How to Celebrate an Irish Halloween

Celtic holiday traditions evolved into the U. S. trick-or-treating custom that gained popularity in the 1950s. If you’re looking for a Halloween twist, go back to the old ways. Go Irish!

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Have a big bonfire! The Irish lit huge bonfires Oct. 31 as protection from evil spirits and to celebrate the harvest end and the start of a new year (Samhain).
2. Disguise yourself! Celts dressed in costumes so the bad spirits didn’t recognize them.
3. Forget the pumpkin. Carve a turnip! Then take it for a walk. Bands of Irish youths disguised in grotesque masks carried carved lanterns from turnips and went throughout the village.
4. Host a feast or potluck dinner! Celts heaped their tables with food on the last day of October to welcome home good spirits and shoo away the bad.
5. Eat barmbrack! Since Halloween was the start of the traditional Irish year, the Irish often made this moist bread with hidden fortunes: A ring, for example, predicted marriage; a button, a blessing; a stick, fights; a piece of cloth, poverty. Make a traditional barmbrack, or do what the commercial bakers do and add a ring to a cake mix and see who is supposed to be married within the year.

Tips & Warnings

• To further cast off bad spirits, drink a Ghostbuster! It’s easy to make. Just mix equal parts Irish Cream, Kahlua, and vodka and drink the potion.