The Halloween party, on the night of October 31, is very old as far as we know it in Italy and we have been celebrating it for relatively few years.
It has Irish origins in the Samhain festival, the traditions of which have come down to the present day.
Samhain
was born to celebrate fire with a festival that symbolized the transition between the season of light and that of winter darkness.
In this moment of transition, the Celts believed that an interaction was activated between the world of the living and that of the dead and that the spirits could open a passage between one and the other.
Fearful of being dragged into the afterlife, they began to adopt special disguises to confuse ghosts, fairies and demons.
The current custom of dressing up on Halloween therefore has its roots in
pre-Christian Celtic rituals
, as well as the tradition of burning gigantic bonfires, inaugurated by clans and communities that gathered on the top of the Irish hills to light the ceremonial fires of Samhain.
One of the largest Celtic fire festivals was the
Hill of Ward in County Meath
, and recent archaeological excavations suggest that the hill was already used over 2,000 years ago to give life to festivities and ritual celebrations.
Some ancient manuscripts also reveal that the Celts had chosen it to light a fire used to fuel the other ritual fires of the whole island.
Even today the territories of the Hill of Ward and the nearby Hill of Tara, where the High Kings of Ireland reigned, are
areas where the Irish tradition of Halloween is particularly felt
.
And it is here, in fact, between the county of Meath and that of Louth, that the
Púca Festival took place
, an innovative event designed to pay homage to the ancient festival of Samhain in the symbolic places of its fascinating origins.
In addition to lighting the fires, last year's rich program for the debut of the event thrilled thousands of visitors with live music, performances, surprising light installations and much more.
This year it takes place online for anti Covid regulations.
Also worth mentioning is one of the quintessential images of Halloween, whose origins are all Irish:
the illuminated pumpkin
that looks like a face with a macabre smile.
The custom of carving a vegetable spread precisely in Ireland, where large turnips and potatoes were dug
in memory of the story of Jack-o'-lantern
, a legendary character who had made a pact with the devil and who to make himself light in his eternal wandering after death, he brandished a lantern made from a turnip.
The fun creation of these illuminated vegetables was popularized by
Irish immigrants in America
who began to use pumpkins, widespread in their territory of origin, making them one of the most representative elements of Halloween all over the world.
