Countdown to Halloween: An bhfaca tú an chailleach?

An bhfaca  tú an chailleach?

 

An bhfaca  tú

an chailleach?

Chonaic mise í,

Lena srón mór fada,

Is a fiacla gránna buí.

 

Hubail rubail bubail,

Hubail rubail bubail.

Vintage Halloween Postcard
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Dave via Compfight

 

An bhfaca tú 

an chailleach?

Chonaic mise í,

Lena cat mór fada,

Ar an scuab ina suí,

 

Hubail rubail bubail,

Hubail rubail bubail.

Vintage Halloween Postcard artist Ellen H Clapsaddle
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Dave via Compfight

4 thoughts on “Countdown to Halloween: An bhfaca tú an chailleach?

  1. Hello Ms B. How do you like your new class?
    I love all the work still using Compfight.
    Do you know were the bottle went from last year?

  2. Why Lewis, thank you. Lovely to hear from you 🙂

    You did GREAT work on the blog last year using Compfight.

    I haven’t heard anything about our message in the bottle … YET.
    If I do, I’ll be sure to tell you.
    With every good wish, your OLD teacher 😉

    PS Up Liverpool 😀

  3. Hello Ireland! I am surprized to see all of the Halloween posts. Is it celebrated in your country like it is in America wtih costumes and people going door to door in costumes collecting sweets and candy?
    Mr Webb and Room Five, Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand.
    melvilleroom8.blogspot.com

  4. Hi Mr.Webb,

    Most certainly we celebrate Halloween:D and in many ways the more recent additions to our traditions are influenced by the USA, as you say, dressing up in costumes and going ‘trick or treating’.

    However a celebration at this time goes way back into the mists of time. Here in the Northern Hemisphere we need some diversion as the cold, dark nights arrive. So the Celts celebrated Halloween as Samhain, the ‘All Souls’, when it was said that the souls of those who had passed revisited us here the mortal world. The celebration marked the end of Summer and the start of the Winter months.

    Here are the most notable Irish Halloween Traditions:

    Traditionally for dinner there was ‘Colcannon’; a plate of mashed potato, cabbage and onion. Pennies were wrapped up in baking paper and placed in the mash for children to find and keep!

    The traditional Halloween cake is barmbrack which is a fruit cake. Once again you have to be careful eating this or you would break your teeth because there are ‘tokens’ hidden in it. If you got the rag then the next year would be a poor one. If you got the coin then you could look forward to a year of riches. Finding the ring was said to predict an engagement. If you wanted to find out who your future partner might be you were advised to peel an apple in one go. The single apple peel was then dropped on the floor to show the initials of this mystery person.

    The tradition of Jack O’Lanterns travelled from Ireland to the USA. But originally the Irish carved out turnips. When the Irish emigrated to America there was not a great supply of turnips so pumpkins were used instead. Pumpkins are easier to carve than turnips too!

    Though wearing costumes and ‘trick or treating’ seem to have been imported from the USA, a tradition of wearing disguise also dates back to Celtic times. By disguising themselves people hoped superstitiously that the souls who were visiting would leave them alone.

    Halloween Games include ‘Snap Apple’. An apple is suspended from a string and children are blindfolded. The first child to get a decent bite of the apple gets to keep their prize. A variation of this game involves hanging a bar of soap with the apple. The risk was then that one would get a mouthful of soap instead of apple. The same game can be played by placing apples in a basin of water and trying to get a grip on the fruit!

    The Halloween bonfire is another tradition and a more modern addition is the use of fireworks, though they are illegal in Ireland.

    Bonfires and fireworks have safety considerations, so in school we would also do some work on Fire Safety at Halloween. We posted all these Halloween poems a bit prematurely, as we celebrate Halloween on 31st October. However many teachers do their planning for the month of October, this weekend, so we thought it would be useful to post these poems now.

    It may well be that Halloween is a Celtic Tradition from Europe that travelled with the emigrants to the USA. In the ‘New World’ these traditions took on a new lease of life and were re-exported back to Ireland in perhaps a more commercial way.

    Thanking you for your continuing comments and interest in our blog all the way from New Zealand 🙂

    Does New Zealand have a Halloween Tradition?

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