Hollers, Haints, & Hocus Pocus: Halloween Customs of Southern Appalachia
Halloween takes many forms throughout the United States – a night for parties and pranks; a night for trick-or-treating with family and spinning spooky yarns with friends; and, in some areas, a time for divination, superstition, and dealing with haints. The south has a rich well of folk magic and tradition with plenty of Halloween customs to take part in, and the regions of Southern Appalachia are no different. In my home state of Kentucky, Halloween is seen as a time when the spirits walk and we live among the dead, when even those without gifts for divination are likely to meet success in foretelling the future, when we must take extra precautions to protect the home and family from malevolent spirits, and when dreams are never just dreams. With Halloween just days away now, I thought I’d take the chance to share with you some of the Halloween-related lore and practices that I was reared up around or grew up hearing about, mostly from my maternal grandparents. So, sit a spell and a have a listen to some southern Halloween superstitions and traditions.
[Note: You might find similarity between some of the practices from Kentucky and those found in the folk practices of Ireland, Germany, and Scotland. This is because many of the folk customs brought in by settlers from those areas stewed in Appalachian Mountains and foothills, making their way through the hollers to be spread across the states those regions knew as home, becoming part of the patchwork quilt of folk magic and beliefs of the South.]
Some Halloween Folk Customs of Southern Appalachia
SWEEP THE HAINTS AWAY
This is a practice that seems to have spread through Kentucky and Tennessee from the states’ Appalachian Mountain regions. It’s believed that you can take your broom, open the doors to the house, and sweep the haints – a southern term for ghosts – out of the home. You can also sweep away ill health, bad fortune, and money problems. This is to be done in the days before Halloween and never on Halloween. It’s said that if you do it on Halloween, you might sweep out all the good health and good fortune along with the bad.
JACK-O’-LANTERNS
In many southern folk practices, jack-o’-lanterns have a role like that of gargoyles on cathedrals, they’re believed to scare away malevolent or evil spirits that might otherwise decide to come for a visit.
Some beliefs see the jack-o’-lantern as offering lights to guide the wandering spirits along on Halloween night.
The practice of carving jack-o’-lanterns was brought stateside by Irish and Scottish settlers, though turnips were used instead of pumpkins before the practice came our way. In Scotland, these turnip lanterns are called tumshies or tumshie lanterns.
THE WIDDERSHINS WALK
Some in the south believe that the key to protecting the home from evil spirits is to walk around the home both backwards and counterclockwise before sunset on Halloween. This is said to ward away evil from that night on until Halloween comes again.
Halloween Divination of Southern Appalachia
DIVINING WITH THREE BOWLS
Take three bowls and fill one with water, one with watered-down whiskey or wine, and one with vinegar. The player of this ‘divination game’ enters the room with their eyes closed or blindfolded and are guided to the bowls. They dip their finger into one of the bowls, and whichever bowl they choose foretells their fate.
Now, what the bowls are filled with varies from one region to the next, but where I’m from, I’ve most heard of using water, watered-down wine or whiskey, and vinegar (or a vinegar/water concoction). In some areas, just wine is used in the second bowl, and milk or dishwater is used instead of vinegar.
Choosing the bowl of water means that one will lead a peaceful life without upheaval or strife.
Choosing the bowl of watered-down whiskey or wine means that one is to know monetary wealth, that one is to travel, and that one will have a grand life.
Choosing the bowl of vinegar denotes that one will be poor.
This custom seems to hail from a Scottish folk practice of divining what one’s future spouse will be like. In this practice, the first two bowls are filled with clean water and dirty water (respectively) and the third bowl is left empty. The clean water promises an attractive, young, bachelor or maid. The dirty water foretells a widow or widower. The empty bowl means that you’ll remain unmarried.
DIVINING WITH A CANDLE AND MIRROR
It’s believed if you stand in front of a mirror in a dark room while holding a candle at midnight, you will see your future play out (or some symbol of your future) in the mirror, appearing over your left shoulder.
DIVINING WITH A RING AND FLOUR
Hide a wedding ring in a pile of flour and let the unmarried folk have at it! Whoever finds the ring will be the first to marry among them.
BOBBING FOR APPLES
When bobbing for apples, the first to bite an apple and pick it up in their mouth will marry within the year.
CATCH AN APPLE, CATCH YOUR SOULMATE
Tie an apple to a stick from a piece of ribbon, twine, or string. Name the apple for your intended. If you can catch the apple in your mouth and take a bite, your love is meant to be.
Dining with the Dead:
Halloween Customs Involving Spirits and Food
THE LAST SUPPER
Where this custom originated, I can’t rightly say. I know of it being practiced in areas of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina, and it may be practiced elsewhere as well.
It’s said that if you’ve had a haint in the home, then Halloween is the perfect time to ease them out the door. After all, it’s believed that this time of year it will be easier for said haint to find its way to its rightful dwelling. One of the methods of ridding the home of a ghost, spirit, or haint is to include them in a meal. It shouldn’t be just any old meal, but a special one, like a holiday meal. Include a seat at the table for the spirit, fix it a plate, and go on about enjoying your meal as normal with your household.
When dinner is over, you tilt the spirit’s chair to lean forward against the dining table. This leaves the spirit with nowhere to sit. Some practices also call for filling all the chairs in the house with items so the spirit can’t find anywhere else to make itself comfortable. Other practices call for closing the doors that lead from the dining area into the rest of the house before putting the spirit’s chair out of commission. This way, the spirit can’t just leave the room and flit off elsewhere in the house before you open the nearest door or window leading outside. You can usher the spirit out with your words, but you should do so kindly. In the south, we’re not like to rush anyone off, even haints. It’s rude and inhospitable.
To keep the spirit (or any unwanted company, for that matter) from returning to your home, sprinkle black pepper on the floor after they’ve left and sweep it out through the door they left by.
FOOD OFFERINGS FOR SPIRITS
This is less commonly practiced in more populated areas of the south these days, but it can’t be left out. You know how at Christmas some children leave out cookies and brandy or milk for Santa, and carrots for the reindeers? Well, in the south some folk leave food out on Halloween as an offering to the spirits out roaming. Sometimes this is food made specifically for that reason (pies or cakes, cookies, sweet breads), and sometimes this is a portion of what was had for dinner and dessert that night. It’s believed that leaving a plate of food outside of the house for the spirits on Halloween night will keep the more troublesome spirits from stopping in at your house for good.
This custom likely hails from Ireland, where its still practiced by some.
Some Halloween-Related Superstitions
& Granny Wisdom
[Note: Not all of these will be specifically Halloween-related. Some of them will be about southern beliefs pertaining to spirits and spooky things in general but seemed fitting to include in this Halloween post.]
Those born on Halloween will have the ability to walk among/speak with spirits and will be gifted in the arts of divination.
Rocking an empty rocking chair (or letting it keep rocking after you’ve gotten up from it) invites spirits into the home.
If a wild bird gets loose in your house, it’s believed to be an omen of death.
Never go into a graveyard alone on Halloween night, lest the dead drag you down with them or you become possessed by a spirit. (I suppose no witnesses means that no one knows to do anything about it, leaving you a bit screwed.)
If you hear a dog howl three times on Halloween night, it means someone you know will die within the following year. (This may be a variation on the Kentucky and Tennessee superstition that hearing a dog howling three nights in a row is a portend of death.)
Painting your front door, porch floor/porch ceiling, or porch steps a certain shade of bright, paler blue (known as Haint Blue) will keep spirits from entering the home. This stems from the southern belief that spirits can’t cross some bodies of water. The blue is believed to symbolize water and confuse the spirits.
If you hear footsteps behind you on Halloween, don’t look back. It may be the dead following you and if you look at them, it’s believed they’ll have the chance to possess your body through your eyes.
If you hear someone say your name but no one’s near to say it, don’t answer it. It’s believed it’s a spirit trying to gain power over you and answering them will allow them to follow you and torment you further.
If you think a spirit might have tried to follow you home, turn out your pockets and brush off your clothes before entering your house. This is believed to shake the spirit off of you.
Hanging a mirror near your front door will help protect the home from evil spirits.
Opening the windows and covering the mirrors in the home of someone who has recently passed on will allow the spirit to move on from the house. Opening the windows helps them leave the home and covering the mirrors is believed to keep the spirit from getting confused or falling into the mirror and being stuck there.
Sources & Further Reading:
‘Kentucky Folklore’ – Alvey, R. Gerald
‘Kentucky Superstitions’ – Thomas, Daniel Lindsey, Ph.D.; Thomas, Lucy Blayney, M.A.
‘Old Scottish Customs: Local and General’ – Guthrie, E.J.
Appalachian History
Eyes on the Rocks: Halloween in Appalachia -Richards, Jake
Keziah (she/her/they/them) | Keziah is one of Crowsbone’s staff writers. She is a diviner, a dream interpreter, a medium, and a practitioner of traditional regional folk magic and medicine from the area she was raised in (the Southern United States) and from the practices of her ancestors (she is Jewish, a second generation Irish-American, and Aniyvwiya, with French, Scottish, and Scandinavian roots). She is a scholar of folklore, mythology, and mysticism, and a would-be historian. Outside of magical craft and all things related, Keziah is a collector of books, antiques, and oddities, and a devoted dog mom who enjoys puzzles, codes and ciphers, baking, reading, and drinking tea.