Saturday Scenes

Last Saturday fell on the 31st of October so I guess it’s not that hard to guess what my intro will be about for this edition of Saturday Scenes.

That’s right! Allantide!

Allantide (Middle English: Alhalwyn-tyd, Cornish: Calan Gwaf) is a Cornish festival traditionally celebrated on the 31st of October. It is believed to be based on Saint Arlan, a “shadowy figure from early Cornish history” who is not actually listed on the saints’ calendar.

Allantide – Wikipedia

The following is a description of the festival as it was celebrated in Penzance at the turn of the 19th century:

“The shops in Penzance would display Allan apples, which were highly polished large apples. On the day itself, these apples were given as gifts to each member of the family as a token of good luck. Older girls would place these apples under their pillows and hope to dream of the person whom they would one day marry. A local game is also recorded where two pieces of wood were nailed together in the shape of a cross. It was then suspended with 4 candles on each outcrop of the cross shape. Allan apples would then be suspended under the cross. The goal of the game was to catch the apples in your mouth, with hot wax being the penalty for slowness or inaccuracy.”

So I hope you all had a wonderful Allantide with plenty of apples!

Certainly, we have a great selection of people out and about, some of whom might have been celebrating a similar festival on Saturday, 31 October 2009:

Pop by the twitter streams to find out more about the people who submit to Saturday Scenes:

• capo42
• raumsinn
• NevilleFenn
• RAFairman
• tradingnothing
• StacyJMT
• ingridf
• jmorby
• elibrody
• akrabat
• sarahfenn
• JanetIsserlis
• DramaGirl
• Pixelfreund
• Sithefire
• ElshaHawk
• akaSylvia
• drewbenn

Taking part is easy – just take a photo on a Saturday and tweet the url to @SatScenes to be included in next week’s round-up!