Last Saturday, my wife and I battened down the hatches and watched X-factor, hoping that hordes of feral, ghoulish costume-clad children would not descend on our door, demanding sweets, with the implied threat of redecorating our porch with flour, eggs and I daren’t imagine what else. It got me thinking how Hallowe’en has changed and evolved.

Hallowe’en comes from the old Celtic festival called Samahain (pronounced ’sawan’) and was in fact the beginning of the Celtic New Year. So, you might ask, why do we have all the witches and wizards and things that go bump in the night accoutrements? Well, the reason is that according to ancient belief, Hallowe’en was the night upon which the door between the land of the living and the land of the dead briefly creaked ajar.

When Ireland became a  Christian country, this tradition was transferred to the idea of All Souls  Day, when it became traditional to visit a church and to light a candle for loved ones who have passed on. I suppose it’s always nice to think that someone is watching over us…On another subject, somebody must definitely be watching over John and Edward: Ireland’s most embarrassing export. How did they survive another week? What is wrong with the world? Just like what really lies behind the mysteries of Hallowe’en, we’ll probably never know..

Another thing we’ll never know is why I didn’t check the other blogs before starting this one! I’ve just seen that my colleague Victoria has done a much  better blog than mine about Hallowe’en, so please read her one not mine! next week , I intend to write about something Victoria has no interest in and is not going to blog about: perhaps the unrecognised genius of John and Edward!

Mike

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