20/10/2026
As we approach 31st October, I thought I would share some interesting insights. In old Gaelic and Celtic traditions, this was the ultimate night for love and divination into the future.
Young people spent the night trying to figure out who they would marry, using whatever they could find around the home and farm.
Here are a few of the old traditions practiced on Hallowe'en:
• Friends would place two nuts side-by-side in the hearth fire to represent a couple. If the nuts burned together steadily, a happy marriage was in the cards. If they hissed, flared up, or leaped away from each other, it meant a rocky relationship or a swift rejection.
• A ring was hidden inside a communal dish of mashed potatoes or "fuarag" (a mixture of oatmeal and cream or milk). Everyone dug in with spoons, and whoever successfully fished out the ring was destined to be the first in the group to get married.
• Someone would walk into a dark room alone with an apple. They would slice it into nine pieces, eat eight of them while staring intently into a looking-glass, and throw the ninth piece over their left shoulder. Supposedly, the face of their future husband or wife would appear in the reflection to take the final piece away.
• Young people would sneak out into a neighbour's garden in the dark to pull up a kale or cabbage stalk by the roots. The shape of the stalk predicted their future partner's appearance—whether they would be tall, short, straight, or crooked. Even the amount of dirt sticking to the roots mattered, as it foretold how much wealth or property their spouse would bring.
• Young women would walk out to a boundary stream separating two properties. Keeping their eyes tightly closed, they would lift three stones from the water using only their middle fingers and thumbs while reciting a incantation. By placing these stones under their pillows that night, they hoped to invite prophetic dreams of their true love.
This night once dedicated to quiet nature magic, mirrors, and hearthside fortune telling transformed into the high-energy day we celebrate today.
When I was a child it was all peanuts, dookin for apples, black bun, guising and ghost stories
