Pulling the Kail Stocks

31 October · Scotland

No longer kept

The first rite of a Scottish Hallowe’en was to go out hand in hand, eyes shut, into the kailyard and each pull the first cabbage stalk they touched. Its size and shape showed what the future husband or wife would be like, the earth on the root the dowry, and the taste of the pith their temper. The stalks were then placed over the door, and the names of the people who came in, in order, gave the names of future partners. Chambers found it still common in Scotland in the 1860s.

The young people go out hand-in-hand, blindfolded, into the kailyard or garden, and each pulls the first stalk which he meets with.

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 2, p. 520; Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 1, col. 1409. Read the original

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Pulling the Kail Stocks

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