Thursday, 31 October 2013






Pumpkin carving with the NRA




  1. Verbal fall out last night when buying large glass red in local Wetherspoons. Female customer next to me said it wasn't Halloween, that was purely American, it was sauin. I said I am not a believer, I hoped people were enjoying themselves. She then told me "Beware Smartmeters, they will kill you with microwave pulses, whilst registering every detail of your life, including which tablets you take." I tried to reassure her that micro waves are so called because they are very very very short. Luckily, I am a humanist, as from her contentious response, I feel sure that I am now cursed by a witch! Happy Allantide! xx

  2. Your sole reader on the Isle of Man31 October 2013 at 17:42

    Agree with all your sentiments about Halloween, although I do have a strong recollection of requisitioning a good collection of rockets at the age of 14.

    Interestingly, I had to look up "Sauin", which, as you say, apparently is Manx Gaelic for the new year, but actually here on the Isle of Man they're quite certain that 31st Oct is called Hop-tu-Naa, and have found every tenuous link possible to claim that all the "traditions" the Americans made up were actually made up by some guy in a pub in Douglas beforehand.

    Here's someone's facebook profile I've copied and pasted, arguing the case (which she has almost certainly copied and pasted from somewhere else)...

    "While 31 October may be known to many as Halloween, any Manx person worth their salt will give a stern look and say the festival in question is Hop-tu-Naa.

    No connection
    This custom of singing around the houses goes back into history, although the turnip lanterns, now irrevocably linked with the practice, only seem to appear about 100 years ago.

    Pumpkins are more traditionally linked with Hallow...een

    In reality there is no connection. Hop-tu-Naa is really a celebration of "Oie Houney", the original New Year's Eve.

    As such it is a sole reminder of these ancient times and the words Hop-tu-Naa are a corruption of Shogh ta'n Oie, meaning "this is the night".

    However, the Celtic New Year was moved to the secular new year on 1 January, a move still remembered in Scotland where "Hogmanay", from the same root words, is still celebrated."

    1. Very interesting! For some reason all your comments get marked as Spam. I can only imagine this is because Spam is the Isle of Man's main export.