defestival1-7, Exercise 3: Halloween in Germany and Scotland

Model answer (check the details):

Scotland: Halloween (31 October) has a long record in Scotland. Children went guising, which means dressing up and performing a song or joke for treats, and carved lanterns from turnips (tumshies). Robert Burns wrote a poem called "Halloween" in 1785, describing local customs. The roots are linked to the Gaelic festival of Samhain, although how continuous the custom is has been debated (check).

Germany: Halloween took root mainly from the 1990s, with costume parties, pumpkins and "Süßes oder Saures", driven by shops, media and American influence. It has no long folk history. It sits next to Reformation Day (31 October) and All Saints, which have much older roots.

What it shows:
- A Scottish custom travelled to America with emigrants, was reshaped there, and returned to Europe in a commercialised form, so Germany received it from the American direction.
- Germany's Halloween is a recent import, and Scotland's is inherited, although both have changed.
- Whether a custom is "imported" or "inherited" depends on the place, and the test is the earliest record in that place.