Today, Halloween is a fun holiday that people celebrate with their friends and family and, if you can hold your nerve, it’s a chance to scare yourself silly. But, if not it’s still a time to enjoy some delicious foodie treats, dress up and decorate your home.
We have many traditions associated with spooky season, including carving pumpkins, going trick or treating in our local community, and eating lots of sweet goodies like toffee apples, pumpkin pie and chocolate. But, these weren’t always the customs that people carried out.
A lot of ancient customs were started by Celts in Scotland and Ireland, and came from a time when Halloween was more about riding towns and homes of evil creatures and making sure the dead didn’t harm the living.
So, here are five Celtic traditions from ancient times. Some have been adapted for the modern day activities we know, and some haven’t quite lasted the test of time.
1. Gifts given to the dead
It is widely believed that Halloween originated from ancient Celtic harvest festivals, in particular Samhain, which means “summer’s end” and begins on 31 October. As part of this festival, Celtic pagans would leave offerings of food and drink outside their homes to appease the wicked spirits, and would even dedicate portions of their crops to be taken by them.
2. Cabbage stalks had lots of uses
In ancient times, cabbage stalks had many uses around Halloween. For example, it is said that they would be hollowed out and filled with kindling and then young men would go door-to-door using the smoke emitted from the plant to ‘purify’ houses. It’s also thought that boys and girls would use the cabbage stalks to bang on the door of the most ill-tempered people in town, while also shouting “Halloween night”.
3. A bonfire for Halloween
Unlike now, when bonfires are traditionally a part of Bonfire Night customs, our ancestors would light massive bonfires on Halloween. It is said that these fires were started by druids, or celtic priests, and the huge light they produced would bring out people from all across the town, who would then dance and feast together.
4. Carved turnips
According to folklore, in ancient times a man called Jack O’Lantern was a mysterious figure who roamed the street with a burning lump of coal inside a hollowed out turnip. During Samhain, people would therefore carve out turnips to create their own lanterns to scare away evil spirits. This custom was changed to pumpkins sometime in the 19th century.