Hallowe’en in Gawler.

 

   In 1894, the Gawler Branch of the South Australian Caledonian Society held its Hallowe’en function in Gawler’s Town Hall. Over 100 people were present, with proceedings opened by a bagpipe recital by honorary Gawler pipers, D. Garland and J Harris.
 The Gawler Chief of the society, Professor Lowrie, made an opening speech before the dance floor was opened to the crowd. Several Scottish country dances were engaged in, before pianoforte recitals by Misses McDonald and Barnet were performed. Scottish pies and short breads were served to the crowd, who danced late into the following morning. Before the gathered guests departed, they broke into a raucous version of Auld Lang Syne.[1]

 

  In 1954, the Gawler Caledonian Society celebrated Hallowe’en at the Gawler South Hall. In attendance were Norman and Mrs Campbell, Chief of the Royal Caledonian Society, Gawler Mayor Mr E.C. Goodger and acting Mayoress, Mrs E.H. Lawrence, the Chairman of the Mudla Wirra District Council, Mr and Mrs R.L. Haydon and Mr C Martin.
 The hall was decorated with black cats, witches, ghosts and other traditional Hallowe’en decorations. The Royal Caledonian Pipe Band played for the gathered guests, and Miss Heather McIntosh gave a demonstration of dance. Songs were then presented by Mr Sandy McDougal, Mrs P Beveridge, Miss Shirley Davidson, Walter Ried, Ron Tuckwell and Steve Cho.
Games were played, with ‘dookin’ for apples’ causing great amusement among the crowd. ‘Bun on a string’ was also a crowd favourite.[2]

 Mr Hedley Thomas filmed the event, and it is for this reason I am writing this post – if anyone knows where that footage might be, please let me know, as it would be a worthy contribution to the Gawler Heritage Centre's collection!

 

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2025

---

[1] 'S. A. Caledonian Society.', Bunyip, (2 November 1894), p. 2.

[2] 'Pipers Present at Gawler Hallowe'en.', Bunyip, (29 October 1954), p. 1.

Beware of the Spirits

 In 1936, Adelaide newspaper News printed an article titled Beware of the Spirits, which detailed an old custom from Scotland and Ireland used during Hallowe’en. The ritual was to be done by young ladies to tell if their partners were faithful.

 

Three nuts were placed upon the bars of a grate, each being named after the lovers. If a nut cracked or jumped, the lover whose name was written on it would prove unfaithful; if the nut began to split or burn, the lover had regard for the person making the trial; if the nuts were named after the girl and a lover burned together, they would marry.[1]

 The ritual is a relic of pagan beliefs and is done only when the curtain between the spirit world and ours is open – Hallowe’en.

---

[1] 'Passing By', News, (29 October 1936), p. 10. 

Hotel of Haunted Dolls - OCT 2019

Hotel of Haunted Dolls

After a successful debut, “When the Lights Go Out Paranormal” returns with another “Hotel of Haunted Dolls” at the ‘Tea Tree Gully Heritage Museum’ Old Highercombe Hotel (3 Perseverance Rd, Tea Tree Gully SA 5091) on the
Saturday 26^th Oct 2019 – 10 am until 9 pm
Sunday 27^th Oct 2019  - 11 am until 4 pm

At Their first Haunted Dolls Museum, Karina Eames and James Larson flew in special guests, Evelyn and Kerry Walton, and their internationally famous haunted doll ‘Letta Me Out’
( https://www.facebook.com/Letta-me-out-630776097073363/ )  to accompany her haunted dolls collection. The first event saw over 1000 people attend this unique and terrifying event. With one-woman reporting being scratched by an unseen hand, and many others feeling spooked at this creepy-cool event!

This time, Karina’s haunted dolls are the stars of the show for this Halloween Spooktacular event!

 Among the haunted dolls on display at this special event are three new haunted dolls; a new “Grave Doll” a “Minerva Tin Head Doll (1800's)” and ‘Tuppence’ a doll found in a basement in Moonta, which had been given a burial. When retrieved Tuppence new owner began to experience paranormal phenomena such as hearing a child giggle, toys left out in strange places, disembodied footsteps in a passageway…and he even witnessed a ghostly child’s figure…

When The Lights Go Out Paranormal: https://www.facebook.com/pg/whenthelightsgooutparanomal
CONTACT: whenthelightsgooutparanormal@gmail.com

Karen Tiller, Evelyn Walton, Kerry Walton, Karina Eames, 'Letta Me Out' (on Karina's lap), James Larson, Allen Tiller
front: Bowdie-Jason Ciro Papagni at the first; "Hotel of Haunted Dolls"

Previous Media Releases:

This Morning (ITV - UK TV) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCnxmFDbFiA

The Sun (UK Newspaper) - https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/2851868/this-morning-sparks-hilarious-x-rated-reactions-from-viewers-to-woman-who-speaks-to-the-dead-through-her-700-creepy-dolls/

Glam Adelaide: https://glamadelaide.com.au/todays-museum-of-haunted-dolls-at-old-adelaide-gaol-might-be-the-creepiest-event-weve-seen/

Today Tonight Channel 7: https://7news.com.au/news/sa/creepy-collectibles-inside-australias-most-terrifying-doll-collection-c-367926

What’s On In Adelaide: https://whatsoninadelaide.net.au/events/hotel-of-haunted-dolls/

This is Halloween… Old Halloween Superstitions and Beliefs

This is Halloween…

Old Halloween Superstitions and Beliefs

   Burning nuts on an open fireplace is an old Scottish All Hallows Eve tradition. It is used as a divination tool to discover if another person will fall in love with you.
The nuts are placed on the fire and given names, one for the person asking the question, the other for the person they wish to be with, or have fall in love with them.
 If the two nuts burn nicely together, it is supposedly an indication of true love. However, if the two nuts jump away from each other, crack, explode, or bounce off the fire, it is seen as a bad omen. These two people are not made for each other!

 The Irish once had a similar custom, but three nuts were used instead of two. The three nuts (usually Hazelnuts) were placed into the fire grate, with two being designated as potential lovers (or a couple already together). If the nuts popped, jumped or cracked, an infidelity would occur; if they stayed much the same, a mutual respect would be in place, but if they burned together, or burned brightly, a marriage would occur.

   Another odd act of potential love divination was for a girl to find a pea pod with 9 perfect peas inside. The young lady would take the pod home and secretly place it above the doorway of the house. The first unmarried man to walk through the doorway would be her future suitor!

 The Irish seemed to have many All Hallows Eve traditional “love spells”. Another involved a young lady peeling an entire apple in one strand. She would then throw this long peel over her left shoulder, and when it landed, it would spell out the initials of her future husband!

Another custom, which is thought to have originated in Ireland, was the sewing of hemp seeds to divine a future lover.

On Halloween night, a male or female would secretly make their way to the local cemetery, and at midnight they would sow a handful of hemp seeds, whilst saying the following rhyme;

Hemp seed, I sow Thee; Hemp seed, I sow thee
And him (or her) that’s my true love
Come after me and pou’ thee

Another variation of the poem is:

Hemp seed I sow, hemp seed must grow;

Whomever my true love, come after and mow.

After saying the rhyme a few times whilst sowing the seeds, the asker would look back over their left shoulder, and see an apparition of the person who loves them, cutting the grown hemp with a scythe!

 Another traditional love spell for Halloween was for a young lady to carry two lemon peels, one in each pocket. Before going to bed that night, she would rub the four posts of her bed with the peel and then slip them under her pillow. In her dreams that night, her future husband would appear.

One final Halloween love spell – The Three Dishes, which comes from England. 

Three dishes are to be placed next to each other on a table: one contains dirty water, one contains clean water, and the last contains nothing.
The person wanting to know their future is blindfolded, then led towards the dishes. Whichever dish the person puts their hand in first, decides their future lover.
 The clean water, the person will marry a maiden or master, whichever the case may be.
The dirty water, the person will marry a widow or a widower.
The bowl with nothing in it, the person will remain a bachelor or bachelorette…

…and you thought Halloween was all about ghosts, goblins and trick or treating!

Happy Halloween!

Apparitions

This week I thought I might take a different approach and discuss some of the classifications of Apparitions.

What is an apparition?

 Dictionary.com defines the word as “a supernatural appearance of a person or thing, especially a ghost; a spectre or phantom; wraith:”

Crisis Apparition:  A crisis apparition are visions of a person, who may be under duress or undergoing a crisis. They can involve death, severe injury or severe illness.

These apparitions are extremely common but very hard to verify, as one has to “be there” at the right time to see them. It is believed by some in the paranormal community that the “sender” of the apparition, the person under duress, “sends out” a ghostly image of themselves telepathically to a person, or people, who they have had a close personal relationship with.
 

Collective Apparition:  This is a ghost or apparition witnessed by multiple people at once.
 

Death Bed Apparition:  These are the ghosts witnessed by people upon, or before the impending death of a loved one.
 Occasionally these apparitions are living people (*Bilocation), deceased loved ones or religious figures described by the dying person as standing beside or near their deathbed as they pass away.
 

Reciprocal Apparition:  These are a type of apparition where both of the “ghosts” are actually still alive when they see each other, and both remember the details of their spectral meeting. They are considered very rare.
 There is speculation that they can occur from extreme emotional states such as loneliness or worry, or missing each other so intently, that both parties manifest before each other.

Reincarnation Apparition:  These are apparitions that can appear in dreams to a family member, indicating that the “apparition” or soul, will be born into the family of the dreamer in the near future.

Religious Apparitions:  Apparitions of important religious figures are common place across the world. These apparitions can be omens for change, for disaster or for comfort.

Verdical Apparition:  These are apparitions that can convey verifiable information to the witness. For example, they may deliver a message such as “My body is buried in the place marked X”, and in fact, their body can be found in the spot stated.
 They may also appear in the act of dying their own death, which is verifiable via newspaper stories.
Often these apparitions are residual in nature, but on occasion they have been documented as intelligent and interactive.

Written and Researched by Allen Tiller.

www.allentiller.com.au

www.eidolonparanormal.net

Bibliography

apparition. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved September 8, 2016 from Dictionary.com website http://www.dictionary.com/browse/apparition

Apparitions. 2016. Apparitions. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.studiesoftheparanormal.com/apparitions.html. [Accessed 08 September 2016].

Dictionary.com. 2016. Veridical | Define Veridical at Dictionary.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/veridical. [Accessed 08 September 2016].

West, T, Death Bed Visions and Escorts, Encyclopedia of Death and Dying,  viewed 8 Sept 2016,http://www.deathreference.com/Da-Em/Deathbed-Visions-and-Escorts.html