Stock image of children trick-or-treating on Halloween night. (stock.adobe.com/ The University of Windsor)
By Lindsay Charlton
A night when worlds collide
As the leaves change and a chill creeps into the air, this time of year may also send a shiver down your spine.
Ghosts, witches and ghouls make their presence known as All Hallows’ Eve approaches Friday, when the veil between worlds grows thin — or so says ancient Celtic lore.
In modern Canada, the day, better known as Halloween, gives those drawn to the macabre a chance to revel in its magic and frights, while children don playful costumes and make their rounds through neighbourhoods collecting treats.
But even today’s traditions have historic roots.
Celebrated more than 2,000 years ago, Halloween is linked to the ancient Irish festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, or the “dark half of the year,” said history professor Adam Pole.
“Religiously, Samhain was shaped by Celtic spiritual beliefs centred on the concept of the ‘Otherworld,’ a supernatural realm inhabited by gods, ancestors and spirits,” he said. “The Celts believed that on Samhain, the boundary between the physical world and the Otherworld became permeable, allowing spirits to cross over and interact with the living.”
Also a harvest festival, Samhain represented the final opportunity to celebrate abundance before the scarcity of winter.
“This liminal quality made Samhain both a sacred and dangerous time, requiring elaborate rituals to protect communities and honour the dead,” said Dr. Pole.
Bonfires, masks and magic
Early celebrations combined solemn religious rites with lively feasting and merrymaking.
“The festivities began with the extinguishing of hearth fires in family homes while the harvest was being gathered,” he said. “Once the work was complete, the community would assemble at a sacred site where Druid priests performed ceremonies and lit massive communal bonfires.”
According to Pole, the belief that spirits could move freely between worlds created both opportunities and dangers that called for specific protective measures. Communities gathered around bonfires, believing they could ward off evil entities, while carved turnips with demonic faces served a similar purpose.
“These grotesque lanterns were placed in windows and on doorsteps to frighten away ‘Stingy Jack’ and other wandering spirits,” Pole said.
The Irish also left offerings of food and drink outside their homes to appease “potentially malevolent spirits.”
“This practice stemmed from the belief that ghosts might disguise themselves as beggars, and refusing them could result in a curse,” he said. “The custom of leaving out food evolved over centuries into ‘souling,’ where people, especially children and the poor, would go door to door in disguise asking for ‘soul cakes’ in exchange for prayers for the dead.”
The fear of being kidnapped by fairies led to what Pole described as one of Halloween’s most iconic customs. People would dress in animal skins, straw disguises and frightening masks to confuse supernatural beings so as not to be recognized and taken to the Otherworld.
“This practice of concealing one’s identity was considered essential protection during this dangerous night,” he said.
Echoes of Samhain today
These rituals made their way to North America mainly through waves of Irish immigration from the late 18th through the 19th centuries, especially following the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852, said Pole. Millions fled Ireland, bringing with them cultural practices including Samhain and Halloween customs, though they changed along the way.
“The carved turnip jack-o’-lanterns of Ireland gave way to pumpkins, which were native to North America, much larger and far easier to carve. The practice of ‘souling,’ going door to door asking for soul cakes, evolved into trick-or-treating,” he said.
Some Samhain traditions didn’t quite make it into the modern North American version of Halloween, such as the “dumb supper,” where families would prepare a meal and set places for deceased relatives, inviting them to join the feast.
“The meal would be consumed in complete silence — hence ‘dumb,’ meaning mute — to allow the spirits to participate,” Pole explained. “Children would play games to entertain the dead, and adults would speak to the empty chairs, updating their deceased loved ones on the past year’s news. Doors and windows were left open so the spirits could enter and partake.”
The most iconic Halloween dish, he noted, was colcannon — a blend of mashed potatoes, kale or cabbage, and onions — into which people tucked symbolic items: a ring to foretell marriage, a coin for wealth, a button for bachelorhood, a thimble for spinsterhood and a rag for poverty, each offering a glimpse into the future.
Games at Irish Halloween were also often focused on divination. Apple bobbing, which is still played at many parties today, was one of the most popular.
While the game remains the same, with participants dunking their heads into a basin of water, trying to bite an apple, the stakes were different. According to tradition, the first person to succeed would be the next to marry.
“The fortune-telling intensity of Irish Halloween may surprise Canadians,” Pole said. “While bobbing for apples might be familiar, the sheer number and variety of divination rituals, from examining cabbage shapes to interpreting apple peel formations to finding hidden objects in food, made Irish Halloween largely a night for discovering one’s romantic and financial future.”