Did you go geising (spelling?) as a kid?

Question

When I was a kid in Scotland, we went round people's houses at Halloween, but it wasn't called Trick or Treat, it was called geising. (Not sure of the spelling - can you enlighten me?). We didn't just stand in costume demanding sweets, we actually *earned* our sweets by doing a wee performance.

Did anyone else do this? Do kids still do this sometimes or is it only "trick or treat"? Is it exclusive to Scotland? Cos when Lorain Kerry told Janet Street-Porter about it this morning, JSP knew nothing about it.

Ooh, found it on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#Scotland

It is spelt guising.

Is it unique to Scotland, or do English kids do it too? Do people do it still in Scotland. I did, and I'm only 26 now.

On the same site (above) it says English kids used to sing a song, but mostly they just say "trick or treat". Are you from England? Did you use to sing a song? Do any kids sing a song now?

Answer 1

In N.Ireland when I was younger (I'm about the same age as you) we used to round the doors, we called it "Hallowe'en Rhyming" you had to say a wee poem, or something to earn the treat, and you wouldn't get anything if you hadn't made an effort to get dressed up.
Some kids last year were doing it and they had written a Halloween story and had it photocopied to give out to people, that was so cute, at least they had made an effort.
I saw Janet Street Porter this morning too, she hadn't even heard of ducking for apples!

Answer 2

I'm Welsh and I live in South Wales

We used to go - we called it "Guising" but it was basically trick or treat - ie we would'nt sing songs or tell jokes etc - we'd say Trick or Treat and expect sweets etc - so I have no idea why it was still called "Guisuing", perhaps it had just become a jumble of the old Guising custom and American Trick or Treat by the time I was doing it (early-mid 80s). We used to hollow out Swedes, not Pumpkins and thread string through the top so we could carry them around with us.

We also used to make a Guy and drag it round the streets begging "Penny for the Guy" in the week leading up to Bonfire Night.

By the time I was about 12 everyone just called it Trick or Treat. So the older tradition seems to have been lost. I've read that there is a Welsh name (can't remember what the name was sorry) for Halloween and some sort of traditional Welsh Halloween ceremony (like Guising or Trick or Treat) but in my 34 years I have never known anyone who celebrated it! I don't know if anyone in Wales does.

I beleive that Guising was once done all over the UK - England, Scotland etc - but it seems to have died out in England much earlier and just carried on in Scotland. Wales has always been a bit of a mish-mash of Welsh and English custom!

Some rural areas - Cornwall etc - I beleive still do Guising,

My BF is English (from Kent) and he says they never did anything for Halloween, so it might be that it was celebrated less in England. But we spent a couple of months living in Kent in 2004 and on Halloween night we had loads of little local kids coming round doing Trick or Treat so their certainly seem to celebrate it nowadays.

Answer 3

I used to go guising when I was a kid in Scotland. We had to perform a wee act of some kind to earn our sweets. Could it be a shortened for of disguising ourselves by dressing up? Or something to do for a penny for the guy? We had great fun anyway but an adult was always with us.

Answer 4

I grew up in a village in Aberdeenshire in Scotland and we also had guising. We used to carve out "neep" (turnip) lanterns because there were no pumpkins and put candles in them and put strings through the sides and carry them around with us. The smell of burning neep still takes me back to those days. We would do dooking (bobbing) for apples and I don't remember seeing much sweets around really. We dressed up as witches but we made our own costumes and had a competition at the primary school disco to pick a winner. The guising was combined with "penny for the guy" and usually involved carrying around a straw or newspaper stuffed effigy of a man or witch wearing dad's old clothes in a wheelbarrow. Thanks for the nostalgia reminder!!

Answer 5

I went guising in Glasgow when i was a kid. You either had to sing a song, tell a joke, or recite a poem before you got any sweets, apples and sometimes money. I am in my 40'S now (boo hoo)and still remember the fun i had when we went out. My daughter used go out as well but she thinks she is to old now.

Answer 6

Sorry never heard of it. Sound like fun though. We used to in Virginia instead of trick or treataing as the houses were so far apart we would start the corn stalks on fire and let the cows out and steal pumpkins. Some of us would get shot with Rock Salt in the rear ouch but it was fun.

Answer 7

Never heard of it but we used to do "knock down ginger" which was a bit naughty.