Halloween is coming to Holycross with an extra special “Holycross Pumpkin Fest” taking place on October 30th.
A host of spooky and spectacular events promise to entertain young and old and guarantee the very best in family fun.
For strong and skilled conker fighters, participants are sought for a “Conker Championship” with a trophy and prizes for the winners.
Ruadhán Gormally, the incredibly talented Galway born puppet maker, who was recently featured on the Ryan Tubridy Show, will be there on the day, to entertain and delight with a collection of his best puppets.
Not to be missed kids.
On October 30th, there will be an extended opening time from 1:00pm to 4:00pm, with lots of extra music, tricks, treats and other shenanigans for children and adults, in honour of this truly Irish tradition.
Yes, that’s right! Halloween, is an Irish tradition, owing its origins to the Celts and first celebrated over 2000 years ago.
The Celts celebrated the end of Harvest on the last day of October as part of a holiday called Samhain. They believed that on this day, spirits came and killed their crops.
To keep the spirits happy and at bay, the Celts left out food to treat the spirits and danced and dressed up wearing masks and costumes to keep the spirits entertained.
When Christianity arrived in Ireland, this tradition evolved. ‘All Souls’ Day‘ begun to be celebrated on November 2nd to honour the dead. November 1st became a day to honour the Saints or All Saints Day, also known as, All Hallow’s Day. October 31st became All Hallow’s Eve, which eventually morphed into the word Halloween.
Hundreds of years later, Halloween is celebrated all around the world, with children and adults alike, still dressing up, enjoying treats and telling ghost stories, and they owe it all to the Irish.
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