Gàidhlig / English
Pollag na Samhna

Pollag na Samhna

Posted by Shelagh on 27th October 2014

Welcome to the DASG blog, where each week we will feature a word or phrase from the Fieldwork Archive, a collection of vernacular materials collected throughout Gaelic Scotland and in Nova Scotia between the 1960s and 1980s.

Our first phrase is very suitable for the time of year: Pollag na Samhna (collected in South Uist.)

Pollag na Samhna is a hole which was dug in the ground at Halloween which could be used to tell your fortune. If a worm was discovered in the hole the next day, you would have good luck; however, if the hole was empty, you could expect bad luck.

Description of other Halloween customs related to fortune and the future, rather than the ghosts and ghouls we are used to today, can be found in Nach Neònach Sin, written by Cailein T. MacCoinnich. He describes two Taransay customs whereby young women would try to discover when and where they would get married:

i) A girl would go into a barn and throw a straw rope up into the loft, shouting “Who’s at the end of my rope?” According to the story, she would be answered in the voice of the man she was to marry and, if she was lucky, would see his face looking down at her from the loft.

ii) A girl would take a gold coin into the yard and walk three times around a pile of corn. If marriage was on the cards for her, she would see her pick of male suitors peeping at her from behind the corn.

If online dating doesn't work, maybe these methods would be worth a try!

If you know of any other uncommon Gaelic words or phrases relating to Halloween, or any other traditional Scottish Halloween customs, we would love to hear about them via our Twitter or Facebook accounts: @DASG_Glaschu / facebook.com/DasgGlaschu.

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