Go souling

SIR – Bryce Mitchell (Letters, September 16) is right that Hallowe’en has a Scottish connection.

Rabbie Burns wrote the poem Hallowe’en in 1785, which showed that it was a widely celebrated occasion. He was influenced by another Scottish poet, John Mayne, who wrote his Hallowe’en in 1780. Mayne wrote of ghosts associated with the night, or bogies as he called them, and “what fearful pranks ensue”.

However there is also an English connection, for in the Middle Ages there was a custom of souling. On All Souls’ Day (November 2) the poor went from door to door, carrying scoopedout turnips as lanterns, receiving soul cakes in return for saying prayers for the dead. The Jack o’ Lanterns were carried to remember souls held in purgatory. There was also a belief that these spirits could return during this time and create havoc.

The reason it became an American custom is that people emigrating from the old world to North America took their customs with them. Turnips were replaced by readily available native melons. Dick Sawdon

Earley, Berkshire

SIR – The biggest single factor in taking Halloween global was the 1982 Steven Spielberg film E.T.

Earlier films to feature Halloween were horror movies aimed at an older audience, but the cute alien in Spielberg’s production exposed a whole generation of younger children to the concept and it was culturally appropriated around the world. Chris Whitehouse

Totland Bay, Isle of Wight