Blog Post

BONFIRES & BEGGING

Andy Mark Simpson • Nov 04, 2020

Childhood memories of autumn customs

Bonfires and Begging –memories of late autumn customs
At this time of year so many people start to jump ahead looking forward to Christmas and they don’t take the time to appreciate all the rituals and wonders of late autumn. I have been reading about traditional customs from this time of year and relating it to my experience of them as a child in the 90s. There are many similarities between these occasions – including bonfires and begging.

Halloween
Obviously you’ve noticed it has been Halloween. It’s everywhere these days isn’t it? Costumes and pumpkins in the shops.
As a kid in the early 90s we never had pumpkins. Actually we did one year and I accidentally dropped mine and smashed it. As a teenager I made a few lanterns from potatoes (called ‘tetties’ in Northumbrian) but as a child we used turnips (‘neeps’). I prefer the turnips lanterns. Pumpkins seem very commercial, too easily rendered in plastic, advertising and cartoons whereas turnips are more twisted, more frightening. They seem more ancient. 
We didn’t have any modern off-the shelf costumes either. Yes there was the odd witch’s hat or a cheap plastic mask but mainly the go-to costume was just to be wrapped up in a black bin bag, no matter what creature you were supposed to be. Sometimes there would be face paint – which would obviously run when we played the odd game of apple-bobbing. 

Penny for Halloween
Of course one of the main facets of modern Halloween is ‘Trick or Treating’. The phrasing seems to be another American import but there is an old tradition of it in Britain. As kids we used the phrase ‘Penny for Hallowe’en.’ Actually, one of my friends once used the rather less seasonal ‘Can I have some money?’ Going out Halloweenin’ (as we called it) seems to be quite an old tradition. In fact, at this time of year there are other traditions where people basically went round knocking on doors begging for money and treats.

Soul Cake
The celtic pagan festival of Samhain had Christian festivals grafted onto it. All Hallows Eve, or Hallowe’en is followed by All Saints Day and All Souls Day, again to remember the dead. This fact was drummed into us in our catholic school (in fact we held a mass). This period of days was known as Hallowtide and it had its own traditions. One of these was yet another form of begging in a house-visiting custom known as ‘souling’. Soul Cakes were made on this day and rich houses would hand them out to people knocking door to door. Either that or they would give them a piece of fruit or money. There is a great folk song about it which includes these lyrics:

‘Go down into the cellar and see what ye can find. 
If your barrels are not empty we pray that ye’ll be kind.
We pray that ye’ll be kind with your apple and your pear
We’ll come no more a souling until this time next year’
A soul cake, a soul cake,
Please good Missus a soul cake…’

Penny for the guy
The next begging session in our childhood calendars was ‘Penny for the Guy’. The guy was an effigy for Guy Fawkes and you made him by stuffing old clothes with newspaper and straw then maybe drawing a face on a burst football. Basically it was a scarecrow in a wheel barrow. You would cart it around your estate and knock on doors asking for ‘A penny for the guy…’ There was no real reason for the money but the less miserable house owners might give you 20p or something. We kept the money. The guy got nothing. In fact – he got set on fire!

Bonfire Night
For those not from the UK, Bonfire Night is also known as Guy Fawkes Night, or Fireworks Night. Bonfires and fireworks are lit to celebrate the capture, horrific torture and execution of Guy Fawkes and other (Catholic) conspirators involved in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the House of Lords and kill Protestant King James I. Guy Fawkes was hung, drawn and quartered, not burned on a fire. The fires are just there as a celebration! Such was the verve of the protestant establishment, participating in these celebrations was actually a legal requirement between 1606 and 1859. An effigy of Guy Fawkes was often made and put on the fires to burn. I suppose if you think deeply about it you realise it is actually a very gruesome and dark custom and celebration. 

Since the millennium most Bonfire Nights have become very sanitised. Fires are publically organised with the crowds held back at a safe distance watching carefully choreographed professional firework displays. Some places don’t even light a fire any more. Most of them don’t use a guy effigy, apart from specific towns where they and might use a comedy figure (although in some areas in the North they burned effigies of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher). Overall it has avoided the commercial excess of Halloween but has still become a sanitised and officially-sanctioned family fun evening.

However, as a kid in the 90s, Bonfire Night was a much more wild affair. We would usually go to my Uncle’s house because he had a big plot of land and lots of spare wood. We would add to it by collecting dead logs from the woods or scratting around the building sites looking for scraps. We would spend all day building the fire ourselves. No safe distance and barriers for us – this was our fire and we were free to poke at it as much as we wanted! We dug holes in the embers and baked jacket potatoes in them. We made marshmallow spores. We threw our used-up sparklers in. We would cheer when the guy caught fire. 

It was brilliant fun. We probably stank of smoke for a week. I clearly remember our catholic primary school Headmistress giving an assembly about why we should not join in with Guy Fawkes Night because it celebrated killing a catholic. She told us off for liking Bonfire Night but she also told us off for liking mountain bikes and the Ninja Turtles so what did she know!

Embracing the late autumn
Samhain, the celtic precursor to Hallowe’en, was similar in recognising the spirits of the dead and they also lit bonfires. There is no direct continuous link with the bonfires of Samhain and the protestant celebration of Guy Fawkes Night because Protestant reformers tried to throw out links to pagan and catholic traditions. Yet it is interesting that they too lit bonfires. It seems to me that there is a primal human love of fire in these dark nights.

So even if our Hallowtide customs are forgotten, our Halloweens more commercial and our Guy Fawkes Nights more sanitised, there is still something ancient and primal about these customs. Still fun to be had. Rather than be looking ahead to Christmas, we should be embracing these late autumn events. There are plenty more opportunities for begging door to door before we get to Christmas carolling…

What are your memories of these customs? Let us know…

22 Nov, 2021
Art by Shona M MacDonald
by Andy Mark Simpson 23 Jun, 2021
We have just had Midsummer and the summer solstice. It always makes feel feel a bit sad that the nights will start to get darker again, after all the excitement and build up of the spring. It is hard to believe we are halfway through the year already and I feel like I have barely begun my ambitions for the year. June 20th -21st was the summer solstice. June 23rd is St John's Eve. Across Europe these occasions have traditionally been marked by dancing and singing around bonfires. There was also a tradition of performing baptisms in lakes and holy wells in honour of John the Baptist. Both of these ceremonies were intended to bring renewal and new life (and a good harvest). I am hoping to reap the rewards of these in my creative life and I hope you all have a good creative summer!
by Andy Mark Simpson 31 Jan, 2021
January has been occasionally beautiful with some magical winter snow but has also been cold and wet and tough with more lockdown restrictions. Now however, hope is on the horizon. While we know this is not yet the end of winter, it is perhaps, the beginning of the end of winter. February the 1st is associated with the ancient celtic festival of Imbolc – a celebration of the coming of the spring. It falls roughly midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It has been the basis for celebrations and folklore in the cultures that followed. The emergence of spring is celebrated in North America with their Groundhog Festivals when the cute rodents try to predict the end of winter. We’ll probably watch the hilarious Bill Murray fantasy film Groundhog Day, again, on February 2nd. In the Christian calendar the festival of Candlemas sees the blessing of candles. This links to celebrating light. Probably the biggest Christian co-opting of this date is St Brigid’s Day. St Brigid is seen as the matron saint of Ireland. In our latest podcast we talked to Melanie Lynch of Herstory Ireland who gave us a great insight into the Brigid figure. Before being co-opted as a Christian Saint, Brigid was a pan-European goddess considered to be a bringer of light, appropriate for this time of year. Her saint’s day used to be widely celebrated with girls in every village making straw crosses. Now the day is being given a renewal with Herstory organising illumination displays to promote the stories of women in history and mythology. They are campaigning to make the day equally as important as St Patrick’s Day . Take a listen to our latest podcast episode with Melanie Lynch of Herstory Ireland. Enjoy your last weeks of winter…
by Andy Mark Simpson 18 Nov, 2020
Folklore and folk music are very influenced by the changing seasons but for me my cinema watching can also be affected by seasonal moods. There’s a danger that heads can be turned towards the tinselled delights of Christmas movies with the holiday just around the corner. However, would be skipping ahead and missing out on some great late autumn films. So what do we watch in the meantime? Here is a list of films which are great to watch on rainy autumn afternoons, with Christmas scenes but aren’t Christmas films: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg / Les Parapluie de Cherbourg (Demi 1964). Perfect for a rainy Autumn afternoon. Star-crossed teenage lovers, way ahead of its time in the social issues it tackles, stunning use of colour and an incredible haunting and beautiful score. A musical with no songs – just every single line of dialogue is sung. ‘Distant Voices, Still Lives’ (Davies 1988) Another rainy one. A non-linear magic-realist masterpiece. Memories fade in and out, displaced voices from the past come and go. A violent patriarch and the on-going effects on the family. Or you may be in the mood for something more light-hearted: When Harry Met Sally (Reiner 1989) Beautiful autumn colours culminating in an emotional Christmas and New Year finale. A very clever romantic comedy. Great for Autumn and New Year movie watching. ‘Groundhog Day’ (Ramis 1994) A Christmas film that isn’t a Christmas film so great to watch from November through to February. A great low fantasy concept. What are your favourite autumn films? Let us know.
by Andy Mark Simpson 21 Oct, 2020
Conkers and the Jellyman All these autumn woodland walks I’ve been doing recently have made me think back to autumn as a child. It takes me back to trekking through the woods conker picking and hoping to avoid being shot by the infamous ‘Jellyman’. Many of our 1990s childhood games had a folk horror element This story isn’t really about the game but for those not familiar with it, it might be good to know why conker picking was so important, why we were willing to risk a run in with ‘The Jellyman’ to get them. Conkers is such a great part of childhood folklore in Britain. A conker (horse chestnut seed) is pierced with a hole and then threaded with string, or shoelace. Players take turns, using their conker to bash the other player’s conker like a wrecking ball with the aim of smashing it. The last conker remaining is the winner. There are all sorts of folk remedies about how to harden conkers including soaking them in vinegar, putting them in the cupboard for a year, and the ultimate cheat…covering them in nail polish As a kid in early 90s Northumberland we had extra rules – which were always ignored. There was the ‘Nae yanksees’ rule (supposed to prevent a tug of war if the strings became tangled) and ‘Nae stampsies’. This was also ignored, meaning that if a conker was dropped on the floor a whole hoard of kids would stamp up and down on it to smash it. I have to admit I was never much good at the game. For me, the fun was in the adventures to go and collect the conkers. Conker Picki ng My Uncle would always take myself, my cousin and our mates conker picking. And he took it quite seriously. He once got in an argument with a vicar who claimed he was ‘destroying God’s creations’. He knew the best place to get conkers. This meant trespassing into the grounds of a nearby mansion house. We would creep through the woods to seek out these three magical conker trees. We loved collecting our hundreds of conkers – but was always blighted with fear of The Jellyman. Supposedly The Jellyman was an old gamekeeper of the hall. Seemingly he was solely employed to stop children poaching conkers. He had a stun-gun known as ‘The Jellygun’ which he would shoot you with, turning your legs to jelly and stopping you from running away before you were caught by the police, or maybe a rabid pack of dogs. I never saw him mind. My Uncle was good at spotting him- then shouting ‘Run – The Jellyman!’ and we would sprint away terrified. Every year. Learning to see through my uncle’s bullshit was a major part of my childhood. Then came the walk home, through the woods, in the dark. We would glance over our shoulders, wondering if the Jellyman had left his territory to follow us. My Uncle always claimed the streets were more dangerous and there was nothing to be scared of walking in the woods in the dark. I think that was because actually the scariest thing in the woods - was my Uncle.
by Andy Mark Simpson 05 Oct, 2020
Over the past month here at DreamSwarm we have been indulging my love of selkies and that looks set to continue! We have recorded a podcast interview with Uisdean Murray – director of ‘Mara: The Seal Wife’ short film about selkies ( listen to it here ). We will continue to be promoting and celebrating great writing, artwork and films about selkies for others to enjoy. We’ll also investigate the darker side of selkie tales. We’ll look at different readings of the stories and what messages they contain. Why do I like selkies? I have loved seals as animals since I was a child growing up on the Northumberland coast, where Europe’s largest grey seal community lives on the Farne Islands. Northumberland shares many cultural aspects with Scotland, and Ireland, but despite this, and the large number of seals who live here, we do not have any ‘native’ selkie tales. Never-the-less, the folklore fans among us often gravitate to these stories. Why shouldn’t the Geordie seals be selkies too?
Autumn equinox green man figure
by Andy Mark Simpson 20 Sept, 2020
Autumn equinox - saying goodbye to the summer and facing new directions to spark creativity and celebrate the autumn and fall.
by Andy Simpson 10 Sept, 2020
Welcome to DreamSwarm! My DreamSwarm idea has been hovering in the aether for a while now but is finally emerging as a new online hub which intends to foster a community around Films, Stories and Art which are in some way ‘Supernatural’. We kind-of mean stuff like: • dark fantasy • dreams • edgelands • esotericism • fairy tales • folklore • folk horror • liminal spaces • magic-realism • metaphysics • mysticism, • psychogeography • speculative history • spiritual • shamanism • surrealism • time travel • urban fantasy We will be sharing links to images, films, artworks, stories, essays and poems that we enjoy. We will credit the creators and encourage others to follow them. This is also a great opportunity to promote the voices of artists and writers from under-represented backgrounds. We want this to be a kind and inclusive community, free from racism, sexism, homophobia and prejudice. In time, this hub will develop to include our own blog, podcast and videos as we aim to bring on fantastic guests to discuss their work. However, the hub is not intended to replace or rival the great podcasts and blogs that are already out there but instead to celebrate them and signpost supporters towards them. Take a look at our links and recommendations page to follow the brilliant podcasts, websites and accounts that we love. About me and why I set up DreamSwarm: I’m Andy Mark Simpson. I’m from Northumberland (a secret land wedged between England and Scotland) which is full of history, mythology, legends and a unique culture and dialect. My love for folklore and the mystical began as I grew up here, surrounded by the Roman wall, beaches, castles, woods and hills (and abandoned coal mines and crumbling edgelands). I am a filmmaker (and teacher). I have written and directed one theatrically released feature film and several shorts. A lot of my new work has a magic-realist style which combines social messages with the mystical and supernatural. I love discovering other filmmakers, artists and writers with similar sensibilities and I really appreciate it when I get sent recommendations and suggestions. I realised we could build a community hub to celebrate and share these ‘Supernatural’ works; DreamSwarm. The hub is in the very early stages now but we hope you will join us on our journey and that you feel part of the community. Please feel free to send us links to your work or podcasts. If you have any other suggestions, please also get in touch.
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