Tara, Ireland
I grew up in a rural Irish town next to Tara, the mythical capital of Ireland. Today, Tara doesn’t look like much – all that’s left are the impressions much older structures left on the landscape. All the same, it doesn’t take much for me to imagine what Tara would have been like at just this time of the year many centuries ago, busy with preparations for the Celtic New Year fest of Samhain (sow-an). On ‘Oiche Shamhna’ (ee-ha how-na), the eve of the feast of Samhain, the Celts believed that the spirits of the dead roamed the earth. We know this celebration as Halloween.
On the first Halloween I spent in the U.S., I remember being quite stunned by how seriously people took the holiday: wearing Halloween-themed clothing, diligently carving pumpkins with elaborate designs and festooning their houses with all manner of gothic decor. Such a change from the Halloween traditions with which I had grown up. I’m intrigued by how some of the original traditions have survived over here and some have been dropped altogether.
Photo credit: rayolite
The most important part of Halloween when I was a child was building the bonfire. Traditionally, bonfires were built to ward off evil spirits. Not that this mattered in my neighborhood. Impromptu groups of kids who wouldn’t usually even speak to each other coalesced to build the biggest possible pile of combustible materials to burn on Halloween night. Rivalries between neighborhoods were challenged and reinforced in daily ‘bonfire collections’. Playground bragging rights were awarded to the group with the biggest bonfire and the bonfire which burned the longest. As a Mom I’m relieved that this particular tradition doesn’t enflame passions in the U.S.
Traditionally, turnips were used as Jack O Lanterns. If you’re not familiar with turnips, they’re dense root vegetables popular in the British Isles. And by dense, I mean knife-dulling, wiry and fibrous. No way you can slice through this puppy and scoop out the insides. They are possibly, maybe, suitable as replacement heads for scarecrows (a la Worzel Gummidge). Pumpkins make much, much better Jack O Lanterns. Trust me on this one.
I do miss Irish Halloween food traditions: Barnbrack and Colcannon, nuts and apples. I can understand why Colcannon isn’t popular since let’s face it, cooked cabbage is a truly stinky vegetable. But I think there’s room for Barnbrack. It’s a neat tradition: fortune-telling gifts hidden within the bread. Find a coin and you’ll be rich; find a rag and you’ll be poor; find a thimble and you’ll never marry; find a ring and you’ll fall in love within the year. Truly old-fashioned, I know, but a great source of excitement around my Mom’s table every year. Maybe I’ll take my un-domesticated, culinary-challenged self to the local grocery store and introduce this particular tradition to my kids this year.
This post is part of Angela’s Blogapalooza. Thanks for hosting this Angela and Happy Halloween everyone!
Subscribe to this blog using RSS, email or follow me on Twitter.
great customs! i LOVE colcannon!
Reply
Thanks for the introduction to other Halloween customs! Gotta admit, scary as the whole bonfire thing would be as an adult, I can imagine it being great fun as a kid!
Reply
Thanks for the window into Irish traditions on Samhain/Halloween. The bread with fortunes in it sounds delightful and fun!
Reply
Love this post. What great traditions. Wouldn’t want to try and carve a turnip, but I love the bonfire idea.
Thanks for sharing. One day, you’ll have to take us GNO Gals on a tour of Ireland. Wouldn’t that be fun. From virtual to the Emerald Isle with a bunch of giggling gals. I can imagine the plane ride now LOL!
Reply
Fabulous post! I love knowing about holidays in other countries and cultures. Thanks for participating in Blogapalooza!
Reply
Very cool post, and I love the first picture. It’s interesting to learn about other Halloween customs, but I’m glad the bonfires aren’t big here too. I could see that getting out of hand fast.
Reply
Barnbrack is a cool custom….I”m surprised it is not more popular in the states…
Reply
I enjoyed learning about those customs. Barnbrack does sound like fun.
Reply
This was fun to learn about, thanks for sharing your story. Bonfires are so much fire. But, it’d probably get a little crazy.
Reply
For mystery and charm, Ireland just kicks the U.S. in the behind, even if we have figured out a better vegetable to use as jack o’lanterns.
And, BTW, being married to someone of German descent from the midwest, I do get my fill of cooked cabbage! Phew!
Reply
I like a peice of cake and a cuppa tea with aunt sally at halloween.
Reply
Imagine my girls surprise when we moved back to the UK (after three years in California) and they found that their friends all wear “scary” costumes here, instead of the nice princesses and fairies.
Can not imagine carving a turnip!
Reply
I’d almost forgotten about the barnbrack.
We used to have sparklers and bangers (mini fireworks) too – good memories!
Reply
What interesting food but carving up turnips?
Reply
@Quickroute: sparkers! totally. I’d forgotten about those.
@MarkH: I’m not even sure that you can get turnips in Oz. I tried carving one up once as an older kid. Didn’t work at all. No idea how people used to do it. Obviously some trick which has been lost since we all use pumpkins now.
@Susanna: yes, Halloween in the British Isles is all about scary. No cutsey Disney costumes over there!
Reply