Halloween is here – but did you know it is Ireland we have to recognize for the most widespread customs and ethnicities at the most bizarre time of year? The Irish are well-known for formulating a bewitching cauldron of clandestine and cheerfulness at Halloween time, and tiny wonder, Ireland is where it all started!
Trace Halloween to its roots and you will discover Ireland’s Ancient East and the Celtic festival of Samhain, an inordinate festivity of fire and feasting that stroked the end of the season of light and the commencement of the dark days of winter.
At this flash of the changeover, the Celts assumed there was a communication amid the worlds of the living and the dead and that spirits could travel among them. Dreading that all styles of beings might pull them into the otherworld before their time, the Celts would masquerade themselves to puzzle and fright off the wandering ghosts, fairies, hobgoblins, and demons.
The current drill of dressing up at Halloween is steadfastly embedded in these old pre-Christian Celtic customs, as is the ritual of igniting bonfires, which started on hilltops in Ireland with fraternities’ getting-together to light enormous ritualistic Samhain fires.
One of the prevalent Celtic festivals of fire was at the peak of Tlachtga, or the Hill of Ward in existing day County Meath. New archaeological digs advocate the hill was used for feasting and celebration over 2,000 years ago and old documents disclose that the Celts lit a fire here from which all the fires in Ireland were rekindled.
To this day the area around the Hill of Ward, and the nearby Hill of Tara where the High Kings of Ireland ruled, rests one of the centres of Irish Halloween traditions. The Púca Festival, a 21st century Samhain celebration, takes place at County Meath and adjacent County Louth each year. Rejoicing Ireland as the origin of Halloween, Púca events usually include an imposing reform of the figurative lighting of the Samhain fire, live performance, music, remarkable light fittings and more. This year, however, the celebrations are virtual, with a transmission of the lighting of the Samhain fires.
Lit up pumpkins with morbid faces is a favourite feature of Halloween. The exercise of carving them began in Ireland, where turnips and large potatoes served as the distinctive Jack-o-lanterns. In fact, the name of the Halloween ornamentation comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack who played a trick on the Devil.
As a penalty for his trickery, the Devil destined Jack to amble infinity with only a scorching ember from the eternal fires of Hell inside a turnip to light his way. Irish settlers ultimately brought the practice to America, home of the pumpkin, and the winter squash has now become essential to the Halloween festivities.
Trick or treating is another Halloween custom devising in Ireland, in this case with children and the poor going from door to door to ask for food, kindling, or money. They sang songs or offered prayers for the soul of the dead in return for food, typically a soul cake which was a compacted bread that comprised fruit. This tradition was known as ‘souling’. The norm of dressing in costumes and making house visits to request small presents of sweets, fruit, and money is thriving in Ireland today, and in many other countries across the world.
