Galoshans at Hallowe'en

The Viator • Published 27 Oct 2009 14:00

YOUNG people throughout the district will getting into their Hallowe'en outfits this Saturday.

Some will attend parties and others will call at houses in the neighbourhood to sing a song or tell a joke in exchange for sweets, fruit and nuts.

The latter custom is what prompted expat Cathie McGranachan, who is originally from Greenock but now lives in Canada, to contact me some time ago.

She meets with other expat Scots for a coffee every week.

The expats were reminiscing about Hallowe'en when another Greenock woman, whose name I do not have, said Lower Clyde people referred to it as galoshans or going galoshans.

Cathie told me: "The Glasgow folk said they had never heard of this and said they only knew it as trick or treat, just like in Canada."

She asked if galoshans and going galoshans were terms used only in Inverclyde. Cathie was also keen to know the origin of galoshans.

Several readers got in touch and the general consensus was that galoshans is very much restricted to the Lower Clyde, although it is understood to also have been used in parts of the Cowal peninsula, Ayrshire and the Gryfe area.

One reader said: "In my experience from the 1950s through to the 1970s that was the only term used locally for going round the doors dressed up at Hallowe'en.

"Anyone from Glasgow or Paisley with whom I have discussed this told me they only spoke of guising at this time - trick or treat being unheard of except of in American comics or films."

Another reader advised: "Galoshans was quite a common expression in this area in my young days although many relatives and friends in other parts of Scotland knew nothing of the word and in Glasgow the term guising was more common.

"The alleged origin of the word is said to come from a corruption of the word Galatians - to whom the apostle Paul wrote."

This explains the link between the Galatian plays and the mummers plays in England which originated in medieval times.

I also learned from a source that galoshins (or galoshans) is a Scottish folk play.

These performances were sometimes given on the street but more often associated with house-to-house visits.

Participants were called guisers (performers in disguise) or mummers.

My thanks to all who supplied information about galoshans and going galoshans.

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This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 27 Oct 09

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