Travel expert shares Halloween’s Irish origins and traditions

JACKSON, Tenn. — A travel expert is sharing Halloween’s Irish origins and traditions.

According to expert Gabe Saglie, the origins of Halloween have been traced to an area about forty five minutes outside of Dublin. It’s a place called the Hill of Ward.

This is where the first Halloween ceremonies would have taken place around 3,000 years ago.

Back then, October 31 was the end of the calendar year. The harvest was over, and the colder months began.

People wore masks and costumes to ward off spirits. People also carved turnips and put a candle in them, leaving them in the windowsill.

Now we carve pumpkins, which are easier to carve and more readily available.

Traditions were brought over as the Irish emigrated to the U.S. in the late 1800s.

“It was considered to be the day when the veil between our world and the next was at its thinnest, so it was believed that that’s when ghosts and spirits would have perhaps crossed over, and that kind of those stories have obviously evolved to what we consider Halloween today, known as Samhain back then, and of course the origins that stretch back two or three thousand years in this particular part of Ireland,” Saglie said.

Saglie says the fall is a good time of year to come to Ireland because the summer crowds have gone and prices have dropped.

For more news around the world, click here.