Home Food Restaurant Reviews Recipes Drink Distilleries Whisky Gin Craft Beer Locations Scran Podcast Carving turnips and guising are Scottish Halloween traditions everyone knows, but the fuarag is one you might not have heard of. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on WhatsApp Share on Email Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, is widely considered to be the natural evolution of Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival which marked the end of summer, celebrated the harvest and heralded the coming of winter. The practices and rituals that began in Celtic strongholds such as Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man, have been passed on - and evolved - through the generations.
Many of these are still widely known, not just on these shores but wherever the Celtic diaspora spread - pumpkin carving , guising (trick or treating) and mischief making. However, one practice which has largely been forgotten except in Gaelic speaking communities, both in the Highlands and Islands and in Canada (such a Cape Breton), is that of the fuarag (foo-ar-ak). Many of the most prominent Halloween activities, such as dooking for apples , focused on divining the future at this liminal time of year.
The fuarag was no exception and would see various objects placed within a bowl of raw oatmeal mixed with cream and sugar - of late many have replaced this with mashed potatoes (or champit tatties) - and each guest, often blindfolded, given a spoon to take their share. The objects that were disco.
