Top ten spooky Irish traditions for Halloween – PHOTOS

Traditions to make your Halloween just that little bit more Irish

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 7:42 AM

Updated Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 10:10 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

8 Comments

Jack o' Lantern - an ancient invention to ward off evil spirits this Halloween

Photo by Jack Reznicki/CORBIS

PHOTOS - Top Irish Halloween traditions slideshow

The celebration of Halloween began in Ireland in about 1000 AD so its no wonder that there are so many Irish Halloween traditions that continue around the world every year.

Back then Halloween was pagan festival called “Samhain” meaning “end of summer”. The Celts believed that on the eve of Halloween dead spirits would visit the mortal world. They lit bonfires to keep evil spirits away and dressed in disguises.

Although our Halloween is less about dead spirits and more about having fun and dressing up there are some traditional aspects of an Irish Halloween that we have keep going.

Here’s list of some ancient and some more recent traditions from Ireland that have stuck over the years:

The bonfire

Samhain was seen as the end of summer but also the beginning of another year. It was also the one day of the year when spirits could walk the earth. The community would gather together and light huge fires to ward off bad fortune for the coming year and any evil spirits.

Some believe that people extinguished their fires at in the hearth at home before they left and would reignite them using an ember from the bonfire, for good luck. The day after the bonfire the ashes were spread across the fields to further ward off bad luck for the farmers during the year.

It was also traditionally believed that the bonfire encourages dreams especially of your future husband or wife. It was said that if you drop a cutting of your hair into the embers of the fire the identity of your first husband would be revealed.

Jack-o-lantern

There are two schools of thought on why the Irish carried Jack-o-lantern. One is that the tradition is an ancient Celtic tradition. In order to carry home an ember from the communal bonfire the people would hollow out a turnip so they could walk home with the fire still burning.

The other version is a little more spooky. The other story is that Jack-o-lanterns date back to the 18th century. It is named after an Irish blacksmith, called Jack, who colluded with the Devil and was denied entry into Heaven. Jack was condemned to walk the earth for eternity but asked the Devill for some light. He was given a burning coal which burnt into a turnip that he had hollowed out. Some Irish believe that hanging a lantern in their front window would keep Jack’s wandering soul away.

When the Scot-Irish emigrated to America in they adapted the tradition and used a pumpkin instead as it is more difficult to find turnips.

---------------------

Young police officer swept to his death by flood waters

1 2 3 4 Next page >

Nster.com

E-mail

8 Comments

See all comments

Saoirse9 | Oct 26, 2011, 05:58 PM EDT

Clearly, as many of these are pagan traditions, they go back much further than 1,000 bloody A.D.! WHo's the eejit that came up with this date? The author?

Report abuse

ellenfromcork | Oct 25, 2011, 07:07 PM EDT

SOY MILK in colcannon!!?? Sweet mother of Jesus, who thought that one up?

Report abuse

larrydalamb | Oct 25, 2011, 06:20 PM EDT

"It was said that if you drop a cutting of your hair into the embers of the fire the identity of your first husband would be revealed." Expecting more than one?

Report abuse

zekeking | Oct 25, 2011, 05:27 PM EDT

Please forgive my ignorance but is putting prizes in the barnbrack the precursor to our wedding cakes with charms in them attached to ribbons? Thimbles for old maids, rings for the next married? Never got the thimble, but sometimes wished I had...haha

Report abuse

GeorgeDillon | Oct 25, 2011, 02:47 PM EDT

Good article, and some interesting posts. But the sad fact is that the Irish, more particularly the young Irish, are totally cut off from all the traditions of Halloween. It's nonsense to talk of "top ten Irish Halloween customs". They don't exist. In fact, I happened to be in Ireland at Halloween some years back. I was disappointed that NOT ONE young Irish person I spoke to knew that Halloween has deep Irish roots. The fact is that the Irish are rapidly losing their culture. It's a complex phenomenon, caused by globalization, English language, Mass Immigration of foreigners, poor education etc. But its' happening, and accelerating. Any American who has traveled in Ireland will have found that the Irish are utterly ignorant of what their grandparents knew of the country's lore. The culture of the Irish is now as dead as the culture of the ancient Egyptians or Aztecs. The result is that the modern Irish are quite boring people, dull and bland.

Report abuse

thesavageirish | Oct 25, 2011, 12:47 PM EDT

Never ceases to amaze that in a country whose architectural heritage goes back 5000 years, an extensive astrologically tied tradition manifest in a timekeeper such as Newgrange older than the pyramids and an extensive folkloric tradition reaching back to times biblical that irish tradition is nonexistent until the arrival of Rome. Samhain, or old irish samain is cognate with assembly which in the annals would indicate a royal assembly at the end of the harvest. The 'Cath Maige Tuireadh' or Battle of Mag Tuireadh takes place on Samhain where the old deities Morrigan and Dagda make love before the battle. Have the heroics of young Fionn MacCumhail against the burner Aillen on the night of samhain have been magically transposed to the tenth century also? For the love of god give us our due and understand that the celtic language is older than Latin.

Report abuse

Ballyphehane1 | Oct 25, 2011, 11:22 AM EDT

In the Barmbracks in Cork, we never had a thimble. We had a Pea - that meant you wouldn't get married. There was also a stick - supposed to symbolize an unhappy marriage (referred to when we were young as - your husband/wife will beat you). For games then, we had the usual snap apple and bobbing for apples. We had something similar to the friar one you mentioned but it was a plate with mound of flour and a cherry on top. You take turns slicing a section of the mound of flour to the side until the cherry falls. The person who makes the cherry fall then gets their head pushed into the plate of flour. We also did races with monkey nuts on the ground - you had to move the monkey nut with your nose. Great fun!!

Report abuse

davidgavan | Oct 25, 2011, 10:51 AM EDT

Reminded me of my father who as a young lad in Dublin, circa 1910, would tie a rope across the narrow streets to opposing door knobs and then knock on both doors. Kind of a harmless trick by today,s standards

Report abuse