I long for the Halloween that was all monkey nuts and turnips...

IT’S Halloween again today. How things have changed in my lifetime. God be with the days when we looked forward to this event and what you were going ‘to be’.

In those long days of yore you made your costumes — or your mum or someone else did. We had the Disney Princesses, but we had to make our own gowns from the ones the grown ups were willing to lend, or better still, donate to us.

I remember being so excited at the thought of being up later than usual. However, there was very little going from door to door as it was not deemed safe in the dark days of October.

We lived in Chicago until I was nearly seven years old. My cousins on my dad’s side were my world until then. We would trick or treat with the neighbours in the apartment block and then there would be a party in one of our homes.

WE had to eat sensibly first, and then we were allowed to check out who had what in their bags. Monkey nuts, apples, oranges, popcorn and coins were the order of the day. We didn’t get lots of sweet things. That is something that seems to have crept in with the commerciality of it all.

When our children were young, I would decorate the hall, the kitchen and the front door and I thought I was doing a great job. For the last number of weeks I have been observing so many houses throughout Dublin decked out for today just like they would Christmas decorations. Halloween seems to have become another festive holiday.

Lest we forget, this is Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the dark days of winter. It is half way between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It was traditionally observed in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.

We used turnips scraped out with candles in them as ‘jack-o’lanterns’. This pagan festival was something our ancestors took to the Americas with them and the closest vegetable suitable for use as a jack-o’-lantern was the pumpkin. It seems Samhain went across the Atlantic with the Famine and it has come back again as another festival.

I love dressing up too. My son Andrew loved Halloween and on his last one he dressed up as a priest while his pals were Superman and Spiderman. However, maybe we should go back to basics and re-claim our Samhain Festival for what is was.

I have been fascinated with the fact that the ‘veil’ between our world and the world of those who have passed before us is supposed to be much weaker on All Hallows Eve and therefore easier to be crossed. So spirits and faeries needed to be bribed to ensure that people and their livestock survived the winter.

Offerings of food and drink were left outside for them (just like we leave milk and carrots for Santa). The souls of our past loved ones are also supposed to visit on this night and it was traditional to set a place at the table for them too.

People went door to door in disguise singing, reciting a poem or doing some favour in exchange for food hence the term today ‘trick or treat’.

I would rather spend tonight in Wicklow Gaol — the most haunted place in Ireland, or join those in Loftus Hall, another place famed for things that go bump in the night on Halloween.

Whatever you are doing, please keep an eye on the children. As well as decorations there are bonfires piled dangerously high in some places and these are accidents waiting to happen. I have been listening to the radio ads with children telling us what they learned from the Fire Brigade regarding the dangers of fireworks. An ounce of prevention in this day and age is so much better than a pound of cure.

And I hope you all made pumpkin pie and soup with the delicious pulp when you carved your pumpkins for tonight.