One F in Foley: From Samhain to Sweets: Ireland’s Spooky Connection to Halloween

When most people think of Halloween, they picture American suburbs filled with trick-or-treaters and plastic pumpkins. But few realise that this fright-filled holiday has its roots much closer to home - right here in Ireland.

Long before costumes and candy corn, ancient Celts were marking the end of the harvest season with bonfires, ghost stories, and a little mischief. The festival was called Samhain, and it’s where Halloween truly began.

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History Lesson
Samhain, celebrated over 2,000 years ago, was a time when the veil between the living and the dead was said to grow thin. Spirits could slip into our world, and the Celts - being practical people - made sure to light huge bonfires to ward them off.
They also disguised themselves in animal skins and strange outfits to confuse any wandering ghosts. It was, you could say, the first recorded instance of dressing up for Halloween - though we’ve since swapped deer hides for Dracula capes.

The celebrations weren’t all doom and gloom, though. Samhain was also a grand farewell to summer, filled with feasting, storytelling, and games. One of the most charming customs was divination, where people tried to predict their futures.
Apples, for example, weren’t just for eating - they were used in fortune-telling games to divine true love or future luck. If you’ve ever bobbed for apples, you’re keeping a very old Irish tradition alive (though hopefully with fewer spirits watching).
As Christianity spread through Ireland, the Church, in a clever bit of calendar management, introduced All Saints’ Day on November 1. The evening before - All Hallows’ Eve - eventually became “Halloween.”

Rather than erase old traditions, the new festival simply absorbed them. People kept lighting bonfires and dressing up, just with a slightly holier excuse. The Irish, being fond of a good celebration, didn’t need much convincing to keep the party going.
Another Irish contribution to modern Halloween is the Jack-o’-lantern. The story goes that a trickster named “Stingy Jack” made a deal with the devil and was doomed to wander the earth with only a burning coal inside a hollowed-out turnip to light his way.

Going to America
When Irish emigrants brought this tale to America, they discovered that pumpkins—larger and easier to carve—made much better lanterns. And thus, an icon was born.

When millions of Irish people emigrated to the United States during the 19th century, they carried their Halloween customs across the Atlantic.

There, the holiday took on new life - complete with trick-or-treating, parties, and a whole industry of candy and costumes. But the heart of it - the mischief, the bonfires, the belief in something magical lurking in the autumn air - remains unmistakably Irish.

Today, Ireland is proudly reclaiming Halloween as its own. Towns like Derry and Athboy host spectacular Samhain festivals that blend ancient Celtic rituals with modern revelry.

Visitors can join torchlit processions, witness fire dancers, and hear old ghost stories under the same October sky that once glowed with druidic flames. It’s history brought back to life, with just the right amount of spook.

So, the next time you see a carved pumpkin or a child dressed as a witch, remember: it all started on this little island. Halloween may have gone global, but its soul still belongs to Ireland, where the line between the living, the dead, and the downright mischievous has always been delightfully thin.