ABSTRACT
At Halloween and Guy Fawkes time guisers still present us with a wierdly picturesque sight and a cry which may be either ‘a penny for the guy’ or ‘a penny for the guisers’, but whereas nowadays these disguised ones are children, up to the nineteenth and even into the twentieth century guising was practised by the adults of a community. Guising activities took different forms but the most notable is the performing of the folk play, which occurred in Scotland usually at Christmas-New Year time but sometimes at Halloween, the end of the Celtic year.
