Soul Cakes in Halloween History

Video Transcript

" Hi, I'm Ginny on behalf of Expert Village and I'd like to tell you a story, come, travel back in time with me as we explore the brief history of Halloween. In early Scotland people paraded through fields and villages carrying torches and lit huge bon-fires on hills, again, with the purpose of driving away witches, ghosts, and evil spirits. In the country of Wales, every person marked a stone and put it in a big bon-fire. The fire burned all night long to chase away any evil spirits. In the morning they searched through the embers of the fire and if a persons stone was missing they believed that he or she would die within a year. The English adopted the Celtic practice of begging for food on All Souls Day. They would go about asking for soul cakes which was a square bread containing currents. The recipients of the soul cakes would in turn pray for the souls of the dead of the people who gave them the cakes. In time the children started going souling with the adults. The children would dress in costumes and call out trick-or-treat playing tricks on the people if they did not receive soul cakes from them. Remnants of this tradition can be heard in a song by Peter, Paul and Mary, who we're American Folk Singers of the sixties. They sang the words to an old English folk song, Soal Cake, spelled Soal, to the tune of Hi-Ho-Nobody-Home. This is a little b it of leftover souling that we have yet today. Stay tuned for history of Halloween, Chapter 9."