Is Halloween Irish? You bet it is!

Samhain had three distinct elements. Firstly, it was an important fire festival, celebrated over the evening of 31 October and throughout the following day. The flames of old fires had to be extinguished and ceremonially re-lit by druids.

It was also a festival not unlike the modern New Year's Day in that it carried the notion of casting out the old and moving into the new.

To our pagan ancestors it marked the end of the pastoral cycle – a time when all the crops would have been gathered and placed in storage for the long winter ahead and when livestock would be brought in from the fields and selected for slaughter or breeding.

But it was also, as the last day of the year, the time when the souls of the departed would return to their former homes and when potentially malevolent spirits were released from the Otherworld and were visible to mankind.

Samhain: its place in the Celtic calendar

The Celts celebrated four major festivals each year. None of them was connected in anyway to the sun's cycle.

The origin of Halloween lies in the Celt's Autumn festival which was held on the first day of the 11th month, the month known as November in English but as Samhain in Irish.

The festivals are known by other names in other Celtic countries but there is usually some similarity, if only in the translation.

In Scottish Gaelic, the autumn festival is called Samhuinn. In Manx it is Sauin.

The root of the word – sam – means summer, while fuin means end. And this signals the idea of a seasonal change rather than a notion of worship or ritual.

The Celts believed that the passage of a day began with darkness and progressed into the light. The same notion explains why Winter – the season of long, dark nights – marked the beginning of the year and progressed into the lighter days of Spring, Summer and Autumn.

So the 1st of November, Samhain, was the Celtic New Year, and the celebrations began at sunset of the day before - its 'Eve'.

The 'Little People'

Celtic tales are full of heroic warriors and mystical gods. They are also the origin of Halloween's (and Ireland's) preoccupation with the 'little people'.

Academics have concluded that the little people were, originally, the pagan gods of Ireland who lost their significance and, metaphorically, their stature, when Christianity arrived.

Despite their reduced state and retirement to the Underworld as fairies, a memory of their magical powers held fast in the imagination of the people. Here lies the origin of Halloween's dark side.

There are two main groups of fairy: the trooping fairies who are, for the most part, friendly and have healing powers, and the solitary fairy who causes mischief and is quick to anger.

Among the specific terrors of Halloween were the Fomorians who believed they had a right to take back to the Otherworld their share of fresh milk, grains and live children.

The Leprechaun is the best known of the latter group. Find out more about the diminutive shoemakers.

The fairy most connected with the origin of Halloween is the Puca (pronounced Pooka) who is decidedly malevolent and capable of assuming any shape. The puca is particularly adept at taking animal shapes, especially horses, so riders beware on Halloween – your 'steed' may not be under your control!

The Banshee is another fairy, always female, who warns of approaching death by letting loose a terrible, eerie wail (the Banshee scream) that is guaranteed to send a shiver down the spine of those that hear it. If you hear the cry of the Banshee of Ireland, you should look out for a funeral carriage pulled by a headless horse.