Halloween in Ireland — Samhain, Where It All Began

How Samhain became Halloween

Neolithic — Tombs that face the Samhain sunrise
Some passage tombs in Ireland are aligned with the sunrise around Samhain and Imbolc. That shows the time of year mattered to their builders; it does not show they kept a festival called Samhain.
Early medieval — Samain in the manuscripts
The medieval Irish texts put great gatherings at Samhain. Echtra Cormaic says the Feast of Tara was held every seventh Samhain, when the high king laid down new laws. It is the night the síde, the mounds, open and the Otherworld comes through.
By 800 — All Saints arrives on the same day
By about 800 churches in Ireland and Northumbria were already keeping a feast of all saints on 1 November, and All Souls followed on the 2nd. From then on the old festival and the Christian feast of the dead occupied the same nights.
1500s–1800s — Guising, pranks and fortune-telling
Mumming and guising at Samhain are recorded from at least the 16th century. In the late 18th century people went house to house with sticks collecting food for the feast; in 19th-century southern Ireland the guisers brought a hobby horse, the Láir Bhán, the white mare. Pranks were common enough that it was called Mischief Night in places.
1800s — The emigrants take it to America
Irish and Scottish emigrants brought guising, pranks and the carved lantern with them. In America the turnip gave way to the pumpkin, which is bigger and far easier to carve.
Late 1800s — The 'Celtic New Year' is invented
John Rhys and James Frazer suggested Samhain had been the Celtic New Year and a festival of the dead. The idea spread everywhere. The historian Ronald Hutton calls the evidence for the new year flimsy.

What people did on the night

The turnip lantern
In 19th-century Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England, turnips and mangel-wurzels were hollowed out, carved with grotesque faces and lit. The pumpkin is the American substitute. The Stingy Jack story, of a drunk who tricks the Devil and wanders with a coal in a turnip, is sometimes told as the origin of the name, alongside the will-o'-the-wisp lights seen over bogs.
The barmbrack
Bairín breac, a fruit loaf with things baked into it: a ring for marriage within the year, a coin for wealth, a pea for no marriage that year, a stick for a quarrelsome one, a rag for bad luck. The ones sold in shops now keep only a toy ring, because food safety rules took out the rest.
Guising and 'false faces'
Children in costume going door to door for food or coins. In Ireland and Scotland the masks were called false faces, and until the 2000s the thing Irish children shouted at the door was 'Help the Halloween Party'.
Divination games
Games to see who you would marry and whether you would live the year, a common part of the night in Irish and British homes in recent centuries.
The parshell
In southern Ireland a small cross of sticks and straw, the parshell, was woven at Samhain, much like a Brigid's cross.
Candles for the dead
In 19th-century Ireland candles were lit and prayers said for the souls of the dead around All Saints and All Souls.

Samhain places you can stand in

Tlachtga, the Hill of Ward · County Meath
Four earthen rings on a hill near Athboy. Later folklore made it the place where druids lit the Samhain fire. The archaeology is real: ritual gatherings, feasting and intense burning there from the Bronze Age to the late Iron Age.
Oweynagat, Rathcroghan · County Roscommon
The cave of the cats at Medb's royal site, called the dwelling of the Morrígan. At Samhain destructive creatures came out of it, and the warrior Nera's adventure begins there on Samhain night.
Tara · County Meath
Where the medieval tales put the great Samhain feast of the high kings.

What gets said, and whether it holds

“Halloween is the Celtic New Year” Doubtful
The idea comes from John Rhys and James Frazer in the late 19th century. Ronald Hutton, the historian of the ritual year, calls the evidence flimsy. It may be true; nobody can show it.
“Halloween is just Samhain, unchanged” No
Modern Halloween is three things layered: the Gaelic Samhain, the Christian All Hallows and All Souls on the same nights since about 800, and the version Irish and Scottish emigrants made in America.
“The jack-o'-lantern was always a pumpkin” No
In Ireland it was a turnip or a mangel-wurzel. The pumpkin was the emigrants' substitute in America.
“Druids made human sacrifices at Samhain” Unproven
The sacrifice stories come from Christian writers centuries later, notably about Crom Cruach. Tlachtga shows fire and feasting in the archaeology, not the sacrifices the folklore describes.

Quick answers

Did Halloween start in Ireland?

Largely, yes. Samhain, the Gaelic festival on 31 October to 1 November, originated in Ireland and was kept in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Irish and Scottish emigrants carried its customs, guising, pranks and carved lanterns, to North America in the 19th century, and American Halloween spread them worldwide. The Christian All Hallows, kept on 1 November in Ireland by about 800, is the other half of the name and the story.

How do you pronounce Samhain?

SOW-in, rhyming with 'cow-in'. In Irish it is written Samhain and means November; Halloween night is Oíche Shamhna.

Was Samhain the Celtic New Year?

Possibly, but it is not established. John Rhys and James Frazer proposed it in the late 19th century, and the historian Ronald Hutton calls the evidence flimsy.

Why did the Irish carve turnips?

Turnips and mangel-wurzels were what there was. In the 19th century they were hollowed, carved with faces and lit at Halloween in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. Emigrants in America used the pumpkin instead because it is larger and softer.

What is in a barmbrack?

A fruit loaf with objects baked in: a ring meant marriage within the year, a coin wealth, a pea no marriage that year, a stick a quarrelsome marriage, a rag bad luck. Shop bracks today contain only a toy ring.

Elsewhere on the site

The púca and the creatures of the night The Morrígan and the old gods Samhain and the other quarter days St Brigid's Day Wren Day

Sources

Kept a Halloween custom in your family that is not here — a game, a food, what the children said at the door? Tell us.