A History of Halloween

While Halloween is a custom celebrated in many countries around the world, Ireland is believed to be the birthplace of the festival. The Irish tradition dates back to the eighteenth century. Nowadays Halloween is a national holiday in Ireland, celebrated on the last Monday in October.

Halloween takes its roots from the old Celtic festival Samhain Eve, when it was believed that the link between the worlds of living and dead was at its strongest.

Many of the Celtic Halloween traditions live on in Ireland today and were brought to America by Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century. The name Halloween comes from All Hallows' Evening, which is what All Saint's Day (November 1st) was called in Medieval times.

Traditionally an Irish Halloween dinner will include boiled potatoes, cabbage and raw onions. Cleaned coins are wrapped in baking paper and hidden in the potatoes for the children to find and keep.

The barnbrack cake is traditionally served for dessert. It is a fruitcake that has a rag, ring and coin hidden inside it. The rag represents a doubtful financial future, the ring represents impending romance and happiness, and the coin represents riches. It is believed that the individual that finds the hidden treasure will also find that respective fate.

The legend of the Jack O'Lantern also goes back to the eighteenth century.

The legend is that an Irish blacksmith called Jack was denied entry to Heaven after he has was found to have colluded with the Devil. He was condemned to wander the Earth and his only light was a burning coal inside a hollowed out turnip. The villagers believed that placing a Jack O'Lantern in their window would keep the damned soul of the wandering blacksmith away.

When the Irish immigrates arrived in America and tried to carry on the tradition they found there was not enough turnips and so they resorted to using pumpkins instead.

People would dress in ghost and goblin costumes to confuse the spirits that wandered the Earth on this night, so that they would not be taken by them.

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