Punkie Night is a traditional

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glo ...

holiday practised on the last Thursday of October in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. Children will march around with a jack o'lantern, singing the following song :

It's Punkie Night tonight
It's Punkie Night tonight
Adam and Eve would not believe
It's Punkie Night tonight

There are some variants which also include these lines: "Give me a candle, give me a light If you don't, you'll get a fright" or alternatively: "Give me a candle give me light If you haven't a candle, a penny's all right" (Cooper & Sullivan, 1994). As Cooper and Sullivan (1994) explain, this relates to the tradition of children would begging for candles on this night, and threaten people who refused to give them anything (compare the custom of

Trick or Treat Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween custom for children and adults in some countries. During the evening of Halloween, on October 31, people in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase "trick or treat". Th ...

). Cooper and Sullivan also explain how a Punkie King and a Punkie Queen would typically lead the proceedings.

Origins of the custom

No one knows how the custom originated, although it is almost certainly linked with

Hallowe'en Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observan ...

and similar traditions can be found across the West Country. As Morrell (1977) explains, the word "Punkie" is an old English name for a lantern, and jack o'lanterns for Punkie Night may be made of swedes or mangel-wurzels rather than pumpkins. An alternative explanation of the term is that it is derived from pumpkin or punk, meaning tinder. Cooper and Sullivan (1994) attribute the custom's origins to a fair which was at one time held at

Chiselborough Chiselborough is a village in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. It is situated on the River Parrett, 5 miles (8 km) west of Yeovil, and has a population of 275. The village consists largely of small cottages built in the loca ...

. Men who would come back late from the fair would often need candles as lights to guide them home, in late October, which, as Cooper and Sullivan explain, would lead either to women making a jack o'lantern for their husbands, or men making the jack o'lantern, according to different versions of story. Morrell explains how, in earlier times, farmers would put a traditional "Punkie" on their gates to ward off evil spirits at this time of year. The festival has been celebrated at various sites including Castle Neroche in the Blackdown Hills, Long Sutton,

Drayton, Somerset Drayton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, focussed less than a mile from Curry Rivel and five miles southwest of Somerton in the South Somerset district. It adjoins the River Isle, near its confluence with the Parrett, and the f ...

and, more commonly, at

Hinton St George Hinton St George is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated outside Crewkerne, south west of Yeovil in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 442. It has a wide main street lined with hamstone cottages, some t ...

and the neighbouring village of Lopen. In Ireland there is a similar Halloween tradition called Púca Night. (Welsh: Pwca, Cornish: Bucca, English: Pooka) Púca is a Celtic name for

faeries A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, o ...

or sprites. Children dress up in costumes going from door to door asking for treats for the Púca Night.

References

*Cooper, Q. & Sullivan, (1994). Maypoles, Martyrs and Mayhem. London: Bloomsbury books. *

External links

* * {{Halloween Festivals in Somerset Halloween October observances Somerset folklore