How Irish is Halloween? Take a look at our top 10 reasons and you'll know for sure.

Make sure you don't read this in a darkened churchyard at the dead of night. And if you see a red-headed woman turn back!

1. Halloween was invented by the Irish. It is based on the feast of Samhain (sow-in) the Celtic day when the spirit world and the real world intermingle. The dead walk for one day and mix with the living.

2. Bram Stoker who invented Dracula was Dublin-born and heavily influenced by the old superstitions and ghost stories he heard.

3. Many of those legends still abound. For instance, seventh sons of seventh sons are said to have magical powers. If you are born the seventh son of a seventh son they will place often a worm in your hand, If the worm dies you have the magical healing powers.

4. Mothers had to guard their children from the fairies. If a child was left unattended the fairies would take it and leave a changeling behind. WB Yeats wrote a beautiful poem called the “The Stolen Child,” about the fairies luring a child away to the "waters and the wild."

5. Never cut down a fairy tree. Trees in certain areas are known as fairy trees where the little people are said to reside. If you cut it down it is bad luck forever. This is taken very seriously. Highway projects have been held up because of fairy trees.

6. Turn back if you see a red-headed woman. Fisherman in many areas will not go fishing if they meet a red-headed woman on the way to their boat. It is said to be a sign of very bad luck.

7. There are jumping churches in Ireland,. In several parts of the  country there are churches that locals swear ‘jumped’ and moved overnight. One in Ardee, County Louth is said to have jumped in the last century when an excommunicated person was buried within its original walls.

8. Leap Castle in Offaly is the most haunted place in the land. Family struggles plagued the clan after the death of the chieftain, Mulrooney O'Carroll inside the castle in 1532. One of the family was a priest. He was holding mass for a group of his family (in what is now called the "Bloody Chapel"). His rival brother burst into the chapel, plunged his sword into his brother. His ghost and that of others who died mysteriously there are said to haunt the place since.

9. The headless horseman lives! It is said that after sunset, on certain festivals and feast days, one of the most terrifying creatures in the spirit world, the Dullahan, can be seen riding a magnificent black stallion across the country side. Wherever he stops, a mortal dies. Clad in flowing black robes, the Dullahan has no head on his shoulders.

10. The Churchyard Bride is a very interesting legend connected with Errigal graveyard in Co. Monaghan The Errigal graveyard is said to be haunted by an amorous spirit which appears occasionally to young people whose relatives were buried here; and its appearance always signalled death to those who had the misfortune to encounter it. During funerals the Churchyard Bride would accost the young person who remained last in the graveyard.