31/10/2026
From Samhain to Halloween: An Atlantic Bond Written in Fire and Folklore- As autumn leaves sweep through the streets and countryside of Galway and the nights draw in, a familiar seasonal excitement takes hold on both sides of the Atlantic. Millions of children in North America and elsewhere are preparing their Halloween costumes, while here in Ireland, a growing appreciation of our ancient Samhain traditions is bringing renewed pride in the ancient history behind the celebration.
It is a fascinating cultural journey, one that stretches back more than two thousand years, crosses an ocean with generations of Irish emigrants, and eventually finds its way home again.
To understand "Halloween", we have to look beyond the modern costumes, pumpkins and trick-or-treating and explore the ancient customs that helped shape it. This is the story of Samhain (pronounced Sow-in), its transformation in North America, and the remarkable cultural connection that continues to link Ireland, North America, and the world today.
*One small but important distinction: Samhain, All Hallows' Eve and Halloween are closely related, but they are not quite interchangeable. Samhain is the ancient Gaelic seasonal festival marking the beginning of winter; All Hallows' Eve is the Christian evening preceding All Saints' Day on November 1st; and Halloween is the familiar modern name, derived from All Hallows' Evening, which evolved to incorporate customs from both Christian and older seasonal traditions.
---
🏛️ The Ancient Heart: Ireland and the Origins of Samhain
More than two thousand years ago, Samhain marked one of the most important seasonal transitions in early Irish society. It signalled the end of the harvest, the arrival of winter and, in traditional accounts, the beginning of a new year.
While it is often described as the Celtic New Year, historians point out that the precise nature of the ancient Celtic calendar is more complicated than that familiar description suggests. What is well established is that Samhain marked the beginning of winter in early Irish literature and was an important occasion for communal gatherings, feasting and storytelling.
It was also a time of considerable spiritual significance. According to Irish mythology and folklore, Samhain was one of the occasions when the boundary between the human world and the Otherworld became particularly permeable. Spirits, supernatural beings and the Aos Sí (the people of the mounds, often associated with the fairies) were believed to be especially active.
Several customs became closely associated with the occasion:
🔥 The Sacred Fires
Fire played an important role in Samhain celebrations. Communities gathered at significant ceremonial sites, where large communal bonfires were lit.
One particularly important location in Irish tradition is the Hill of Tlachtga, now known as the Hill of Ward, in County Meath. A later historical account by Geoffrey Keating describes Druids gathering there for a great fire, from which people supposedly carried embers to relight their household hearths.
Although historians caution that this particular account is recorded much later than the period it describes, the importance of communal fires and seasonal gatherings is firmly associated with Samhain folklore and tradition.
🎭 Disguises and the Spirit World
The tradition of disguising oneself has deep roots in Irish and Scottish seasonal folklore. People wore masks, animal skins or other disguises, sometimes blackening their faces with ash.
These practices were associated with protecting oneself from, or confusing, wandering supernatural beings. They also allowed people to temporarily step outside their everyday identities and social conventions.
Although we cannot establish a simple, uninterrupted line between these ancient practices and today's Halloween costumes, they are an important part of the folklore surrounding the festival.
🌍 A Shared Celtic Heritage
Although Ireland holds a particularly prominent place in the history of Samhain, related seasonal observances existed throughout the Celtic world.
In Scotland, the festival was known as Samhuinn. In Wales, the corresponding seasonal celebration was called Nos Galan Gaeaf, or Winter's Eve. Cornwall and Brittany also maintained their own autumn and winter customs.
There is even fascinating archaeological evidence of the wider Celtic seasonal calendar. The Coligny Calendar, a second-century bronze artefact discovered in France, contains a month called Samonios, generally understood to be linguistically related to Samhain.
It doesn't prove that every Celtic community celebrated an identical festival, but it does offer a remarkable glimpse into the seasonal traditions of the wider Celtic world.
---
🚢 The Atlantic Crossing: How Samhain Helped Shape American Halloween
The story of Halloween in America is particularly interesting because it illustrates how traditions change when people carry them into new countries.
Although autumn harvest celebrations existed in colonial America, Halloween as a recognisable popular celebration became firmly established much later, particularly through the arrival of Irish and Scottish immigrants during the nineteenth century.
The Great Famine of the 1840s accelerated this migration dramatically. Thousands of Irish families crossed the Atlantic in search of a new life, bringing with them a rich collection of seasonal customs, folklore, games and traditions.
Among the customs that travelled were several that would eventually become central to American Halloween.
🎃 From Turnips to Pumpkins
One of the most recognisable Halloween traditions has a distinctly Irish connection.
In Ireland, people carved faces into turnips and other root vegetables, sometimes placing candles inside to create eerie lanterns. These were associated with folklore surrounding wandering spirits and the legendary Stingy Jack.
When Irish immigrants arrived in North America, they encountered pumpkins, a fruit native to the continent. Pumpkins were larger, softer and considerably easier to carve than traditional Irish turnips.
The result was the familiar Jack-o'-lantern, which eventually became one of Halloween's most recognisable symbols.
There is something rather wonderful about the fact that one of America's most iconic Halloween traditions has such a strong connection to the humble Irish turnip!
🍎 Games, Fortune-Telling and Guising
The Irish brought more than lanterns across the Atlantic.
Traditional Halloween gatherings in Ireland included games involving apples, nuts, matchmaking and fortune-telling. One particularly familiar custom involved biting an apple suspended from a string, while others attempted to peel an apple in one continuous strip to discover the initials of a future sweetheart.
The tradition of guising was also important in Ireland and Scotland. People dressed in disguise and visited neighbouring homes, often singing songs, reciting verses or performing little tricks in exchange for food or other offerings.
Similar customs existed elsewhere in Europe. The English tradition of souling, for example, involved people visiting homes and receiving soul cakes in exchange for prayers for the departed.
These different traditions gradually mingled in North America.
🍬 The Evolution of Trick-or-Treating
In America, Halloween gradually developed into a much larger community celebration.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, festivities included costume parties, games, fortune-telling and, occasionally, rather destructive neighbourhood pranks.
By the 1930s and 1940s, communities increasingly organised Halloween activities into more structured, family-friendly celebrations. Trick-or-treating became firmly established as a central feature of American Halloween by the middle of the twentieth century.
What began as a collection of European seasonal traditions had developed into a distinctive North American celebration, eventually becoming a major part of American popular culture.
---
🌏 Beyond Ireland and America: A Wider Celtic and Global Heritage
The story of Samhain is not confined to Ireland and North America. Related customs and seasonal traditions have connections across the Celtic world, continental Europe and, through subsequent migration and cultural exchange, much of the modern world.
🏴 Scotland – Samhuinn
Scottish traditions share many similarities with those of Ireland, including communal bonfires, disguises and the carving of turnips, known locally as neeps.
Today, Edinburgh's Samhuinn Fire Festival brings elements of this seasonal folklore to life through spectacular fire performances and theatrical representations of the changing seasons, including the symbolic struggle between the Kings of Summer and Winter.
🏴 Wales – Nos Galan Gaeaf
In Wales, Winter's Eve was traditionally associated with spirits and supernatural activity. Folklore warned against lingering at crossroads and other places believed to be frequented by the dead.
One particularly striking figure was the Hwch Ddu Gwta, a supernatural black sow associated with frightening Halloween folklore.
🇫🇷 Brittany – Kalan Goañv
In Brittany, another region with a strong Celtic cultural heritage, traditions surrounding the arrival of winter included leaving food for departed relatives and maintaining household fires to provide warmth for wandering spirits.
📜 Continental Europe – The Coligny Calendar
Evidence of the wider Celtic seasonal calendar can also be found in the remarkable Coligny Calendar, a second-century bronze artefact discovered in France.
Written in the Gaulish language, it includes a month called Samonios, generally associated with the beginning of the Celtic winter season. It is an intriguing reminder that the seasonal concepts associated with Samhain were not confined to Ireland.
🌏 The Modern Global Celebration
Over the last two centuries, migration and the influence of American popular culture have helped Halloween reach places far beyond its original European roots.
In Australia and New Zealand, Irish and Scottish emigrants carried their seasonal customs to the Southern Hemisphere. There, October 31st falls during spring rather than autumn, giving the celebration a rather different seasonal setting.
In Argentina, which has a particularly significant Irish diaspora, Celtic cultural associations and Irish heritage events continue to maintain connections with Ireland.
Meanwhile, in Japan, Halloween has developed into a spectacular celebration of costumes, creativity and street performance, influenced largely by American popular culture.
These modern celebrations may look very different from the ancient Irish festival, but they demonstrate how traditions can travel, adapt and find new expressions in different cultures.
---
🔄 The Modern Harmony: A Cultural Renaissance
Today, we are witnessing a particularly interesting full-circle development. Ireland is increasingly embracing its identity as the historical home of Samhain, bringing ancient folklore and seasonal traditions into the modern cultural landscape.
Festivals such as the Púca Festival in County Meath celebrate the mythology, storytelling and traditions associated with Samhain through contemporary art, music, fire performances and cultural events.
At the same time, American Halloween traditions have become a familiar part of contemporary Irish childhood.
Children here now enjoy the best of both worlds. They dress up as superheroes, film characters and pop-culture icons before heading out trick-or-treating, yet many will also sit down to enjoy a traditional slice of Báirín Breac (barmbrack), searching for the hidden ring that, according to folklore, foretells future romance and good fortune.
It is a lovely illustration of how traditions can evolve without necessarily losing their connection to the past.
And while Ireland is rediscovering and celebrating its ancient heritage, America continues to give Halloween its own distinctive character through creativity, community gatherings and an extraordinary enthusiasm for the season.
---
🤝 The Galway-American Connection: A Living Bridge Across the Atlantic
Perhaps nowhere is this cultural relationship more interesting than when we look at the connections between Galway and the United States.
The story begins with the people themselves.
During the nineteenth century, large numbers of people left County Galway for America. Many travelled during the Great Famine and its aftermath, while others followed in the years that came later.
Emigration often happened through networks of family and friends. Someone who had already settled in Boston, New York or elsewhere might help a brother, sister, neighbour or cousin make the same journey.
The connection between the two shores was maintained in many ways. One particularly fascinating historical record is the Missing Friends section of the Boston Pilot newspaper, which operated between 1831 and 1921. It carried more than 41,000 notices from people in Ireland and America attempting to locate relatives and friends with whom they had lost contact.
Think about what those emigrants carried with them. Alongside their language, music, food and family traditions went the seasonal customs of home: the stories of the Aos Sí, the games played around the hearth, the carved turnip lanterns, the disguises and the celebrations of Oíche Shamhna.
These were not simply traditions belonging to a distant past. They were part of everyday life, carried by people who were building new communities thousands of miles away.
🎭 Macnas: Galway's Ancient Stories on a Modern Stage
Here in Galway, one of the most spectacular expressions of this cultural heritage is the work of Macnas.
For decades, Macnas has transformed the streets of Galway into extraordinary theatrical landscapes of giant puppets, mythical creatures, spectacular costumes and ancient stories.
Its annual Halloween and Samhain parades have become a major feature of the city's cultural calendar, bringing together professional artists, volunteers and thousands of spectators.
In 2026, Macnas celebrates its 40th anniversary, marking four decades of creativity that began on the banks of the Corrib and has since reached audiences around the world.
There is something particularly fitting about this. The mythology and folklore that once formed part of the seasonal storytelling traditions of Ireland are now being reimagined through contemporary street theatre and performance art, finding new audiences both at home and internationally.
When we see North American communities embracing Halloween with elaborate costumes, giant displays, street parades and theatrical celebrations, we are also seeing a modern expression of some of the same creative instincts that have been part of Irish seasonal celebrations for generations.
🌊 A Special Galway Tradition: Halloween on Inis Mór
And then there is the wonderful example of Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands.
Halloween on the island has retained a particularly distinctive tradition. People disguise themselves so thoroughly that even their neighbours cannot recognise them. In the pubs, the disguises remain in place and people traditionally maintain complete silence until midnight.
Rather than speaking to order a drink, they write their requests on pieces of paper!
It is a fascinating survival of the old importance of disguise and anonymity during the Halloween season. In a close-knit island community where everyone knows everyone else, the opportunity to become a complete stranger for one night carries a particular charm.
It also gives us a wonderful reminder that some of the most distinctive expressions of Halloween are still to be found right here in County Galway.
🇮🇪🇺🇸 Two Shores, One Shared Heritage
The relationship between Galway and America is not simply a story of traditions travelling in one direction.
Irish emigrants helped shape the Halloween celebrations that became so popular in North America. American popular culture, in turn, has influenced how Halloween is celebrated by today's Irish children and families.
Meanwhile, Ireland is increasingly bringing the ancient mythology and folklore behind the season back into the spotlight, with festivals, performances and celebrations that attract international attention.
From the turnip lanterns of rural Ireland to the glowing pumpkins of American neighbourhoods, from the old stories of the Aos Sí to the spectacular creations of Macnas, this is a shared cultural journey that continues to evolve.
Here at the Galway American Society, we celebrate precisely these kinds of connections.
Our two communities share much more than a historical relationship. We share traditions, stories, creativity, humour and a continuing appreciation of the cultural influences that have travelled in both directions across the Atlantic.
An ocean may separate our shores, but our stories have always found a way to bring us together.
---
✨ The Spirit of the Season
Whether you call it Samhain, All Hallows' Eve or Halloween, this time of year carries a special significance that has endured across generations.
It is a time to reflect on the changing seasons, celebrate the harvest, remember those who came before us and gather with family, friends and neighbours.
It is also a reminder that traditions are never entirely fixed. They travel with people, absorb new influences and develop new meanings, while retaining something of the history from which they came.
From the ancient fires of Ireland to the glowing pumpkins of North America, Samhain and Halloween tell a remarkable story of shared heritage, transformation and cultural exchange.
How are you celebrating this year? Are you embracing the ancient traditions, heading out for some modern trick-or-treating, or perhaps enjoying a little of both? We'd love to hear about it in the comments! 👇🍂
Galway American Society 🇮🇪 🤝 🇺🇲
👌
Galway Civic Trust / Dúchas na Gaillimhe Galway Heritage Galway West Genealogy East Galway Genealogy & DNA Galway City Museum Ireland Ancient Order of Hibernians in America Galway Association of New York Galway Family History Society Connemara Heritage & History Centre
