Fun Scottish Halloween traditions to entertain the kids this year

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Halloween is the spookiest and most fun time of the year. Kids love it and you'll need to be prepared to keep them entertained during the festivities.Thankfully, though it's become more of an American celebration in recent years, Scotland has many fun traditions of its own that the modern event takes inspiration from.The origins of Halloween are deeply connected to Celtic history, with both the Irish and the Scots helping to shape to what it is today.Celebrated worldwide on the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day (November 1), Halloween is believed to have taken from the ancient harvest festival, Samhain, which marks the end of the harvest season and the start of winter.This most liminal time of the year, saw the superstitious Scots put into place many of the customs we still see today.

Here are some of the most entertaining ones you might want to try out with your kids this year. READ MORE: Scotland's most haunted castles ahead of Halloween READ MORE: 'I went to Home Bargains for Halloween decorations on a budget - and found a spooky haul for £10' A sacred fruit at this time of year, apples were often revered, and being plentiful in Scotland, led to games such as Dookin' (Ducking) where a dozen or so are placed in a barrel of water with people challenged to remove one using only their mouths.Nowadays, to save a wet face for younger ones (or messed up face paint) a fork can be dropped from the mouth to try and stick it in one of the floating apples.Dressing up in costumes at Halloween is a tradition that dates all the way back to Scotland's past, when children and young people living in small villages and towns would disguise themselves as the demons and spirits they sought to avoid at this time of the