Hello and welcome to Stories of Scotland, your midnight moonlit coven of Scottish heritage.

I'm Jenny and you may pop your frog's legs in my cauldron.

And I'm Annie and we have absolutely no frog's legs in my cauldron. And I'm Annie, and we have absolutely no frog's legs here, and we have no cauldrons either.

Just happy cups of coffee.

Hubble, bubble, toil and caffeine.

That is something I can get behind, Annie.

This week on Stories of Scotland, we are exploring the crossroads of mythologies and

realities. At this point of overlap, we have legends of fairies, divination and even vampires. It's a time

that is associated with both saints and monsters. It is, of course, Halloween. Yes, Halloween is a traditional festival which originated

in Scotland. And as you just implied Jenny, the name Halloween comes from the Christian festival

of All Hallow Mass or All Saints Day. And the EIN is simply a Scots way of saying evening.

So this would have been a celebration of all the Christian saints.

However, the customs of Halloween are associated with a far more ancient festival, that of Saoen.

And it's this festival of Saoen that we see so much overlap with our legends and customs, many of which we still practice today. Things like geising, which are American friends called trick-or-treating, which is of course when bairns disguise themselves in funny little costumes and knock on doors extorting sweeties.

However, children are not dressed in costumes simply to confuse their generous neighbours.

No.

That's why I did it.

The children are rather dressed up to confuse the fairies who may otherwise snatch them away. Fisawin is the night when the curtain betwixt the land of the supernatural beings

and our own fragile earthly plane becomes its thinnest.

It is practically a net curtain you can see straight through.

Or like one of those fun, beaded ones that you can just swish-swash right on

through.

...