Halloween in Ireland

The tradition to keep the spirits of the dead away from the living.

We are all familiar with Halloween. But many people don´t know why we celebrate on the night of October 31st to November 1st. Below we explain what lies behind the old festival.

 Halloween is on the 31st of October and as you can see in your neighbourhoods, there is a lot of interest to the long tradition of halloween.

Most houses are already decortated in a very creative way. You can see ghosts made of bed sheets, grim-looking carved pumpkins and a lot of candles.

Nowadays children and adults dress up as witches, ghosts, zombies and all kind of macabre figures and go out trick or treating or go to fancy dress parties. But where did the tradition of Halloween start?

If you trace Halloween back to it´s origins, you find yourself in pagan Ireland 2,000 years ago. The celebration represents the end of summer and the beginning of Winter – the dark season of the year. According to mythology, on Samhain the dead went in search of the living who would die in the next year. To scare away evil spirits, people dressed up in scary costumes and haunted the streets even at night. Large fires were supposed to keep evil sprits away. There were small gifts and treats in front of the houses that were supposed to appease the spirits and prevent them from committing misdeeds.

So be sure to hand out some treats to the children!

Happy Halloween!