Guest blog by Morag Wells

At the end of July I began my role as Digital and Languages Apprentice for TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland), and one of the first projects I was able to quickly get my teeth into was on the subject of traditional guising. Planning was already well underway for this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival (which came to a hugely successful conclusion on Sunday the 1^st of November), with a family friendly Guisers’ Trail already scheduled in for Saturday the 31^st, the plan being to have a range of guising activities and workshops taking place at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, with family groups of guisers then heading off up and down the Royal Mile. Also in the pipeline was the creation of an online resource showcasing snippets of Scotland’s various guising traditions in a user friendly and accessible format.

So I got to work researching and selecting a range of materials, looking in particular focus at the Scots Galoshins folk play tradition. Experiencing something of a revival recently, this fun and participative custom, a close cousin of many English Mummers’ plays, was once widely performed every Winter around the Central Belt and Borders. Many, many different versions are or were once in existence (more often than not it would have been passed on orally, encouraging a lot of variety in interpretation!) and it was great fun to look through many of these before selecting one which I felt contained all the key elements and characters but would be easily accessible to beginners of all ages. As well as the folk play tradition, I also collected some classic Scots Halloween songs, stories and poems, and thanks to Donald MacLean of Berneray was able to present the Oidhche Challuinn verses, another very localised tradition, but one which relates to Halloween and Samhain celebrations across the country.

Fast forward a couple of months to last weekend’s guising festivities in Edinburgh, and it was truly fantastic to be part of the Guisers Trail and Family Samhuinn, which we were delighted to be able to collaborate on with the Beltane Fire Society. We were also utterly indebted to Stan Reeves, mastermind on the Galoshins tradition as well as being a frequent practitioner, who came to lead introductory sessions with children and adults alike throughout the day, as well as entertaining everyone with a spontaneous rendition of ‘Three Craws’, accompanied by button box and costume, in the Storytelling Court. Storytellers James Spence and Calum Lykan were also on hand, telling spooky tales every half hour, and plenty craft activities, including puppet making with Jack Martin and mask making with Julie Logan were on offer, as well as some lively African drumming to start off the day!

Going through the entire process of gathering the material, presenting it and seeing it being used and enjoyed by young and old has been a rewarding and encouraging experience, and certainly given me hope that the practice of guising in Scotland is still very much vibrant and alive (we’re not all converted to Trick or Treating yet!). Looking forward, I certainly hope this project continues to develop, as an awareness of and participation with the rich seasonal traditions and celebrations across Scotland is a wonderful thing.