An Irish Halloween

Halloween is celebrated in a number of differ countries in a few different ways. The IRISH people once celebrated HALLOWEEN as SAMHAIN, and believed it was a time when the souls of the dead came back to visit the earth.

During the 8th century the Catholic Church designated the first day of November as ALL SAINTS DAY, or 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 shortened to HALLOWEEN. Ireland had a long weekend with today off as part of this. [London has its disadvantages at time, getting into work at 8.15 and not getting home till 7.45pm :( ]

Poor IRISH people would beg for food and receive pastries called “soul cakes.” In return, they would pray for the dead. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. “Going a-souling” eventually became “trick-or-treating” by children who would visit their neighbours.



I have very vivid memories of Halloween as a child. It generally involved standing out in the freezing cold for hours, havin rounded up a flock of sheep. (Yes I did mention I was a farmer’s daughter, 6 kids in family) Often we had holes in our wellies (wellingtons) and had placed a Dunnes Stores bag (big food supermarket in Ireland like Marks and Spencers in the UK) in them to prevent out feet getting wet. When we finally got in out of the cold our hands would go from very cold to very warm resulting in pins and needles type sensation – have you ever had that? – weird. The good think was though we always came home to warm open fire. There is nothing like a warm open fire.

As a family and children in general in rural Ireland, we celebrated Halloween as a family. This did involve things like dangling an apple from a piece of string (hung from a doorway) with your hands behind your back and trying to grab a bite-it’s harder than it sounds. (good honest to god fun). We also filled a basin with water and again with hands behind back tried to grab things like an apple or money.

I think it was the spread that was put on that we enjoyed the most, grapes, loads of fruit and every type of nut (monkey nuts were an essential) also a coconut.

The bit that we all got excited about though was the Halloween brack (from the Irish word breac, meaning "speckled"). It’s like a breadie type current cake. Although the brack itself was quite nice, as a child it was the Tokens that were put inside the Brack - was what you were aiming for.


Mom would cut the brack and there was either a cheer or a groan of disappointment depending on which slice you had chosen.

If you find a coin in your slice, your fortune in the coming year is that you will be rich.
But find a rag, and you will be poor.
Finding a ring portends romance
But find a thimble or a button and you will be single!

Halloween is definitely a childhood memory I will always remember fondly.