different, transitioning until we reach the next marker in our annual celebrations. It makes me feel a sense of peace at a time when this is such a rare and needed thing. I can only hope that if enough of us can find a sense of calm and peace that others may follow.

So let us delight in our surroundings, no matter where we call home, and marvel at what we see and experience, give a moment for thanks and a moment for witnessing Autumn coming into our lives once more.

We were lucky enough to see a spectacular  Full Super Moon a couple of days ago here, a local called it Grandmother Moon. The

Mi’ kmaq believe that each thing in nature has a spirit and that we are connected through our daily life with the natural world and Mother Earth. This brings respect to all things from sea to sand to rocks to flora, to fauna to celestial plains. The year is split into 12, by the moons (occasionally13) and each sector is representative of a natural event such as The Running of Maple Syrup (Si’Ko’Ku’s), The Croaking of Frogs. We will be working more with this beautiful way to mark the year and hope to share it with you next year.

At heart we are still British Island Folklorists but seeing how ‘our’ folklore has travelled to this land and the folklore of other countries and has been of such interest to see how it has changed to suit the people, the land, the climate. Together with our gaining an appreciation of the indigenous First Nation people’s folklore and knowledge has inspired and opened our eyes as we see and hear a familiar unfamiliar. That is our transition and our gentle harvest this year.

Hoping your harvest and transition into Autumn is gentle too and that we all continue to find wonderment by small things such as a leaf turning red no matter where we are on our beautiful earth.

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Lammas (England) Lughnasadh (Ireland,Scotland & Isle of Man) and Gŵyl Awst (Wales) are the names associated with this time of the year throughout the British Isles. Marking and celebrating the first of the harvests bread was made from the first grains gathered, in Ireland Bilberries were ripe for the picking and ‘first-harvest’ dances, sports, feasts took place.

Hill climbing, well dressing and straw crafts were popular as ways to mark this turning point of the year.

For us at Talking Trees it marks the launch of the 2025 Country Wisdom & Folklore Diary and is truly the point of harvesting all our efforts and endeavours to keep alive the old ways and celebrate the year. We love that it’s the time we can share our snippets that we have collected whilst travelling around the British Isles. In this our 15th year we are truly grateful that people are still as interested, as we are, in these old ways & wisdoms, fairs & festivals, curiosities and eccentricities of our isles. Combine this with a love and respect for Mother Nature and an interest in observing astronomical occurrences and we have all the ingredients that make up our diary.

This year we are delighted to tell you about the diary’s stitched binding, a greener and more functional binding and its gatefold cover that gives flaps to keep your place as you travel through the pages of the year. We have continued to use an accessible font on coloured paper to enable easier reading for as many people as possible together with sustainable printing production methods. Every year we try to take another step to making our environmental footprint as gentle as possible.

The front cover of the diary celebrates ancient trees, and is inspired by the Major Oak of Sherwood Forest. Throughout the diary we have a few other references and stories relating to our trees. We see this years diary as coming from the woodland to the clearings where wildflowers grow and hares leap.

The last of the pyramid orchids are flowering & replacing their injection of vibrant pink is Rosebay Willow Herb. This prolific large wild flower is seen on grass verges and wastelands and is often considered an invasive weed, however this gloriously coloured plant offers a burst of flaming pink in swathes throughout our Isles and beyond. It is known as fireweed in North America with a saying ‘When fireweed flowers turn to cotton summer is forgotten’.

This plant is also incredibly useful , you can weave baskets from its stem, and use its seed ‘fluff’as tinder, make a sweet jelly, a healing tea and some even use it to add to ice cream ingredients.

Harvest suggests an ending to a cycle and also allows us to begin the next. It is not an end but it is a time to reap what has been sown. Hopefully our efforts throughout the year lead us all to a good personal harvest that we can celebrate but if things haven’t gone quite as hoped we know we can begin again and sow new seeds that still have time for fruition before year’s end.

Traditionally a libation is offered to the earth to show the respect it deserves for allowing our crops to grow. Some communities buried a bit of the harvest loaf and poured a little drop of ale, others buried last year’s corn dolly(this happens at many different times according to local tradition). The idea of giving thanks is one that we should carry with us and not taking what we have for granted. If you can maybe offer a libation to the earth or you could say thank you to someone in your community for their efforts in sustaining us. From bakers to brewers we all live better lives for their efforts.

And so we give thanks to you for your support and kindness, we never take you for granted and always have you in mind as we create the diary. We hope you will enjoy this year’s offering.

From August 2nd the Wall Calendar will also be available on our website and a little later the new Yuletide countdown ‘advent’ calendar and fingers crossed The Little Book of Samhain/All Hallow’s Eve - so please do keep a look out on our website or Etsy shop for new bits and bobs.

Wishing you a bountiful harvest and joy as you ponder on the next seeds to sow xx


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