Halloween celebrations all started in Westmeath

Did you ever wonder what exactly is Halloween a celebration of - or is it a celebration at all?Is it anything more than a night when troublemakers give themselves licence to do harm, or maybe you look on it as just a harmless fun-night for children when they dress up in ghoulish costumes, play games and do their rounds of 'trick or treat'?What I associate Halloween with from my childhood is peanuts, 'lifting of gates' and the ring in the Hallowe"en brack! The brack didn"t last long in our house but if we were really lucky, another one might be purchased next day, such was the excitement it generated on finding the ring in your slice.I often tried to cheat by feeling the outside crust in search of a little lump and then timing my slice to where I thought the ring might be! We used also tie an apple hanging from the ceiling and try to take bites - without hands of course and likewise with the apple in a basin of water. What a mess in the kitchen but what a laugh! Isn"t this the spot where the 'we were poor but we were happy' line is inserted?!Peanuts or walnuts would have been purchased for a few pence in Briody"s shop and we would also have stored more hazel nuts than a forest of squirrels. After dark we 'got up to harm' for a couple of hours by 'lifting gates'.All gates were fair game except where there were cattle in a field. The gates were then hidden or often strung up from the branch of a tree, but more often we were caught in the act, as the owners knew when to watch and it"s many a time I went to bed with my arse stinging from the welt caused by an ash plant. Tougher boys at school bragged of climbing up on roofs and placing a wet sack over the chimney, thereby filling the house with smoke - but I was never that brave!Over the weekend, children will receive a welcome from neighbours when they arrive, all dressed up, for their 'trick or treat.' This part of the custom is fairly new to me, but it probably has its origin in the ninth century custom of 'souling'. Christians in Europe would walk from village to village on All Souls Day begging for 'soul cakes', which were bread with currants. The more bread the beggars received, the more prayers they promised to say for the relatives of the donors who languished in Purgatory.Hallowe"en is now celebrated all over the world and even though most don"t know what they are celebrating, we have a very strong case to make that the whole thing started in Westmeath. In ancient Ireland, around the fifth century BC, summer officially ended on October 31 and this was called Samhain.The Celtic New year started on November 1 by the re-lighting of all fires, which had to be extinguished the previous night. There was only one fire in Ireland which was not extinguished and that was left burning on the Hill of Uisneach. All tribes re-lit their fires from the Druidic Uisneach fire; this was the start of Hallowe"en, and therefore, it all started in Westmeath!Why don"t we market this? If it were anywhere else Uisneach would have an airport by now. Some accounts claim that if anyone was thought to be possessed by evil spirits they would be burned in the fire on that night: 'Tough Men in Westmeath' indeed!So, you can see that Hallowe"en, our oldest Irish custom, has spread worldwide and world historians are agreed on its origin. We used to scoop out a turnip and put a lighted candle in it for a 'Jack-O"-Lantern' and this spread with our people to America, where they found pumpkins to be more plentiful and no American Halloween would be complete without their 'Jack-O"-Lantern'.This symbolic light dates back to old Irish folklore where a drunkard and trickster called Jack tricked the Devil into climbing a tree and then he carved a cross on the bark so Satan couldn"t get down. Eventually a deal was struck whereby Jack let the devil down on condition that he would never tempt him again. After Jack died he was denied entry into heaven for his evil ways and he wasn"t welcome in Hell either for tricking the Devil. After some toing and froing, the Devil gave Jack a single ember to light his way through the darkness on earth and old people often spoke of seeing a 'Jack-O"Lantern' crossing the bog at night.Even though we might not know why we are celebrating, Hallowing is an Irish occasion which has spread worldwide. The ancient Romans adopted the Celtic practice and of course our immigrants brought it far and wide, especially to America, where they even have the 'lifting of gates' in Maryland.During my first Hallowe"en working in Spain, I was told to avoid black cats at all costs, or I would have had a year"s bad luck! In Germany, all blades and sharp knives are put away so that returning spirits won"t hurt themselves. Mexicans visit family graves, enjoy a picnic there and have their photo taken with the spirits of deceased loved ones. Italian children wake up to toys and sweets left by departed relatives, while Austrians leave out bread and beverages for returning spirits. The Obon festival takes place in Japan, when special foods and bright lanterns are set afloat on rivers to guide back the dead. The biggest hooley is in New York (where else!) where up to two million attend the Village Halloween Parade.This weekend, Hallowe"en bonfires will burn all over the world in a ritual that grew out of our ancient Celtic ancestors celebrating a New Year. So where will you celebrate? You could do worse than to head out to the Hill of Uisneach in County Westmeath - where it all started two and a half thousand years ago!Don"t Forget:The advantage of studying history is that it keeps you from feeling too important.