Tracing The Scottish Roots Of Chicago’s Halloween

CHICAGO — Halloween time is upon us; have you carved your turnips yet? “We spent hours and hours trying to carve out these turnips to make the jack-o -lanterns,” said Gus Noble, president of Chicago Scots and a Scotland native. “I remember carving these turnips that were so difficult, and then I came to the States and thought, ‘Oh, they ve got it easy over here.’” While pumpkins have taken the place of turnips, the roots of Halloween in Chicago are still in Scottish lore and traditions, brought here in the early to mid-1800s by early transplants. The ghosts of those customs are present in some of the holiday’s essential components today, like trick-or-treating and dressing up in costume. Yet, their Celtic and Scottish cultural context is often forgotten or unknown — a fact Noble said recently came to light when his son, born in the U.S., asked him about Halloween’s origins. After over three decades of living in Chicago, Noble hadn’t thought about it in a long time, either.