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MANY PEOPLE WILL be celebrating Halloween this weekend – there’ll be fancy dress parties, trick or treating and other events taking place to mark the occasion.
But where does it all stem from?
Dr Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh, interim director of the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin, recently spoke to TheJournal.ie about the origins of some Halloween traditions.
Mac Cárthaigh notes that, from earliest recorded history in Ireland, Halloween, All Hallows’ Eve or Oíche Shamhna was considered a turning point in the calendar, marking the end of the harvest season.
“The twofold division of the year – from Bealtaine (May Day) to Samhain, and Samhain to Bealtaine – appears to be a very ancient European concept.
“As a significant point in the calendar, it is not surprising that Samhain should be a focus for much folk custom and belief.
Figuratively, it marks the close of the season of light and the beginning of the dark half of the year, and was therefore perceived as a liminal moment in time when movement between the otherworld and this world was possible. Thus various supernatural beings and the dead were believed to visit the living, and the living could visit the otherworld.
“Because Samhain marked the commencement of the darker period of the year it was an obvious time for a festival to commemorate the dead.”
Mac Cárthaigh says some people “would put out a little festive meal on 31 October and/or 1 November for their [deceased] relatives”. He says others may have believed that fairies or a púca – from the Irish word for ghost – might visit their house.
“People would leave out a symbolic meal on the table and sweep and clean the house. So, in the event the fairies entered, they wouldn’t create any damage,” he says, adding there is “a question mark over the scale of belief in that”.
Mac Cárthaigh notes that Samhain, along with other pagan rituals, was taken over by the Catholic Church.
He recalls how All Saints’ Day was originally in May before being moved to 1 November. Many people still visit the graves of their relatives on this day and the day after, 2 November: All Souls’ Day.
Trick or treating
Aside from eating certain foods such as colcannon, barmbrack, fruit and nuts, many people played games like bobbing for apples – and some still do.
Mac Cárthaigh tells us there are accounts of people – traditionally men and boys – going from door-to-door in disguise singing rhymes and playing music in exchange for food “well back into the 19th century”.
He says houses that rewarded people were safe, while those who turned people away were considered a target for pranks such as taking gates off hinges or covering the chimney.
Mac Cárthaigh says it’s “curious” that Halloween is often seen as an American tradition as its customs were introduced to the United States by European immigrants, including people from Ireland, about 200 years ago.
“In the interim it has developed and taken root in America.”
Mac Cárthaigh says American films and TV shows have help to commercialise and, in some respects, change Halloween.
“As a child I would have said ‘Help the halloween party’ [while going door-to-door], now children say ‘Trick or treat’ – that’s an American phrase. Halloween has come back to haunt us from America, so to speak,” he quips.
Mac Cárthaigh notes that there has long been “tension of some kind” between authorities and the general public at Halloween given the “revelry and mischief” associated with the tradition.
He describes fireworks and bonfires as more recent manifestations of this.
Mac Cárthaigh gave a talk about Halloween customs at the National Library of Ireland on Friday. More information about folklore can be found on dúchas.ie or on UCD’s website.
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The committee did better than I thought they would. All Kelly was short of was having gold teeth and an platform shoes. And Tubridy defaulted to the “I’m a decent guy lead stray by a snake-oil salesman.” I hope we never have to see him again after today…ever!
@Robert Bradshaw: so what did the committee demonstrate that he did wrong in terms of the barter account and the tri partite agreement, i m interested to hear your views
@Liam O’Connor: At the very least he knowingly was part of a conspiracy to money launder tax payer funds.
Giving a falsified invoice to a third party – and agreeing to hide its true purpose – then refusing to speak up to perpetuate fraud on the taxpayer… that’s all demonstrably true.
Claiming he committed fraud cause his employer told him to isn’t a legal defense.
He was paid 10s of thousands of euro – which cost extra 10s of thousands because it was hidden via the barter account – for work he didn’t do: consultancy.
He then knew RTE was misstating his wages – and his manager was in cahoots with RTE to launder the money – and didn’t say boo until a public audit found it.
Here’s the definition of money laundering:
“Money laundering is the illegal process of hiding the origins of money obtained illegally by passing it through a complex system of banking transfers or other transactions”
Falsifying invoices to receive money, then hiding that money via barter accounts and offshoot companies – that’s what drug gangs do.
And also apparently our state media and its biggest star and his manager.
Scratch cards?
Sneakily, that’s how.
Our money. Give up the licence fee or go to prison…
Most CFOs are compete bluffers
have your say