Otherworldly Encounters on Halloween


Oíche Shamhna shona duit. To celebrate All Hallow’s Eve, my dear friend Marie – a writer and folklorist based in Missouri - has put together a podcast exploring first-hand paranormal experiences that took place on Halloween. The stories and accounts are shared from r/Paranormal, The Fairy Census, and the Dúchas Schools Collection (part of the National Folklore Collection UCD Digitization Project). 

Between the stories, one of which is read by yours truly, Marie explores some of the history and folklore surrounding the traditions of Halloween, or Samhein, as it was known in Ireland where it originates from. An important festival in the ancient Celtic calendar to mark the end of summer, Samhein (Irish for November), is the night when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead becomes thinnest, allowing souls of the deceased to pass through into our world and roam freely. The night we call Halloween in English, is Oíche Shamhna: literally Samhain (November) Eve.

To listen to the podcast, go here. 

The above is a photograph of a turnip I'd carved for Halloween a few years back. When I was a child my parents would carve turnips instead of pumpkins - it's an old Irish tradition. 

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