Halloween in Ireland: the origins of Samhain

Did you know that Halloween was born on the hills of Ireland?

Behind the pumpkins and the sweets lies Samhain, a Celtic festival that marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. Its oldest traces lead us to Ireland, where the festival has never really stopped being celebrated.

Samhain, the night the year turns

Samhain (pronounced "sow-in") was one of the four great seasonal festivals of the Gaelic calendar. It was held on the night of 31 October to 1 November and marked both the end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark half of the year. The word has survived: in modern Irish, Samhain is the name of the month of November.

It was more than a harvest festival. On that night, the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead was believed to grow so thin that spirits could cross it. Families welcomed the spirits of their ancestors, sometimes by laying an extra place at the table, while guarding against less kindly presences.

Fire was central. Great bonfires were lit on high ground, and each household came with a torch to light its own fire and rekindle its hearth. The hill of Tlachtga, also known as the Hill of Ward, near Athboy in County Meath, is traditionally associated with this great sacred fire of Samhain.

From Samhain to All Hallows' Eve, and then Halloween

Christianity took root in Ireland in the fifth century. Rather than erasing the existing festivals, the Church gradually absorbed them. All Saints' Day was fixed on 1 November, and the evening before became All Hallows' Eve. Over the centuries the name contracted to give us Halloween.

Four Irish traditions you already know without knowing it

The lantern, carved from a turnip

Before the pumpkin, there was the turnip. The Irish grew turnips and carved menacing faces into them to ward off evil spirits on the night of 31 October. The National Museum of Ireland at Castlebar, County Mayo, holds one example nicknamed the "ghost turnip", dated to around 1900.

The story that goes with it is that of Stingy Jack, a farmer said to have tricked the devil. Turned away from both heaven and hell, he has wandered the darkness ever since, his only light an ember tucked inside a hollowed-out turnip: Jack of the lantern, which became jack-o'-lantern.

The disguises

To pass unnoticed, people hid behind masks and costumes made from scraps of cloth, horsehair and sheep's wool for a beard.

Barmbrack and colcannon

Barmbrack, or bairín breac, is a fruit loaf still found in every Irish bakery in late October. Its distinctive feature: objects are slipped inside before baking, and each one foretells the year ahead. Whoever finds a ring should find love or marry within the year. Today this rich cake is happily eaten at teatime.

Colcannon (from the Irish cál ceannann) is mashed potato with cabbage. Same principle — objects wrapped in paper were hidden inside.

The apple games

Snap apple, a popular Halloween game in Ireland, involves catching an apple hanging from a string with your teeth, hands tied behind your back. Its floating variant, apple bobbing, is played in a basin of water. To these was added picking cabbages blindfolded: the shape of the cabbage pulled up was said to reveal the character of your future spouse.

The transatlantic round trip

In the nineteenth century, millions of Irish people emigrated to the United States, carrying their customs with them. Once there, a substitution became inevitable: the pumpkin, plentiful in autumn and far easier to hollow out than the turnip, took its place. The Irish lantern became the orange emblem we know today.

Halloween then came back to Ireland through American popular culture, costumes and sweets included. But the traditional festival had never truly disappeared, and the country now fully claims its role as the birthplace. Two major events anchor the season: the Púca Festival, in Trim and Athboy in County Meath, and Derry Halloween in Northern Ireland, often described as the largest Halloween festival in Europe.

Autumn: a key season for Irish produce

Historically tied to the end of the harvest, autumn is also the heart of Irish whiskey production. Barley, cut in late summer, is traditionally malted and distilled in the months that follow. Today, distilleries across the island make the most of this agricultural calendar through heritage tours focused on rural history and on tasting their spirits.

Please drink responsibly.

A heritage the Irish are proud of

The next time you pass a lit pumpkin on a doorstep, remember that it descends from an Irish turnip and from a night spent in communion with the unseen. From the fires of Tlachtga to the rings hidden in a barmbrack, Halloween still carries the trace of a ritual two thousand years old which, after a long journey, found its way back into Irish homes.