Do you remember joining in with pumpkin carving, apple bobbing and other Halloween fun and games when you were growing up?
Maybe you still do!
We have delved through the DC Thomson archive and unearthed some brilliant photos of children dressed up for Halloween in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and noughties.
But what’s the history behind this date on the calendar which gets children going from door-to-door in spooky costumes to follow the old tradition of trick-or-treating, or guising as it used to be?
Although October 31 has been gradually usurped by North American traditions it’s worth remembering that the Celtic countries are the true home of Halloween.
Halloween was being celebrated in the north of Scotland when knife-wielding baddie Michael Myers was still a glint in his daddy’s eye.
The Celts celebrated the festival of Samhain on October 31 to mark the end of summer and the approach of the darkness of winter, effectively a new year.
On that night, the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest, so ghosts had the ability to return to earth, wearing costumes to ward off evil spirits, making bonfires and predicting the future.
October 31 became All Hallow’s Eve with the advance of Christianity, eventually corrupted into Halloween.
Halloween memories in Aberdeen
In the north of Scotland, it’s a festival which only drops off the calendar in times of war or pandemic.
In 1915, the press reported Halloween’s conspicuous lack of celebration in Aberdeen due to the Great War.
Things cheered up drastically after the war, with enthusiastic celebrations in 1938, the autumn before the outbreak of World War Two.
Echt, Skene and Midmar District Nursing Association held a crowded Halloween market in Echt hall, with the Earl of Caithness doing the honours, including meeting ‘be-witchingly’ dressed attendants, the P&J reported.
Nowadays it’s all about the children.
Here members of the 13th Company (Bridge of Don) Girls’ Brigade gather for a picture during the fun at their Halloween party in Scotstown Primary School in 1976.
Pirates were out in force at Kingswood Cabin Boys Club Halloween Party in Kingswood School, Mastrick, but the long arm of the law and the Bionic men were also there to keep them in check-in 1977.
Turnip and pumpkin carving
The substitution of turnips by pumpkins at Halloween has come as a relief to anyone who’s ever had to carve a turnip lantern.
Bent knives, sore hands if not actual bloodshed, and a stinky kitchen were the penalty for anyone tackling a turnip, but until recently there was no choice, the pumpkin remained firmly across the pond.
Above, Eight-year-old Jennifer Moir of Lerwick casts an eerie glow with her turnip lantern in 1988.
By the Nineties, it was all about the pumpkin.
Here six-year-old Kevin Truscott, Morningside Road, Aberdeen, appears spellbound by the light of his grotesque pumpkin as he prepares for Halloween.
Creative and creepy costumes
Costumes have grown ever more inventive at Halloween parties complete with witches, ghosts, pumpkins and creepy crawlies.
Above, Sherrie Gray (left) and Luisa Tancredi appear quite spooked at the Hadley Nursery Halloween party in Aberdeen in 1993.
Dooking for apples was a sloppy business which required plastic sheets and levels of hygiene probably unacceptable today.
Here members of the Cornhill Youth Club dook for apples at their Hallowe’en party in Cornhill School, Aberdeen in 1978.
Guising was taken seriously in Weisdale, Shetland in 1986. Here James and Louise Garriock and their cat Sooty rehearse for going guising.
No switching off the lights and hiding behind the furniture pretending you’re out allowed in Weisdale!
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