Neep lantern

A neep lantern (Tumshius scaryissimus) ;)

This is the original of the US jack-o-lantern. No wonder they swapped to something easier to carve, but my childhood memories of Halloween in the sixties is partly tied up with the smell of candles burning the inside of a neep (the English call them swedes). I'm an old traditionalist, really :)

Another thing that crossed the Atlantic and came back is guising. If kids come to the door, I insist they have to do a party-piece or tell a joke before forking over the sweeties. It's a bit sad to me that wee Scottish kids think they're "trick-or-treating" because they see it on the Simpsons, when it's our own tradition, come home again.

It is great fun for the bairns, and all the dressing up is the same, and I'm glad to see it starting to happen down south where the old tradition had more or less died out; still I fight a rearguard action to let the kids know they're more like Oor Wullie than Bart.

Oh no, I'm becoming a grumpy old man. [Another rant over]