Irish Halloween History

 

These spooky carvings are the original Jack-o'-lantern carved from turnips, not pumpkins. 

Carving of pumpkins is a popular Halloween activity these days and it has its roots in ancient Irish tradition.

The ancients believed that at Samhain/Halloween/Last day of October, that the veil separating the world of the living from the world of the dead (Otherworld) became very thin, allowing Otherworld spirits to mingle with the living. 

There were two kinds of spirits, the good and bad. 

Good spirits were welcomed into homes and were honored through celebrating and feasting.

Evil spirits also made the crossing and it was believed would roam the earth searching for souls to take back to the Otherworld. Consequently the ancients came up with a plan to fool the evil spirits.

Stingy Jack was one of the more famous evil spirits and his soul roams the earth at Samhain.

After dark, the best way to scare an evil spirit is to have evil looking faces shining through the darkness. This hopefully was enough to frighten Stingy Jack and the other bad spirits away.

According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. 

True to his name, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. 

Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. 

Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. 

The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. 

While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. 

As the myth goes, God would not allow such an unsavoury figure into heaven. 

The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. 

He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. 

Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. 

The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, simply “Jack O’Lantern.”

Irish immigrants in the US carried on the traditions of their homeland but used pumpkins instead of turnips which are much easier to carve. 

For this very reason the American tradition has travelled back across the Atlantic and nowadays it is mostly pumpkins which are carved into Jack O’Lanterns in Ireland.

Archbishop Dermot Farrell says the church is facing a ‘crisis’

The leader of the country’s largest Catholic diocese has said  the catholic church's current model in Ireland is “unsustainable” and that the major decline in the number of people actively practicing their faith is a “crisis”. 

"The numbers of priests have dwindled, the number of seminarians has dwindled and that can be traced back to the lack of practice of faith among young people,” the Archbishop of Dublin said.

“We have an ageing clergy and very few vocations to the diocesan priesthood or religious life. 

There is a major decline in the number of people who actively practise and live their faith.”

“Today the visibility of faith has for all intents and purposes vanishes. 

I am also dealing with the legacy of sexual abuse scandals which have damaged the Church’s credibility. 

Since finance is a function of numbers, financial issues will arise which will be accelerated by the global pandemic and its aftermath.”

In the same interview, he said members of the clergy needed to “encourage a participatory institutional model of Church with a leadership of service”.

Being a Pagan in Ireland

The word “pagan” carries many preconceived descriptions.

Pagans throughout history were condemned as heretics and persecuted.

But the pagan community in Ireland is larger than many people might realise. Morgane Stereden Lahidji (above photo) and a small group of pagan students have been gathering signatures for the establishment of a pagan society on campus. 
They are now set to be granted provisional recognition from the Central Societies Committee (CSC).

Originally from Paris, is among the youngest of her fellow pagan students, who she says are mostly PhD candidates. 
Her devotion to paganism, and commitment to establishing a space on campus for pagan students has led to the formation of Trinity’s newest society.

Lahidji wants to create a space where pagans can gather and talk among one another and recreate this culture”. 
This seems to speak to a society in which pagans feel excluded: “It is still quite a great taboo.”

It must, then, at times, be difficult being a pagan in Irish society. Lahidji says, “it depends a lot on your own luck, the sort of family you were born in. On an institutional level, it’s not too bad. 
But you can see that we don’t have any recognition whatsoever, and on a cultural level, there’s a lot of defiance.”

Lahidji was surprised at how positive a reaction she and her fellow pagan students received in Trinity. In the process of talking to students and trying to get signatures for the creation of a pagan society, Lahidji’s own conception of what the society was changed. 

Initially, they felt the purpose of the society would be to “set a space for people who are already confirmed pagans, just so they could talk about things that they are not free to talk about elsewhere. But it’s actually more than that.” 
She says lots of students with no previous interest in paganism want to learn. 
If the Pagan Society are ever assigned a room, one of the first things she would do is “invest in a few bookshelves and get a study space going”. 
Newcomers can expect the society to be “totally welcome” to people who know nothing about paganism and just want to learn more. 
Her dream for the pagan society is “a place where someone can just pass by and ask a question”.

What does it mean, then, to be a pagan in the 21st century? Lahidji describes the word “pagan” as a “bit of an umbrella word for basically any spirituality before the dominance of monotheism”. This includes everything from the ancient Greek pantheon, the Roman pantheon to the old Celtic religion. 
In this part of the world, at least, the latter seems to form much of the basis of the everyday practises of paganism. 
The festivals Lahidji celebrates include Samhain, the basis of what we would know as Halloween, the winter solstice, Yule at Christmas time and Imbolc. 
For the founders of the new society, Imbolc in particular has a special significance. 
Celebrated in Christianity as St. Brigid’s Day, Imbolc marked the day on which a pagan society learned they were likely to receive provisional recognition from the CSC.

For Lahidji, the effect that paganism has had on her life is undeniable. 
Her personal beliefs are what she describes as “eclectic”. 
She has taken from many different beliefs and formed her own “patchwork”. 
Her spirituality has transformed her life. She says that through paganism, “I just discovered myself, it’s just as simple as that. 
I rediscovered the world and everything in it."

Trinity News

You can check out DU Pagan Society on Facebook.

The Corrs - Toss The Feathers

Irish band, the Corrs are pop, rock with an Irish flavor.

The group consists of the Corr siblings, Andrea (lead vocals, tin whistle, ukulele), Sharon (violin, keyboards, vocals), Caroline (drums, percussion, piano, bodhrán, vocals), and Jim (guitar, piano, keyboards, vocals). They are from Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland.

Trinity College Dublin Ireland

Yes, we still have books to read...

2000 Year Old Butter Found - Still Edible

A 22lb lump of butter dating back 2,000 years has been discovered buried in an Irish bog - and it's still edible.

Jack Conway, a turf cutter from Maghera, northern Ireland, discovered the butter last week.

Bog butter was often used to preserve butter but experts claimed it could have been buried as an offering to the gods.

Andy Halpin, assistant keeper in the museum's Irish Antiquities Division said, "theoretically the stuff is still edible."

Burying the butter was a good method of preserving it, the lack of oxygen conditions of the bog would help preserve it.

The butter was found 12 feet below the ground, then it was transported to the National Museum to be carbon dated.

Halpin, says that the butter was significant because of its burial place. It was found near the town of Drakerath, where, long ago, 11 townlands and the boundaries of three ancient private areas met together.

“These bogs in those times were inaccessible, mysterious places, it is at the juncture of three separate kingdoms, and politically it was like a no-man's-land, that is where it all hangs together."

Bog butter is butter that has been buried in peat, the earliest known examples date back almost 2,000 years.

There was no discovery of any kind of a cover over the butter, which led Mr. Halpin to believe the it was possibly not intended to be use, but instead used as an offering.

The butter was found at the crossroads of three separate kingdoms and basically no one went there. Halpin described it as an “inaccessible, a no-man’s-land.” 

Savina Donohoe, curator of Cavan County Museum, said, 'It did smell like butter.'

'After I had held it in my hands, my hands really did smell of butter. 

She added: 'There was even a smell of butter in the room it was in.'

The butter will have a new home, in a refrigerated case in the Cavan County Museum.