EXCLUSIVE: Irish influencer Vivienne Sayers said Samhain is “an old festival, and then Christianity took over and turned it into Halloween.”
By Eleanor Tolbert
21:59 ET, OCT 23 2024
A large skeleton during Dragon of Shandon Samhain Parade on Halloween night in Cork City (Image: Getty)
Jack-o-Lanterns grinning from outside doorways. Bags and buckets full of individually wrapped candies. People wearing costumes from the terrifying to the hilarious.
When you think of Halloween, a specific image comes to mind, but did you know the holiday stems from an ancient Irish festival?
She told the Irish Star that Samhain is Irish for ‘November,’ as it marks the beginning of the month. Oct. 31 is called Oíche Shamhna, or the ‘eve of Samhain,’ as there isn’t a direct translation for Halloween
Sayers said: “What this marks, essentially, is a Celtic festival that marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter.”
During Samhain, people would welcome the dead back to the living realm for a short period of time.
“Generally, it was a nice festival. It was nothing to do with scary ghosts or anything like that,” Sayers said. “It was really a time of reflection to look back on the harvest they had just had.”
A game called “bobáilín” was a major part of the festival, which involves bobbing for apples. (Image: Getty)
When Irish immigrants traveled to the US in 19th century, they brought their traditions over with them.
Sayers said many of the games that are played at Halloween events come from Samhain. A game called “bobáilín” was a major part of the festival, which involves bobbing for apples.
Another part of the celebration includes tine chnámh, which means lighting bonfires. Chnámh translates to “bone fire,” which refers to their original purpose of burning animal bones.
One Irish tradition that hasn’t made its way over to the US is Bairín Breac. Sayers said the bread is baked with charms inside, and depending on what is in your slice – whether it’s a gold ring or a cloth – tells your fortune for the future.
“It was an old festival, and then Christianity took over and turned it into Halloween,” she said.
There are four festivals in Ireland that celebrate the four quarters of the year. They are Imbolc, early spring and coinciding with St. Brigid’s Day; Bealtaine, which is the start of summer; Lúnasa, beginning of autumn; and finishes the year off with Samhain.
Halloween: Tools to keep those devilish, ghastly ghouls at bay on Samhain. iStock
Halloween, which the Irish can claim as their holiday, has inspired many traditions on how to ward off evil spirits. The Irish believed that on October 31 the evilest of creatures and ghouls came to visit them as the year saw an end of the light and the beginning of the dark season.
According to a leading commentator on agriculture in Kansas, John Schlageck, “The Irish believed fairies, who came out of their mounds at Halloween, played pranks on the people who lived above ground. When the Irish came to this country, they decided to emulate the fairies by going around and putting carriages on barns and turning over outhouses.”
As the Irish had many ways of ensuring they weren’t stolen away by the fairies on Halloween night, they were also wary that they would follow them across the ocean and so they brought their safety tricks with them wherever they went. Several of the traditions have been transported across the world, and here are just a few of the “tools” to keep those devilish, ghastly ghouls at bay.
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Bonfires
If you light a massive bonfire, you are more than sure to keep the spirit world away. Fairies will be terrified of the flames.
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Black cats
Schlageck said these creatures are “associated with Faust who sold his soul to the devil for knowledge and power.” As such the ghouls are wary of our dark-furred, little feline friends. Whoever said a black cat was bad luck?
The faces carved on the pumpkins are said to keep away ghosts from the door. What face will scare off the fairies more this year?
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Dressing up
Although the scary costumes may have fallen by the wayside recently with superheroes and princesses topping the list of trick-or-treat ideas children have these days, the tradition of dressing up as various creatures is another way for people to ward off bad spirits.
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Halloween colors are still orange and black, however, colors are associated with the dead so if you’re feeling like getting into the Oíche Samhna (Halloween) spirit, simply stick on something in these colors.
A former loyalist leader has said unionist paramilitary groups are in the background “waiting on a time they may be called upon” to return to large-scale conflict.
Despite a ‘ceasefire’ announced 30 years ago this week, both the main unionist paramilitary groupings, the UDA and UVF, continue to engage in serious criminality. In recent weeks they have been blamed for sectarian intimidation, racist attacks, drug dealing, racketeering, ‘turf-war’ beatings and arson.
A controversy has arisen over unionist Ministers at Stormont holding meetings with representatives of the unionist paramilitary groups. In its meetings, the so-called ‘Loyalist Communities Council ‘ (LCC) demanded cash injections for loyalist ‘charities’ and opposed Irish language education and the use of the Irish language generally.
Brian Ervine (pictured), formerly of the UVF-linked ‘Progressive Unionist Party’, said he disagreed with the LCC’s opposition to Irish language school plans, but claimed: “The problem is we can’t trust that the Union is safe and we can’t trust government.”
Asked about the LCC’s meetings with Stormont ministers, Mr Ervine said: “The real question is, is there any confidence in government? Is there any trust in government anymore?
“This means we are going to have these paramilitary groups continue in the background waiting on a time when they may be called upon.”
Loyalist ‘charities’ and other groups linked to unionist paramilitaries have faced a possible reduction of government funding amid a mounting scandal over the low-level violence taking place ‘below the radar’ of mainstream news.
In one Newtownabbey estate within the past two week, the South East Antrim UDA severely beat a teenager for standing up for his out-of-favour father, while teenage girls are being sexually exploited as payment for their drug debts.
Three weeks ago, the UVF beat a west Belfast man to within an inch of his life, breaking his arms and legs with iron bars and dumping him in an alley.
A new government film has recently admitted that UDA and UVF gangs “run” housing estates in the north of Ireland as it seeks to end their “coercive control”. This is believed to be the first time that the Six County Executive has acknowledged the failure of the PSNI to challenge paramilitaries in some areas.
A range of northern parties and groups, including the SDLP and People before Profit, have hit out the refusal of the DUP Ministers to meet with hundreds of other representatives while they entertain loyalist paramilitarism.
People Before Profit Councillor Shaun Harkin said the LCC meetings with Communities Minister Gordon Lyons and Education Minister Paul Givan were “damaging and unacceptable”, and were “legitimising organisations who serve no progressive purpose”.
A spokesperson for Republican Sinn Fein also voiced strong opposition to the LCC and its agenda.
“These LCC member groups are pro-British elements and are only interested in strengthening the cause of partition. The constituents who support such ideology, propagated by this group, tend to lean towards ultranationalism,” they said.
“In more recent times this has surfaced when known UDA and UVF fascists, along with their Tricolour-waving far right friends from Dublin, took part in racially-motivated violence towards ethnic minorities living in the Occupied six counties.
“The LCC is adding fuel to an already slow-burning tinder box.”
An education in the Irish language is needed.. for the bigots –
Teaching of the Irish language – either at a proposed school or in classes for beginners – poses no threat to anyone
Supporters attend an Irish language protest at Stormont in 2021. Picture by Mark Marlow
By The Irish News
October 04, 2024 at 6:00am BST
IT is clear that attempts by loyalist elements to intimidate Irish language enthusiasts as they maintain a low-key presence outside what are perceived as nationalist districts are escalating and have reached disturbing levels.
The launch of a six-month Irish conversation class for beginners in the mainly unionist village of Castlerock in Co Derry was a small but positive step which should have been welcomed as an example of cultural diversity.
Both Causeway Coast and Glens Council, who own the Peter Thompson Community Centre, and the course organisers are believed to have been made aware of the sinister intervention, and police have confirmed that an investigation is under way.
It follows the bizarre recent engagement between the DUP education minister Paul Givan and the Loyalist Communities Council, which includes representatives of paramilitary groups, when plans for a small new Irish language primary school in east Belfast were discussed.
The proposed Scoil na Seolta is not due to receive public funding and its construction on a vacant site on Montgomery Road, a main thoroughfare, has been granted full planning permission by Belfast City Council.
Instead, it has since emerged that one participant somehow felt it was appropriate to raise issues relating to Scoil na Seolta, claiming that it was causing “causing polarity and volatility in the community”.
Despite the approval secured through the council’s standard processes, it was suggested that the project had “no meaningful support from the local unionist and loyalist population, and no consultation had taken place with local residents”.
The Department of Education has not indicated the response from the minister but it is perplexing that the LCC was able to put its confrontational views on Scoil na Seolta to him in the first place.
Linda Ervine, who happens to come from a Protestant and unionist background, has been coordinating the establishment of the Irish medium school, and has demonstrated that all the related official guidelines have been fully observed.
Scoil na Seolta and the Castlerock class are perfectly normal and straightforward projects which do not deserve to be treated with any kind of hostility by loyalist figures.
It must be hoped that our politicians from all backgrounds give their public support to the children and adults involved, and firmly oppose any hint that Irish speakers might be forced out of unionist districts.
By SeaanUiNeill on 2 October 2024Earlier this year Leo Varadkar was invited to the Keough School of Global Affairs, at Notre Dame University foe a public discussion of Irish current affairs specifically on current changes in Irish civic life and the political future of the island of Ireland.The Keough-Naughton Institute is a multidisciplinary global research hub “bringing Ireland to Notre Dame, Notre Dame to Ireland and Ireland to the world”. The institute characteristically hosts programs and events to highlight how Ireland’s uniqueness speaks to the universal human experience.Talking about the invitation in advance Varadkar said“I am looking forward to visiting the University of Notre Dame, an institution which is a bridge between Ireland and America,……..I am particularly interested in the research the Keough-Naughton Institute is partnering on the future of the island, and I look forward to discussing that and how the relationship between Ireland and the United States can develop in a time of great change in our world.”The visit took place from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 20 (Friday) in the Hesburgh Centre Auditorium on the University of Notre Dame Campus. Varadkar used the invitation to launch a new inititive over reunification. Significantly this initiative included a call on all parties contesting the next Dáil general election to pledge in their manifestos to make Irish unity “an objective, not just an aspiration” and in addition, that a party consensus should be agreed to establish “a New Ireland Forum Mark II”, modelled on the project developed in 1983 by Fine Gael taoiseach Garret FitzGerald advised by the then SDLP leader John Hume. The original Project brought political and academic figures together to examine systematically different ways of bringing a “lasting peace and stability” to a new Ireland. t and was chaired by the president of University College Galway, Colm Ó hEocha. A report was produced in May 1984 that recommended three models: a unitary state, a federal-confederal state, or joint British-Irish authority over Northern Ireland. While none of its recommendations were finally adopted aspects of what had been discussed formed the basis of discussions that a decade and a half later bore fruit in the Belfast Agreement. The New Ireland Forum was itself arguably the single most significant initiative that intellectually primed the thinking behind the Agreement itselfThe Irish Times report described his thinkingVaradkar said his speech a new Forum setting out to examine the difficult issues around reunification “would tease out some of the details about what a proposal on unification would look like and study how we would merge the two systems – judicial, education, welfare and health.”Varadkar favours a New Ireland Forum Mark II rather than the citizens’ assemblies that have been frequently used in the Republic over the last decade to tease out contentious issues.“This isn’t the topic where you pick a hundred citizens, randomly selected. There would be real difficulties, because a minority would come from the North and a minority, again, would come from a Protestant/unionist/loyalist background.“I think they would feel crowded out,” said Varadkar, adding that the forum model would be able to include political parties and civic groups with a “better chance of producing a report and teasing out some of the issues”.His call for a unified policy on the reunification of the island of Ireland comes after his earlier call in June for dedicated funding to be set aside from current budget surpluses in Ireland to pay for the transition to a reunified island. He was speaking at the Ireland’s Future event the SSE Arena, the site of Bill Clinton’s year 2000 welcome to the Belfast Agreement
By SeaanUiNeill on 2 October 2024Earlier this year Leo Varadkar was invited to the