Today is Halloween here... The weather has turned cold, even had some relief rain. So what
has this got to do with Irish gen you say....Well, most of you know that
"Samhain" (pronounced SEW- en) was our Celts ancestors ancient fire festival at
the end of October, celebrating the last day of summer and beginning winter.
Then in the 8th century, the Catholic Church adopted the holiday naming November 1
"All Saints Day". It was a holy day of obligation for any Saint that had no
specific day of worship already. Hence "All Hallows Eve", which in time was
shortened to "Halloween". Tradition has it that souls could travel through
space and time on this night, so people disquised themselves in scary costumes, so as not
to be inhabited. In Ireland, wealthy landlords used to distribute gifts of food to their
poorer tenants at Halloween. So the tradition of Halloween was actually brought to America
by our Irish forefathers fleeing the Potato Famine of 1840's.
But did you know that the Jack O'Lantern also has Irish roots? Well, it seems Jack, an
Irish blacksmith from the 18th century. The story goes that he was a drunk and a trickster
and got the Devil to climb a tree then carved a cross at the bottom, trapping the devil.
He then signed a pact with the Devil never to temp him again, but because of his evil ways
Jack was denied entrance into Heaven's Pearly Gates, and the Devil wouldn't let
him in the other place, so Jack was condemned to wander the Earth in darkness. So he
carried with him a carved out turnip lit with a candle to light his way. When our Irish
brought this tradition to the States, they found pumpkins much more available than turnips
and the tradition of carving out Jack O'Lanterns' was born!
Keep in touch with the living, I say, or they will take their secrets with them. I figure
Halloween is a good time to check out graveyards. Happy Haunting, Tim McGarry
http://www.searchbug.com/peoplefinder/graves1.aspx
http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/VG/vcem_search.html http://www.findagrave.com/ and
http://www.interment.net/
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