Hallowe’en

Special Irish festivities on October 31 on the eve of All-Saints’ day derives from an ancient festival of Samhain, which marked the start of winter on November 1, and it became known as Hallowe’en. It was and still is a great night of festivity for children, with various games and other activities. The youth of a district dressed in funny garb and blackened faces to disguise appearance assemble around a bonfire for the occasion, where games and various types of devilment take place. Young children have their own games indoors. A common game is trying to bite an apple attached to a string suspended from a ceiling with hands tied behind backs. Another game is ‘ducking’, trying to bite an apple placed in a deep basin of water without the use of one’s hands. This is followed by dallóg in Irish, where children are blindfolded and asked to lay a hand on one of a number of saucers placed around a room. These saucers have different contents like water, a ring, timber, a rosary beads and many others. Selection of water means that the person will emigrate, a ring means marriage, timber that the person will become a carpenter, while a rosary beads denotes religious life.

When all the games are over, a meal is served, the highlight of which is a barmbrack containing a ring. It is said that the person who receives the ring is sure to marry one day. The last game of the night generally involves a person sitting in the middle of the floor with a blindfold on and the rest of the group dancing around in a circle to music. When the music stops, the last one to sit on the ground has to put on the blindfold, while all the rest tease the person until the music stops again. Halloween is always a special night for children, who have no school the following day.

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