Some Irish Halloween Traditions .....

.....from ireland-information Newsletter

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IN THIS ISSUE
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=== News Snaps from Ireland
=== New Free Resources at the Site
=== Play The Irish Lotto
=== Farmleigh House, Dublin
=== The Book of Kells, Trinity College
=== Irish Halloween Traditions
=== The Ghost Story by Pat Watson
=== Bram Stoker: Irish Creator of Dracula
=== YouTube Videos of Irish Interest
=== Monthly Free Competition Result




========================== IRISH HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS ========================== The Celts celebrated Halloween as Samhain, 'All Hallowtide' - the 'Feast of the Dead', when the dead revisited the mortal world. The celebration marked the end of Summer and the start of the Winter months. During the eighth century the Catholic Church designated the first day of November as 'All Saints Day' ('All Hallows') - a day of commemoration for those Saints that did not have a specific day of remembrance. The night before was known as 'All Hallows Eve' which, over time, became known as Halloween. Here are the most notable Irish Halloween Traditions: Colcannon for Dinner: Boiled Potato, Curly Kale (a cabbage) and raw Onions are provided as the traditional Irish Halloween dinner. Clean coins are wrapped in baking paper and placed in the potato for children to find and keep. The Barnbrack Cake: The traditional Halloween cake in Ireland is the barnbrack which is a fruit bread. Each member of the family gets a slice. Great interest is taken in the outcome as there is a piece of rag, a coin and a ring in each cake. If you get the rag then your financial future is doubtful. If you get the coin then you can look forward to a prosperous year. Getting the ring is a sure sign of impending romance or continued happiness. The Ivy Leaf: Each member of the family places a perfect ivy leaf into a cup of water and it is then left undisturbed overnight. If, in the morning, a leaf is still perfect and has not developed any spots then the person who placed the leaf in the cup can be sure of 12 months health until the following Halloween. If not..... The Pumpkin: Carving Pumpkins dates back to the eighteenth century and to an Irish blacksmith named Jack who colluded with the Devil and was denied entry to Heaven. He was condemned to wander the earth but asked the Devil for some light. He was given a burning coal ember which he placed inside a turnip that he had gouged out. Thus, the tradition of Jack O'Lanterns was born - the bearer being the wandering blacksmith - a damned soul. Villagers in Ireland hoped that the lantern in their window would keep the wanderer away. When the Irish emigrated in their millions to America there was not a great supply of turnips so pumpkins were used instead. Halloween Costumes: On Halloween night children would dress up in scary costumes and go house to house. 'Help the Halloween Party' and 'Trick or Treat' were the cries to be heard at each door. This tradition of wearing costumes also dates back to Celtic times. On the special night when the living and the dead were at their closest the Celtic Druids would dress up in elaborate costumes to disguise themselves as spirits and devils in case they encountered other devils and spirits during the night. By disguising they hoped that they would be able to avoid being carried away at the end of the night. This explains why witches, goblins and ghosts remain the most popular choices for the costumes. Snap Apple: After the visits to the neighbours the Halloween games begin, the most popular of which is Snap Apple. An apple is suspended from a string and children are blindfolded. The first child to get a decent bite of the apple gets to keep their prize. The same game can be played by placing apples in a basin of water and trying to get a grip on the apple without too much mess! The Bonfire: The Halloween bonfire is a tradition to encourage dreams of who your future husband or wife is going to be. The idea was to drop a cutting of your hair into the burning embers and then dream of you future loved one. Halloween was one of the Celt 'fire' celebrations. Blind Date: Blindfolded local girls would go out into the fields and pull up the first cabbage they could find. If their cabbage had a substantial amount of earth attached to the roots then their future loved one would have money. Eating the cabbage would reveal the nature of their future husband - bitter or sweet! Another way of finding your future spouse is to peel an apple in one go. If done successfully the single apple peel could be dropped on the floor to reveal the initials of the future-intended. Anti-Fairy Measures: Fairies and goblins try to collect as many souls as they can at Halloween but if they met a person who threw the dust from under their feet at the Fairy then they would be obliged to release any souls that they held captive. Holy water was sometimes anointed on farm animals to keep them safe during the night. If the animals were showing signs of ill health on All Hallows Eve then they would be spat on to try to ward off any evil spirits. Happy Halloween from Ireland!






============================ 'THE GHOST STORY' by Pat Watson ============================ It was a frosty night in January in the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and nine. Bill was the church caretaker in this half parish. The priest only rode his horse out here on Sunday to read Mass or for funerals. This was one such day as this evening the remains of old Granny Smith had come to the chapel. Coffins were left in the back of the chapel overnight. He had locked the church earlier at ten and had only come out to look at the cows before going to bed. It was just after midnight. Was that a noise he heard in the church? It couldn't possibly be as he had barred the double doors on the inside before exiting through the sacristy door, which he locked with the key. Why he still had it in his pocket. Just the same, it was only twenty yards to the double doors, he would have a look. Halfway there he felt a bit eerie so he called out. 'Is there anyone there?' The only reply he got was a creaking door. As he moved into the shadow he could see that one of the double doors was half open. What the hell? He stopped in his tracks. He peeped in the door, he could not see, he pushed in the door a bit farther. He looked over to where the coffin was left on trestles. Good God! The old woman was sitting up in the coffin. He could see her by the moonlight that came through the stained glass windows. He could feel his hair stand on end. She had her head on the end of the coffin with her two arms hanging over the sides. The lid of the coffin was standing up against a pillar. 'Did that lid move?' He thought it did. 'Don't be daft he told himself, coffin lids don't move on their own accord. There, it moved again, it had feet, little bare feet.' He looked back to the coffin. It had legs, two bare legs. Had the old woman put her legs down through the bottom of the coffin? The legs had a white shroud dangling to the knees. Bill was rooted to the spot. Sheer terror froze him. Then a white cowl appeared over the edge of the coffin. He felt its eyes peering. A great unearthly shriek emanated from the cowl. It sounded like r-u-n-f-o-r y-o-u-r l-i-f-e. So screaming, the white ghost emerged from behind the coffin and headed straight for Bill at the open door. A black ghost who came from behind the lid chased him. Bill collapsed into the back seat just in time to avoid been trampled on by the screaming ghosts. They went through the opening like bats out of hell. Had he really collapsed? Or did they run through him? He just didn't know any more. He was glad that the shrieks were receding into the distance. He hoped he had seen the last of them. His hair was still on end. It had probably turned white. A few people who lived near the road thought they heard screaming, but they could not be sure. Some thought they dreamt it. Not so John and Stephen who were coming home with a good few pints on them. They saw the ghosts all right. They passed them on the road at great speed. Their shrieks had subsided by then. They disappeared after crossing the dragon stream, near old Granny Smith's house. (John spent the rest of his life, which wasn't very long, mumbling in a drunken haze. Stephen on the other hand took the pledge the very next day and never drank again for the remaining thirty years of his life. Indeed, it was rumoured that he confided to his good wife that he saw the devil chasing his soul across the dragon stream and that he promised God that if he gave him another chance, he would never drink again.) Meanwhile back at the church, Bill sat in a trauma trance, silently invoking God, His Blessed Mother and every saint in creation. Eventually, his heart slipped back out of his mouth and began to beat normally, his hair lay down again and the sweat all over his body began to cool. Some of his reason returned. The small stipend he received as church caretaker made the difference between him being a poor small farmer and a very poor small farmer. His 'gossans' were serving Mass and doing well at school. He might even make a priest out of one of them yet. That would give him real stature in the parish. Fear or no fear, he had to keep his job and that meant keeping the church locked and corpses in their coffins. He got up, his knees were shaking, his hands were shaking, yet he closed the double oak doors, the handles of which were u-shaped made to line up with similar u-shapes on the frames when the doors were closed. Into those slots he dropped the six by three polished oak plank that was made for the purpose. This made the whole thing rock solid. Hopefully it would keep out the ghosts if they returned. He then went to the coffin, put back the arm on the right, walked round, put back the other arm, then down to the foot where he caught the two ankles and pulled the old woman back into the coffin. Her head bounced off the bottom with a thud, no lining in the coffins of the poor, not even a fist full of sawdust. He then rearranged her habit just for decency. He peered behind the lid, just in case, then picked it up and put it on the coffin. The wooden dowels for holding it on were under the trestles; he put them in position, pulled off one boot to tap them home. He replaced the boot, now for the walk up the full length of the church to the sacristy. He could not look both sides at once and ghosts might emerge from the shadows of the seats at any time. The red sanctuary lamp looked down, its dull light mingling with the dim moonlight making the whole scene eerie, unreal, ghostly even. He could hear his own breathing, his heart was pounding again, the sound of his own footsteps unnerved him, but finally he reached the sacristy. He rushed in, unlocked the outer door, dashed out and locked the door behind him. He had done his duty. He would keep his job. Nobody would ever know what happened here. Having broken the ice on the barrel under the eve, he washed death from his hands, wiped them in his trousers and tiptoed back into his house. Everybody was still asleep. He had not been missed. As he crept into bed beside his sleeping wife his courage and reason returned. Why had the ghosts left the dowels under the trestles? Had they intended to replace the lid? If so, why? Why were they so small? Perhaps they were not ghosts at all. The Granny had only been rescued from the poor house because of the new five-shilling old age pension. By the time they had brought her home ten miles on the ass's cart she had the rattles in her throat. She died the next day. One five-shilling pension was all they got. It wouldn't half pay for the drink at the wake. And another thing! He had heard that the she was laid out on a linen sheet on the kitchen table. No one belonging to them ever owned a linen sheet, no, nor even a flour bag sheet. That's where unrestrained young love led to, poverty and want. Where would they have got the sheet? Where! Only on loan from their cousin who worked in the big house? It would have to be returned even if through drink or pride the undertaker was allowed to put it in the coffin with the old woman. If two grandchildren hid in the church wrapped in granny's black shawl they could remove the sheet when everyone was in bed. If they were disturbed in their weird work, might they not have wrapped themselves in the sheet and the shawl and run screaming from the scene? Had he solved the puzzle? He would confront the children after the funeral tomorrow and confirm his suspicions. Until he had talked to the children he would not mention any of this to a soul. He had a long wait. He would never be sure. The children weren't at the funeral, sick, someone said. He supposed they got cold in the church, he would see them at Mass on Sunday. They didn't come, still sick? He never saw them again. Consumption took them with the blooming of the daffodils, only twelve hours apart. They were buried together beside the Granny. 'Maybe it was ghosts that night after all. Maybe it was the children. Maybe, just maybe they should have let the dead rest? Maybe just maybe we should do the same?' May they all stay resting in peace! 'The Ghost Story' is one of sixty lyrical yarns from 'Original Irish Stories' by Pat Watson, Creagh, Bealnamulla, Athlone, Ireland. First published in May 2006. Visit: http://www.myirishstories.com or you can email the author here: pjwatson@utvinternet.com