An Irish Halloween

Folklores and Fairies

By Lisa Roulston
Courier Staff

Irish Halloween Folklore

Halloween is filled with family and local superstitions of ghost stories, recounts of fairy activities and visits to the graveyard and haunted houses. These are all still popular activities that occur today.

Some of the families who live on farms around Ireland had a tradition of sprinkling Holy Water on their animals on Halloween night; in their homes, candles were lit for each deceased relative in the room where the death had occurred.

Ulster folklore chronicles des-cribed how fairies were believed to be fallen angels and were especially dreaded on Halloween night. In some places, oatmeal and salt were put on children’s heads to protect them from evil and harm.

Weather was also an important characteristic of Halloween night: the wind at midnight would indicate the prevailing wind for the coming season. If there was a moon on it was used as an omen, and if it was clear, it then meant fine weather. The amount of cloud translated into rainfall and clouds racing across the face of the moon meant storms were on the way.

Halloween was traditionally a time for marriage prediction and tricks and games were carried out. The theory was that if an apple was peeled in one long continuous strip, then the peel would fall onto the floor to form the initials of the future husband. If the apple was eaten before a mirror, his face would be seen looking over the girl’s shoulder.

After Halloween, on All Soul’s Day which falls on November 2, some Irish people laid a table with a place for each dead relative while the poker and tongs were placed in the shape of a cross on the heart stone.

An Irish Fairy

Each Halloween stories are passed down through the generations and there are many stories of Irish fairies, including that of the banshee.

The banshee known in Irish as the bean-sidhe, which means “woman of the fairy,” was an ancestral spirit appointed to five major Irish families to forewarn family members of their time of death.  According to tradition the banshee can only cry for the O’Neills, the O’Briens, the O’Connors, the O’Gradys and the Kavanaghs.

The banshee can appear in one of three guises: a young woman, a stately matron or an old hag.  These represent the triple aspects of the Celtic goddess of war and death, known as Badhbh, Macha and Mor-Rioghain. She is normally dressed in either a grey hooded cloak or a grave robe of the dead. She may also appear as the bean-nighe known as a washer-woman washing the blood stained clothes of those who are about to die.

The banshee is not always seen, only her mourning call is heard.  In some parts of Leinster she is referred to as the bean chaointe meaning “keening woman,” and her wail can be so piercing that it could shatter glass. In County Kerry her mourning call has been experienced as a low peasant singing and in County Tyrone she has sounded like two boards being struck together. However, these sounds are normally heard through out the night.

Warning to Americans: Keep a close look out because she can appear in other forms associated with Irish witch craft as well, such as a hooded crow, a hare or a weasel.