Hallow-e'en Sc.
[Shortened from All-Hallow-Even: see All-Hallow 4.]
The eve of All Hallows' or All Saints'; the last night of October. Also attrib.
In the Old Celtic calendar the year began on 1st November, so that the last evening of October was ‘old-year's night’, the night of all the witches, which the Church transformed into the Eve of All Saints.
| 1556–1698 [see All Hallow Eve s.v. All-Hallow 4]. 17.. Young Tamlane in Border Ministr. (1869) 478 This night is Hallowe'en, Janet, The morn is Hallowday. 1773 Fergusson Eclogue 18 Nae langer bygane than sin Halloween. 1785 Burns Halloween ii, To burn their nits, an' pou their stocks, An' haud their Halloween. 1808–18 Jamieson, To haud Halloween, to observe the childish or superstitious rites appropriated to this evening. 1864 Chambers' Bk. Days II. 519/1 The evening of the 31st of October, known as All Hallows' Eve or Halloween. It is the night set apart for a universal walking abroad of spirits. 1883 J. Hawthorne in Harper's Mag. Nov. 930/2 Halloween is the carnival-time of disembodied spirits. 1884 Queen Victoria More Leaves 69 We saw the commencement of the keeping of Halloween. |
| attrib. 1795 Statist. Acc. Scotl. XV. 517 Formerly the Hallow Even Fire, a relic of Druidism, was kindled in Buchan. |