A question for those who live in Ireland...?

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Orla C

When you say Ireland is largely Catholic, you're implying that it's the State religion, and officially this is so, but unofficially it was decided quite a while ago that an official religion is not a good idea, and that church and state should be separated ....

When I was a child we used to soad bullrushes in petrol to have lovely atmospheric torches to go around on the night, dress in costume and blacken our faces, and go around to the neighbours asking 'Penny for the Pooka!', the Pooka being a mythical shape-changing creature peculiar to Ireland.

Oiche Shamhna was and is the night that the portal between the worlds was open, and that night you could 'speak' to someone who had crossed over, i.e. died. All Saints' Day is the sanitised Christian version of the same.

Don't forget that any Christian label on Ireland does not by any means obliterate our Pagan past, and that Christianity of any kind in Ireland is only a thin layer. I hope this helps answer your question concerning Irish versus English. Nor it is secular, but that depends on who you're talking to. It isn't a bit secular for me, not like Christmas seems to be.

Divination games? Sometimes they are still played, they are a laugh. You can also get barn brack, a raisin bread with a ring hidden in it, if you find the ring you'll be married with a year, apparently. But you'll have to get the cracked filling taken care of first!

Lizzie R

most go to church on All Saints Day, but not all
depending on how religious you are
and mostly only the younger children play games, dress up and things like that

a lot of people have get a together with friends and family and have dinner while the younger children can play, bobbing for apples is a big thing

as for the bÃ¡irn braic that's just another tradition, if you get the ring inside yours its suppose to mean good luck or something, sometimes a prize is given to whoever gets it. its just another way to have fun. its actually a big thing where i live.

Priscilla Duck

All Saints Day (1Nov) is a holy day of obligation, so observing Catholics must attend Mass. It's followed by All Souls day, when masses are held in many cemeteries in remembrance of the departed. Halloween itself is on 31 October and comes from an entirely seperate pagan tradition, it is not the equivalent of either church holiday. To nearly everyone this time of year is referred to as Halloween. Only people referring to the specific Church feast days use the term All Saints Day or All Souls Day, as this is the name that the christian religion imposed on the old pagan festival. Usually only people who still follow the old pagan rituals and Irish speakers say Samhain.

All Saints is not a public holiday but it is a church holiday. There is a public holiday at this time too. In Ireland, public holidays are almost always held on the Monday in order to give workers a long weekend, so the actual date will change every year. So, today is the Halloween bank holiday even though Halloween isn't for another few days.

Like Orla, we used to dress in rags and do the rounds asking for the 'penny for the pooka' , but it has become a much more Americanised trick-or-treating experience these days. We have bonfires and in recent years fireworks have become popular. All the old harvest games are still played - apple bobbing, conkers, fortune telling etc. As well as the fruit brack, people peel apples keeping the skin in one piece and throw the peel over their shoulders to find the initial of their future spouse. We also divine the future using a row of saucers, which contain water, clay, a ring, flour etc. Someone is blindfolded and picks a saucer - each one represents a different future. You can read about this tradition in the James Joyce short story 'Clay' (in Dubliners).

As for pÃºca/pooka - both are acceptable, one is Irish and the other is simply the Anglicisation. Until we have a Yahoo!Freagra, it doesn't really matter which one is used...

Hurling MAD

I'm going to put in a answer that's easy to read and wasn't copied from wikipedia. We play games like bobbing for apples and another where the apple is tied to a string and hung from the ceiling. You must try take a bite out of the apple while your hands are tied behind your back (your only allowed to use your mouth)
On the 1st of Novembe we (catholics) have a mass celebarating All Saints day.
We would always buy the BÃ¡irn Braic (a raisin bread cake) which would have a ring inside. In our house whoever got the ring got some money.
We all dressed up in costumes and masks or face paint and go for treats door-to-door. Although now it's generally called trick or treat because of the American influence on Ireland through T.V , films, internet etc

Compared to Orla C's answer:
Pooka is actually spelt PÃºca, meaning ghost (It's from the Irish language)

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