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Irish Halloween

The season of trick or treat with its pagan origins and spooky, ghostly folklore has a significant place in the Irish calendar dating back to Celtic times.

Irish youngsters and adults celebrate Hallow Eve - or Hallowe'en or just plain Halloween as it has come to be known - on October 31 and they dress up in costumes, go door to door collecting nuts, fruit and sweets , have parties and play festive games like snap apple.
Halloween Pumpkin

Halloween Barnbrack
There are delicious Halloween culinary traditions such as eating Colcannon, a yummy mix of mashed potato, curly kale (a member of the cabbage family) and raw chopped onions with a big knob of butter added to the centre.
When it comes to fruity barnbrack, your choice of slice on Halloween is crucial because it could signal your destiny. If you choose the slice containing a piece of rag, then your financial future does not look happy while the slice with the coin means wealth is looming.

In Ireland there are all sorts of old beliefs and customs associated with Halloween or Oiche Shamhna as it is called in Gaelic, the native Irish language. So ghosts apart, how did all the Halloween fuss begin ?
Halloween may have started in the Paleolithic or Stone Age

The origins of celebrating Halloween in Ireland date back to Celtic times. In Christian Ireland today, November the first is remembered as All Saints Day but if you lived in pagan Celtic Ireland, November 1 marked the first day of winter and it was marked by Samhain, one of the four fire festivals during their year.

Halloween arrived in North America courtesy of the Irish and Scottish emigrants who brought stories of Celtic charms, spells, tales of hobgoblins, evil spirits and the dark and sullen Puca (phooka) fairy.

Articles with more detail on Irish Halloween

Irish Halloween Folklore #1
Irish Halloween Folklore #2

Mike O'Brien
The O'Brien Clan
webmaster@obrienclan.com
www.obrienclan.com

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