Love Halloween? Thank the Celts for your favorite traditions

As you carve your pumpkin, don your costume and mask and wait for the hordes of witches and goblins to arrive, you may not realize that your holiday attire and jack-o-lanterns are protecting you from ghosts that roam the earth on Halloween.

You might also not know that many of our cherished Halloween traditions — from bobbing for apples to wearing costumes to trick-or-treating — originated with Celtic attempts to avoid evil spirits or from the folk traditions that followed.

During Celtic times in Ireland, according to Tim McMahon, associate professor of history at Marquette University, Samhain (SOW-in), or summer's end in Old Irish, marked the end of summer and the harvest and, during nights lighted only by flame, the beginning of long months of scary cold and darkness.

On the night of Oct. 31, the boundaries between the earthly world and the world beyond were believed to blur, allowing spirits and ghosts of the dead to pass more easily from one world to another.

Most people dared not leave their homes on Samhain eve. In addition to encounters with unwelcome spirits, they believed they might fall prey to the music of the Little People, whose enchanting sounds could lure them into the underworld, where — unless their jackets were turned inside-out or they wore iron pins as protective talismans — they might be trapped for eternity, explained John Gleeson, director emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Celtic Studies. Those brave enough to go out disguised themselves with masks and costumes to avoid recognition by spirits.

Added McMahon: “Sometimes those in costume would knock on their neighbors’ doors and receive a little food, almost anticipating trick-or-treat.”

Food also was left outside homes “to placate the spirits from the otherworld, and an extra place was set at the table to welcome ghosts of loved ones,” said José Lanters, professor of English and co-director of the Celtic studies center.

Large, white turnips were carved, hollowed out and lighted as protection and to illuminate the darkness along lonely country roads, writes Brian Witt, cultural exhibits coordinator for Irish Fest, at shamrockclubwis.com, the website for the Shamrock Club of Wisconsin.

When Halloween crossed the Atlantic with Irish immigrants, large turnips were in short supply, and pumpkins became the lanterns of choice. Witt also writes that bonfires were lit, while villagers extinguished all other fires in the village.

“The hearths of homes were lighted using the bonfire flames, therefore creating a bond amongst the families,” he writes. It was also thought that bonfires had healing or protective powers and would thus keep evil spirits away.

Divination was an important part of Samhain. According to Gleeson, this was the best time of year to foretell the future. Games were played and foods eaten in an attempt to predict one's fate in the coming year.

Whoever got the first bite when bobbing for apples would marry. In more recent times, and continuing to the present day, charms were wrapped in paper and mixed into colcannon (a mix of mashed potatoes and kale) or baked into barm brack (a dessert bread), the two foods traditionally served in Ireland on Halloween. A ring signified impending marriage; a coin foretold wealth; a thimble, spinsterhood; a button, bachelorhood; and a pea or bit of cloth, poverty.

In modern Ireland, Halloween is a time for celebration and high jinks. For Andrew Kincaid, assistant professor of English and Celtic studies at UWM, Halloween was a night of mischief and mayhem. To him and his pals, growing up in Dublin in the ’70s and ’80s, the bonfire was the eagerly anticipated main event.

Preparations began a month before the holiday, when “raiding parties” composed of children began gathering fuel for the fire. Although discarded pallets supplied the bulk of the wood, garages were searched, building sites scavenged and fallen tree branches collected. Almost anything was fair game, including sofas and other items left at the curb. The spoils were carried to the bonfire site and thrown onto the growing pyre.

Adding to the anticipation, trips were made months ahead to the open-air Moore Street Market in downtown Dublin to procure illegal bangers (fireworks) and sparklers. Unable to contain their excitement, children began setting these off several nights before Halloween and continued their pyrotechnics through the holiday and for several nights after.

A few days before the holiday, the barm brack was baked. As members of Kincaid's family passed by the loaf, they’d give it a squeeze hoping to determine the location of the ring hidden within.

On Halloween night, dinner, which included the brack, was eaten, after which children dressed in costumes and went house to house, soliciting fruit, nuts and small puzzles and games. Candy was a rarity.

This was followed by a period of “messing around,” Kincaid said, during which children roamed the streets with their friends, playing pranks (putting firecrackers in mailboxes was a favorite), and making and accepting dares — all the while thrilled by the possibility of danger lurking around every corner, and enjoying the feeling that the “world was turned upside down for a night.”

When the opportunities for mischief were exhausted, everyone drifted to the huge bonfire. They circled the flames, sang songs and told ghost stories. Hours later, when the fire burned out, they headed to their homes, where they played games, watched scary movies and told more stories.

At midnight, the hour when the power of the supernatural was strongest, divination games were played, including the peeling of apples which, when the peel was dropped, would form the first letter of the name of a future marriage partner. Exhausted, they finally fell into bed. Nov. 1 was a day for viewing the carnage, tidying up and swapping stories at school.

Today Halloween has made yet another transatlantic journey, and many American customs such as lights, decorations and the giving of candy are practiced in Ireland.

Celebrate like a Celt

  If you’d like to experience a Celtic Halloween, the UWM Center for Celtic Studies will host a Samhain celebration on Oct. 31 at the Hefter Center, 3271 N. Lake Drive. The craic (or fun, pronounced “crack”) will last from 6 to 9 p.m.

Amusements will include Celtic music from Blackthorn Folly, Halloween games, snacks including Irish stew and soda bread, Irish and Ojibwe songs and stories of the supernatural, short movies of the otherworld and prizes for best costumes.

The event is free and the public is welcome.                                                                                                                                             

   Although not a strictly Celtic event, Halloween Legends and Lore at Old World Wisconsin will have some Celtic components, including a “wild bonfire finale.” The festivities will take place from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 21, 22, 28 and 29, rain or shine.

  Folk and fairy tales of the Old World as well as Wisconsin ghost stories from the 19th and early 20th centuries will be featured. Activities will include mazes; fleeing ghosts or dancing in the enchanted fairy circle; encountering witches, strange beasts and fortune tellers; and ghostly tales come to life.

“Tasty and disturbing” treats and drinks will be available for purchase.

A Celtic dinner fit for Halloween

For Halloween, you need a meal that's simple yet satisfying so it allows time for costumes and makeup while providing sustenance to trick-or-treaters (not to mention the treat givers).

As stews are classics in Irish cooking, I added one to a traditional menu of colcannon and barm brack. Mushrooms, onions, carrots and celery combine to make a velvety, flavorful stew. Its rich taste is enhanced by the addition of Guinness. The recipe combines parts of a Guinness stew recipe from “Real Irish Food” (Skyhorse, 2014) by Irish native David Bowers, and one from thekitchn.com. It can be eaten separately or ladled over a mound of colcannon.

Although the potatoes in colcannon are usually mixed with kale, ingredients may vary by region. Some recipes specify cabbage rather than kale, and parsnips, onions or green onions sometimes are added. David Bowers writes that even though “the name colcannon originally comes from the Irish cal ciann fhionn, meaning white-headed cabbage, it has been made all over Ireland for generations using dark green curly kale, never cabbage. In Ireland, curly kale shows up in stores in autumn, right around Halloween.”

I chose a recipe from “Rachel’s Irish Family Food” by Rachel Allen, as it contains roasted garlic. Although not traditional, the garlic adds another layer of taste to the creamy mix.

Brack provides an authentic dessert. The word “brack” comes from the Irish “breac,” or speckled. It’s a fragrant, gently spiced, slightly sweet loaf studded with dried fruit and candied citrus peel. The speckles are provided by the fruit.

“The brack is probably the most Irish of all cakes ... ” writes Georgina Campbell in “The Best of Irish Breads and Baking” (2012). “Simple tea bracks and their variations, based on soaked fruit and a raising agent such as baking powder, are made all year, while barm brack, which is made with yeast, is now mainly a Halloween specialty.”

To this day, brack sold in Ireland around Halloween contains a ring. Years ago, says Campbell, a commercial baker in Ireland included real 9-carat gold wedding rings in some of their bracks “as a promotional ploy.”

I've included both yeast and baking powder versions of brack. Barm brack (from the Irish bairin breac, or speckled loaf) is light, yeasty, reminiscent of holiday breads such as stollen and different from the tea loaf, which is dense, crumbly, spicier and more cake-like. Neither is overly sweet.

Tea bracks are so named because the dried fruit is soaked in tea for several hours before it's added to the batter. This recipe also contains an optional ¼ cup of whiskey.

Although time-honored recipes for both barm brack and tea brack call for a mix of light and dark raisins plus mixed peel and frequently include currants, any mix of dried fruit and peel can be used. Dried cranberries and orange peel, or the addition of candied ginger, are a few options.

Most barm brack recipes do not call for presoaking the fruit. The whiskey in the tea brack, however, provided such a flavor boost that I took a leaf from David Bowers’ recipe and included it in the barm brack.