Halloween – Customs and ceilidhs of the past

Times Past

Jonathan Smyth

Tales of witches, demons and ghosts are the ingredients of a good Halloween. Let’s take a few moments to delve into some customs of the spooky season. Ancient communities spoke with fear of All Hallows' Eve. The harvest gathering had ended, and the dark, bleak months of winter lay ahead. On November 1st, Samhain opened a creaky door to a hibernal world.

Halloween customs were passed to each generation, and stories of surreal happenings frightened the listener. In 2023, you may remember three columns featured in Times Past on the Leary (O'Leary) family of Benwilt, Cootehill. Tommy, Ellie and the Leary siblings were the keepers of sacred lore from a world long forgotten. Neighbours called to the cottage on dark evenings and the frightened felt loath to walk the road. Those gathered snugly around the fireplace, eagerly awaited tales of strange things, of fairies, banshees and curses with great curiosity. One person, who departed Benwilt one evening, was thinking over what he heard about a lady with a lighted lamp in the dead of night on the Dairy Brae. He walked that same road. In the distance, something flickered. Getting closer, a physical form took shape. A solitary figure stood still in the middle of the road, holding a lamp. Terrified, he headed faster than Usain Bolt back to O’Leary’s.

Older generations held that an invisible veil divided this world from the spirit universe. This screen was at its thinnest during Halloween. At midnight, the curtain was at its weakest and unwanted creatures could enter our world. In 1924, The Anglo-Celt had the ingenious idea of writing about customs that by then were virtually extinct. Some aspects of Halloween are associated with the Romans who held celebrated a fruit and nut goddess called Pomona. Some parts of Ireland and England referred to Halloween as Nutcrack Night, or Snap-apple Night. Ducking your head in a basin of water for apples was something we did as children. I have not heard of many doing it these days. This is why fruit like apples, and nuts are popular Halloween fare.

Going door to door for sweets, or as one child spoke recently of how he enjoyed ‘collecting candy’ are modern things adopted from America. Children love sweets, which may be safer than nuts, especially if the kid has allergies. The association of black cats with the season has a druidic origin. Another bit of craic was to throw nuts into the open fire and watch them split. There were omens linked to matrimony and the burning of nuts quickly signified an answer. Three nuts were named after three sweethearts. Then thrown in the hearth. If the nut jumped or cracked, it meant the love interest was unfaithful. But, if the nut blazed brightly or burned, you were sure of an enduring love. Another, custom, was for women to ‘tell the size and figure of their future husband by drawing for cabbages blindfolded’.

It is believed that powers of "divination" are strongest on Halloween. Ghouls summoned from the deep, uttered their apparent predictions on prospective wives or husbands. Older people believed that Children born on the 31 October were blessed with the ability to speak with the fairies. Halloween's mesmeric practices often have historical and mythological origins stemming from druidic practises. In 1921 the Celt correspondent noted that Robbie Burns' famous "All Hallows Eve" poem played a major factor in the preservation of ‘ancient traditions and customs’. He has in turn influenced others who have written on the topic.

Spectres

Dracula with his toothy grin, is a frightening fictional vampire, but it is the witches who steal the show at Halloweeen. During art class in national school, we painted witches on broomsticks accompanied by black cats. I never liked witches. When I was a child, the cackling old crone in the Wizard of Oz gave me the heebie-jeebies. Another peculiar figure is Jack-O'-Lantern whom they say ‘displeased ‘his satanic majesty’. When the lantern man died, he found himself "forbidden" from entering the fires of hell. Instead, Jack-O'-Lantern was banished to walk the earth, lantern in hand, until the final trumpet sounded. Like the O’Learys of Benwilt, we too should talk about our ancient customs, and tales of banshees. It could be a useful way to enjoy a catchup with the neighbours this Halloween.

The poem below, written in the 1980s, captures some of the mischievous humour that accompanied the marvellous conversations held at Benwilt.