{"id":91401,"date":"2015-10-29T15:29:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T19:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=91401"},"modified":"2015-10-29T16:31:35","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T20:31:35","slug":"seeking-soul-cakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/seeking-soul-cakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Soul Cakes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VQ20dtnZG14\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Before there was trick-or-treating, there was souling. The UK version of the practice\u2014in which beggars and children went door-to-door seeking alms and soul cakes in exchange for prayers\u2014likely evolved from the pagan mumming rites of Samhain, the Gaelic festival marking the end of harvest season. The Celts believed that on this night\u2014Hallowe\u2019en\u2014the souls of the dead walked the earth, and many of their rituals, such as those involving fire and ghost costumes,\u00a0persisted in Christian form into the twentieth century. Sir James George Frazer\u2019s\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/3623\/3623-h\/3623-h.htm\">The Golden Bough<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1890) chronicles the regional variations in some detail, although even then the practice was archaic. When a folklorist transcribed the following traditional rhyme in 1891, it was in the knowledge that souling was headed for obsolescence.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>A soul! a soul! a soul-cake!<br \/> Please good Missis, a soul-cake!<br \/> An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry,<br \/> Any good thing to make us all merry.<br \/> One for Peter, two for Paul<br \/> Three for Him who made us all.<\/p>\n<p>God bless the master of this house,<br \/> The mistress\u00a0also,<br \/> And all the little children<br \/> That round your table grow.<br \/> Likewise young men and maidens,<br \/> Your cattle and your store;<br \/> And all that dwells within your gates,<br \/> We wish you ten times more.<\/p>\n<p>Down into the cellar,<br \/> And see what you can find,<br \/> If the barrels are not empty,<br \/> We hope you will prove kind.<br \/> We hope you will prove kind,<br \/> With your apples and strong beer,<br \/> And we\u2019ll come no more a-souling<br \/> Till this time next year.<\/p>\n<p>The lanes are very dirty,<br \/> My shoes are very thin,<br \/> I\u2019ve got a little pocket<br \/> To put a penny in.<br \/> If you haven\u2019t got a penny,<br \/> A ha\u2019penny will do;<br \/> If you haven\u2019t get a ha\u2019penny,<br \/> It\u2019s God bless you.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Peter, Paul and Mary recorded a version that\u2019s not scary at all. The Watersons\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VQ20dtnZG14\">revivalist rendition<\/a>, however, is fantastic\u2014and I dare you to claim that if a bunch of men in leering mummers\u2019 masks came up to your door singing it and carrying turnip lanterns, you wouldn\u2019t both throw cakes at them and run screaming in abject terror.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sadie Stein is contributing editor of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review<em>, and the\u00a0<\/em>Daily<em>\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before there was trick-or-treating, there was souling. The UK version of the practice\u2014in which beggars and children went door-to-door seeking alms and soul cakes in exchange for prayers\u2014likely evolved from the pagan mumming rites of Samhain, the Gaelic festival marking the end of harvest season. The Celts believed that on this night\u2014Hallowe\u2019en\u2014the souls of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[20005,1146,13106,20004,20002,13487,20003,9661,20006,20001],"class_list":["post-91401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-begging","tag-halloween","tag-lyrics","tag-mumming","tag-samhain","tag-songs","tag-soul-cakes","tag-the-golden-bough","tag-the-watersons","tag-trick-or-treating"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Seeking Soul Cakes: A Halloween Song<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 29, 2015 \u2013 Before there was trick-or-treating, there was souling. 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The UK version of the practice\u2014in which beggars and children went door-to-door seeking alms and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/seeking-soul-cakes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-29T19:29:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-10-29T20:31:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/seeking-soul-cakes\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/seeking-soul-cakes\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Seeking Soul Cakes\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-29T19:29:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-10-29T20:31:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/seeking-soul-cakes\/\"},\"wordCount\":381,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"begging\",\"Halloween\",\"lyrics\",\"mumming\",\"Samhain\",\"songs\",\"soul cakes\",\"The Golden Bough\",\"The Watersons\",\"trick-or-treating\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/seeking-soul-cakes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/seeking-soul-cakes\/\",\"name\":\"Seeking Soul Cakes: A Halloween Song\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-29T19:29:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-10-29T20:31:35+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 29, 2015 \u2013 Before there was trick-or-treating, there was souling. 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