There's a reason Halloween feels different in Ireland. It's not borrowed from anywhere else — it started here. Long before pumpkins, costumes, and trick-or-treating existed as we know them today, the Celts were marking the turn of the year with a festival called Samhain (pronounced “sow-win”). Nearly every Halloween tradition we still practise today — from carved lanterns to dressing up to going door to door — can be traced straight back to it.
So, this October, we're taking a moment to look back at where it all began.
What Was Samhain?
Samhain was celebrated from the 31st of October to the 1st of November, marking the midpoint between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. For the ancient Celts, it wasn't just a harvest festival — it was the Celtic New Year, the moment the “light half” of the year gave way to the “dark half.” The harvest was gathered in, livestock was brought down from summer pasture, and the community prepared to turn inward for the winter ahead.
It was one of four great seasonal fire festivals in the Celtic calendar, and by far the most significant — a hinge point between one year and the next.
When the Veil Grew Thin
At the centre of Samhain was a belief that, on this one night, the boundary between the physical world and the Otherworld grew thin. Spirits, fairies, and the souls of ancestors were thought to be able to cross over more easily than at any other time of year. Families would set a place at the table for those who had passed, welcoming them home for the night.
It wasn't only friendly spirits people had to think about, though — the sídhe (fairies) were said to be abroad too, and not always kind. Which brings us to one of Samhain's most enduring legacies.
Bonfires, Masks, and Disguises
Communities gathered around great bonfires — a practice led by Druid priests — as part of the turning of the year. Hearth fires across the community would be extinguished and then relit from the communal flame, a ritual said to protect and bind the community through the winter ahead.
It's also thought that people dressed up during Samhain — often as animals or monsters — specifically to avoid being recognised or taken by the sídhe. Simple disguises were made from what was on hand: scraps of fabric, horsehair, and sheep's wool fashioned into masks. It's not hard to see the thread running from here to modern Halloween costumes.
From Turnip to Jack-o'-Lantern
Long before pumpkins entered the picture, the Irish carved turnips. A fearsome face cut into a turnip and lit from within was believed to ward off wandering spirits — a protective talisman set in a window or by a door. When Irish emigrants brought the tradition to America in the 19th century, they found a much easier vegetable to carve waiting for them: the pumpkin. The jack-o'-lantern as we know it today is, quite literally, an Irish tradition that changed vegetables when it crossed the Atlantic.
Souling, Guising, and the First “Trick-or-Treat”
Long before children went door to door for sweets, they went door to door for souls. In a practice known as “souling,” people — often the poor, or children — would go house to house offering prayers for the dead in exchange for food, typically a small cake. A related tradition, “guising,” saw people don costumes and perform a party piece — a song, a poem, a trick — in exchange for food or a small coin.
Both customs are widely regarded as the direct ancestors of modern trick-or-treating — another Halloween ritual that has its roots firmly in Irish and Scottish tradition, long before it became an American institution.
Barmbrack and the Samhain Table
Food played its part too. Bairín breac — barmbrack, the spiced fruit loaf still baked in Irish kitchens every October — traditionally had small objects baked into it: a ring for marriage in the year ahead, a coin for good fortune, a rag for hard times. It turned a simple loaf into a bit of fortune-telling for the whole table, a tradition that's still very much alive today (we shared our own barmbrack recipe on the blog this month, if you'd like to try it).
How Samhain Became Halloween
As Christianity spread through Ireland, the Church established the 1st of November as All Saints' Day (or All Hallows' Day), with the night before becoming All Hallows' Eve. Over time, “All Hallows' Eve” was shortened to “Hallowe'en” — but many of the older Samhain customs simply carried on underneath the new name, blending old and new.
It was Irish and Scottish emigrants, arriving in America in large numbers through the 19th century — particularly during and after the Great Famine — who carried these traditions across the Atlantic. Once there, Samhain's ancient customs merged with local ones and, over the decades, grew into the Halloween now celebrated around the world.
Halloween has travelled a long way from a Celtic hillside fire festival to pumpkin patches and trick-or-treating routes across the globe — but its roots are still right here.
However you mark Samhain or Halloween this year — with a bonfire, a barmbrack, or simply the porch light on for trick-or-treaters — we hope a little of that ancient sense of turning the year, and gathering in before the dark half sets in, finds its way into your evening.
Sources
• HISTORY — Samhain: Celts, Traditions, Halloween, Wicca
• Ireland.ie — 6 Halloween Traditions That Come From Ireland's Samhain Festival