Wicked witches, spooky black cats, cobwebs lining doorways and enough sweeties to last a lifetime…it’s that time of year again! Halloween is just around the corner and at Gillian Kyle, we’re looking forward to getting properly stuck in!

Chase away the ghostly gloom with our luxury soy wax candles, hand poured here in Scotland – sorry, bats are not included!

Halloween takes place the day before the Christian festival of All Saints Day, on the 31st October each year. Over the centuries, the festival has grown and grown and many weird and wonderful traditions have been added to it. It’s now a global event celebrated by many cultures and nationalities, but Scotland has more connections to Halloween than you’d think…

For starters, we’re proud to boast Rabbie Burns’ poem ‘Halloween’ from 1785, which explores this spectacular autumn tradition form a Scottish point of view. In Scotland Jack O’Lanterns (or as we Scots tend to call them, carved pumpkins) used to be made out of turnips – I clearly remember carving them out as a child to make decorations for a Halloween party. Hard work! These cheerful (and sometimes spooky) autumn decorations were originally designed to ward off evil spirits. Maybe the pungent smell of all the hollowed out turnip flesh being boiled to make yummy neeps and tatties was the real reason they stayed away?

Luxury Scented Candles…spookily nice!

In the past, Scottish girls believed that they could see images of their future husbands on Halloween by hanging up wet sheets in front of the fire – we’re not so sure how convinced we’d be nowadays… Then there’s our favourite games, dookin’ for apples and biting for hanging treacle scones. Who cares if you’re soaking or covered in treacle, there’s nothing like getting involved!

Foxy Luxury Scented Candle £19.95. Shop

We have our Celtic ancestors to thank for the now worldwide tradition of ‘Trick or Treating’. The activity evolved thousands of years ago, when the Celts would put out treats and food to maintain good relationships with spirits who entered their sacred festival which marked the end of the Celtic calendar year.

Halloween is also known as summer’s end, but the excitement definitely helps to make up for waving goodbye to the summer months. Now, I’m off to get planning costumes and face painting for 2 small boys… Till next time!

We’d love to see your Halloween creations! Pumpkin carving, baking and costumes – send them our way @gilliankyle