The ghosts, ghouls and guisers will be coming out to play at the end of the month, so it is time to start getting ready for their arrival and embrace the Halloween Spirit.
Halloween is traditionally a Celtic festival known as Samhain. It was placed on this day to signify the end of summer and harvest time and acknowledge the drawing in of the days as it started to get colder and darker. It was believed that these shorter days encouraged the ghosts to come out to play, cause mayhem and damage crops. As a result, the festival would involve communities coming together, the lighting of bonfires and wearing costumes to ward off the roaming ghosts.
This festival has been moulded by modern times, turning it into a holiday that is celebrated all around the world with children dressing up for an evening of trick-or-treating, or better known in Scotland as guising. St Andrews has been named as one of Scotland’s most haunted locations and Jannettas is renowned for having its own ghost who sends a chill through those who visit, so ghost seekers have advised. The White Lady is one of the area’s most famous ghosts. She is said to be divinely beautiful, dressed in a long white dress, with long hair and white leather gloves. She has been spotted wandering around the grounds of the Cathedral and around the haunted tower, the site of many other ghost sightings, including a cassocked figure, which is known to help visitors up the stairs to the tower. He is often seen on the top of the tower and sometimes falling from it as a grim re-enactment from his untimely death.
As the nights get longer and the sea mists roll in, St Andrews can be a particularly spooky place to be, and to add to it, you’re more likely to see The White Lady on these dark and stormy nights, particularly in October and November. So if you happen to be walking past the Cathedral over the next wee while, keep your eyes out for The White Lady.
Equally if you’re passing the Cathedral then you should definitely come by and see us to try some of our special Halloween concoctions. Dine on Zombie Eyes, Witches Hair, Skeleton Teeth, Toxic Sludge, Spider Cookie Sandwiches and Ice Cream Cauldrons full of Jelly Worms and Ghoulish Treats. Also make sure you get your little monsters to enter our Halloween Colouring Competition to be in with the chance of winning a Sweetie Hamper from Burns Sweet Shop. Last submissions will be taken on 31st October at 12 noon so make sure you pop by the café to pick up your colouring sheet!