In addition to all the standard lights (head, tail, etc.), Dunveganite Jay Wilkie’s pickup truck also sports lights that can flash green. Jay is a volunteer with the Maxville Fire Department and, like other local firefighters, Jay uses his flashing green lights to signal that he’s on his way to respond to an emergency call.
I’ll have more details for next week’s column. However, I wanted you to know that the Maxville Firefighters’ Association is holding its first-ever fundraising spaghetti dinner in Dunvegan on Saturday, November 16th at the Dunvegan Recreation Hall, 19053 County Road 24. The dinner starts at 5:30 PM and the cost is $10 for adults and $5 for children under 16.
These are the volunteers who turn up regardless of the time of day or severity of weather to help save our property from the ravages of fire or respond to countless other emergencies. They’re asking for our help and I sincerely hope that the entire community will respond to their call.
All downhill from here
Officially, the 2019 Winter Solstice in these parts is on Saturday, December 21st. Despite what the calendar says though, I believe winter really begins with the night of the Big Winds. The timing of this annual event varies from year to year but, when one goes to bed to the sounds of howling winds, it’s still fall. And, when one awakes, you’re in winter’s waiting room. Trees, once resplendent in their autumnal finery, are stripped bare. The air has a razor sharp edge to it. And even sunlight falls harsh and cold upon the eyes. For Dunvegan, this night of change happened last week. As did a truly sodden Hallowe’en.
All Hallows Eves of the past
Years ago, we had young children who faithfully attended Dunvegan’s community Hallowe’en party and I could have written this item from first hand experience. More recently, with our children grown and gone, I have relied on the event’s organizers to provide me with the night’s highlights and a list of the volunteers who made it all possible. But this year, it would appear I am on my own. My inbox is devoid of news as to whether Dunvegan’s festival of goblins even took place. Mayhap the event was washed away with the torrential rains.
So I turned to the past for my Hallowe’en fix and dove head first into the wonderful Glengarry News collection on the Glengarry County Archives web site. I wondered if this strange celebration, my second least favourite behind Easter, was observed when the News started publishing. And the answer is a resounding “yes.” The first brief reference I came across was in the October 23rd, 1896 issue under the ‘Vankleek Hill’ column heading. While only mentioned in passing, it was preceded by a perfectly grisly story straight out of central casting: “A stranger, but six days from England was killed on the C. P. R. (rail)road last week.It was near St. Eugene, when jumping off a flat car, he struck a post and fell back under the wheels and the cars passing over his neck, severed his head from his body… Quite a lot of snow fell here Monday night, reminding us how near winter is; but it disappeared before the sun of Tuesday. The first snow of last year fell on Hallowe’en.”
Today, the lowly pumpkin is the universal symbol of All Hallows Eve. But it was not ever thus. Back in the late 1800s, apples were the Hallowe’en mainstay, as evidenced by a clip from the ‘Local News” column of the Glengarry News from October 30th, 1896; “Following our usual custom, the News will distribute a barrel of apples among the small boys of the town. The distribution will take place at 8 o’clock, at the News office in the Glengarry Block. Every small boy is invited.” It would appear that Alexandria’s small girls were left to their own devices. However, a possible explanation of this historic inequality may lie in the column’s concluding paragraph: “Tomorrow (Saturday) evening is Hallowe’en and will no doubt be celebrated in a good old fashioned way throughout the land. While not wishing to detract in any way from the innocent pleasures which will be indulged in by the young people of this town, we would express the hope the young men and boys will avoid (unseemly?) conduct on such an occasion that frequently lowers a town in the estimation of strangers, as we thoroughly believe there is ample scope for enjoyment without in any way annoying others.”
Hallowe’en continued to capture the interest of Glengarrians throughout the 20th century. For example, the October 24th, 1930 issue of the News sported a rather large ad for Hallowe’en Tea and Quilting Bee on October 31st, 1930. Sponsored by the Dunvegan Ladies’ Orange Benevolent Association (L.O.B.A.), it was held at the residence of Mrs. W.W. McKinnon. The quilting started at 1:00 PM and tea was served from 3:00 to 7:30 PM. Admission was 25¢ and a cordial invitation was extended to all.
However, my most interesting find was an incomplete article in the October 21st, 1927 issue of the News entitled: Hallowe’en Revelry Owed to Farm – Origin and Legends of the Feast. The following is an excerpt… “No farm: no Hallowe’en festivities. That is the position, although little thought may be given that the festivities of Hallowe’en and the farm, as the producer of the fruits of the earth, are inseparable. Certainly, the apple and the pumpkin, two farm products, are popularly associated with Hallowe’en, but the farm is also the supply-base of all the necessary essentials of the feast. Even the humble cabbage, apart from its culinary purposes, has a peculiar significance at Hallowe’en, for do not some maidens sally forth in the darkness of the night to the cabbage patch to pick a stem, in order to divine the characteristics of their future husbands? If the stem be tall, or short, or crooked, so shall the future husband be. (I wonder if this might the origin of the babies/cabbage patch myth.) The pumpkin as a Jack-o-lantern in the hands of a frolicsome lad is the improved Canadian edition of the humble turnip in Europe, and to many a youth in Canada the pumpkin is the symbol of Hallowe’en par excellence, either for food or frolic; but after all the apple is more closely associated with the feast than any other fruit or vegetable. There is a special reason for this. In pagan times, at the festival of Pomona, the goddess of fruit trees, nuts and fruits, particularly apples played an important part and originated the custom of roasting nuts, apple ducking (a forerunner of today’s bobbing for apples?), and the distribution of apples as gifts at this festive time. The Canadian boys who go from house to house asking for Hallowe’en apples are doing exactly what little boys in other countries did three thousand years ago.” If you’d like to read more of this account, I invite you to visit the Glengarry County Archives web site.
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