Happy Halloween!--How fascinating to spend this holiday in one of its countries of origin. I have done a little reading about how the Irish celebrate Halloween and I thought I would share the information. I haven’t done extensive research, so please don’t consider this a complete (or even necessarily accurate!) account.
Halloween in Ireland has its origins in a Celtic festival called Samhain. “Samhain” can be pronounced in various ways; one common pronunciation is “sow-in.” Samhain was celebrated on the night when the Celts believed dead spirits visit earth. The Celts built bonfires to both help guide some of the spirits and drive away evil spirits. Bonfires are a part of Halloween in Ireland today. One tradition states that if a person burns a piece of his/her hair in the Halloween bonfire, s/he will dream of his/her future love.
The tradition of the Jack-o-Lantern has Irish roots. The story revolves around a man named Jack who was unworthy of heaven. After repeatedly tricking the devil, Jack was also banned from hell. The devil gave Jack a burning coal to light his way. According to the legend, Jack carved out a turnip and placed the coal inside so it could illuminate his path. Irish immigrants to the United States began using pumpkins because they were more readily available than turnips.
Trick-or-treating has origins in the practice of poor Irish folks visiting the homes of the wealthy and asking for money or food to help them celebrate Halloween. The holiday is quite Americanized today and children dress in costumes and go door-to-door to collect goodies.
The Irish bake a Halloween cake, which is actually a fruit bread, called barnbrack. Traditionally the cake would be baked with various items inside that would symbolize a person’s fate for the coming year. For example, if a person was given a piece of cake with a coin inside, that person could expect good financial luck. A piece of rag represented the opposite—money problems. Today one can buy barnbrack, but it will only have a ring inside which forecasts finding one’s true love or continuing luck in love.
Galway pulled out all the stops to celebrate Halloween. The weekend was filled with festivities called “Galway Abooo!” I did not attend the “Demented Carnival” or “The Cannonball Circus” on Friday night. Nor did I attend the “Monstrously Big Fancy Dress Party” on Saturday evening at which prizes for costumes were awarded. I did venture out today, though, for the reenactment of Michael Jackson’s Thriller dance and to enjoy the costumed in the Latin Quarter.
My hope was to take a lot of pictures of kids in costumes (they are so adorable), but I underestimated how weird it would feel to take pictures of random kids I didn't know. Interestingly, when kids and their parents noticed me taking a picture, they often helped me get a good shot. Still, I held back a lot. Here are some, though:
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| Adorable! |
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| The little boy looks SO much like my nephew when he was younger. |
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| This young man seems to have an extra appendage |
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| Adults were costumed, too |
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| Darth Vader---scary eyes! |
If you would like to read more about Halloween in Ireland, here are three websites I visited to glean the above:
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