A Handful of Candy Corn and an Encounter with Fairies

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Fall not only brings forth crisper air and changing leaves, it also brings one of the most controversial holidays: Halloween. Many love it and many hate it, but most think of spiced apple cider, overly sweet candy corn, haunted houses, dressing up in ornate, albeit sometimes scary, costumes, parties, and all-around shenanigans when Halloween approaches in the 21st century. What most do not know is that this night mixing fun and fear actually began as a sacred, religious event, lasting from sundown on October 31st and throughout the day on November 1st.[1] The celebrations on October 31st, or what we traditionally call Halloween today, originated as the ancient Celtic fire festival celebrating the end of harvest, the beginning of the dark half of the year, the time to honor the dead, a time to thank the gods, and a time of great feasting: Samhain.[2] While there are many stories of trickery, tom-foolery, and yes even terror surrounding Samhain, at its heart it was a sacred festival honoring the dead.[3]

The Celtic calendar was divided into four sections and each section was commemorated with a fire festival: Samhain (November 1st), Imbolc (February 1st), Beltain or Beltene (May 1st), and Lughnasa (August 1st).[4] Each festival was believed to be essential for the coming months, but it was particularly important to light bonfires during the Celtic New Year, or Samhain, because of the festival’s cleansing and purifying powers that would clear the old year and make way for the new one.[5] The festival of Samhain was considered the darkest and most dangerous of the four, because the Celts believed that on October 31st, All Hallows Eve, the veil between the Otherworld, or sídh (“fairy Mound” or dwelling place of spirits), was thinnest or even completely dissolved.[6] This allowed mortals to enter the sídh, as well as allowed all forms of supernatural beings to walk amongst the living.

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But most importantly, the Celts believed that this night was when the spirits of those who had passed the previous year could mingle with the living.[7] It was the idea that all manner of supernatural beings could mingle, trick, and even interfere in the lives of mortals that created some of the more “modern” Halloween lore of today.[8] One of the most well-known traditions of Halloween, the costumes and masks, originated during this All Hallows Eve, when the dead would walk among the living. The Celts, who feared and respected their gods, believed that on this night when all manner of supernatural beings walked amongst them, anonymity was a good thing. Therefore, the Celts took to wearing masks, typically made of animal heads or wood and even stone, to protect their identities and maintain their control over their souls. It was after all a night of pranking, particularly by the fairies.

The faeries are considered the most active of the supernatural beings on Samhain, for “they are at their gloomiest...this is the first night of winter. This night they dance with the ghosts…”[9]Most of the folklore of Samhain and Halloween revolve around the mischief of these unruly, unhappy fairies. These fairies were known to either resemble humans or take the form of animals, as “Legend of Knocksheogowna” details. This folktale tells the story of a herdsman, Larry, who was visited by a female fairy who “would come and dance before him, -now in one shape- now in another, but all ugly and frightening to behold. One time she would be a great horse, with the wings of an eagle, and a tale like a dragon, hissing loud and spitting fire. Then in a moment she would change into a little man lame of leg, with a bull’s head, and a lambent flame playing around it…”[10] The fairy would appear to play pranks on Larry, because she wanted control of the hill of Knocksheogowna, where the herdsman kept his cattle. She refused to allow the cattle to rest and soon the cattle began to die. To stop his cattle from dying, Larry decided to be brave and prank the fairy by inviting her to dance while he played the pipe for her, however; the second the fairy turned her back, he jumped on it. The fairy was delighted, transformed into a cow, and ran far over the countryside, until she could no longer run and deposited Larry on to the ground. The fairy was impressed by his boldness and courage, not only returned him to the hill of Knocksheogowna, but swore that neither she nor her kin would further disturb him as long as he kept his herd on the hill.[11] While this folktale has nothing to do with Samhain or even modern Halloween traditions and lore, it does show the personality and temperament of the fairies.

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The tales we often associate with Halloween lean much closer to the horrors tied to All Hallows Eve, or the trick instead of the treat. Often, however, these Irish fairytales/folklore were not directly related to Samhain or All Hallows Eve, but have been incorporated into the tradition over time. In keeping with the theme of fairies taking animal forms, a common symbol of Halloween is the black cat, which is said to be the form that the devil would take to walk amongst humans. One such folklore, “The Demon Cat,” tells the story of a fisherman’s wife who was constantly visited by a black cat. This black cat would eat all of the woman’s best fish, that she would have otherwise sold at the market. Angered, one day the woman decided to arm herself with a large stick and waited for the cat’s return. The woman was working in her house with her younger friend when, sure enough, the black cat showed up, but this time the room went dark and the cat spoke when the fisherman’s wife’s friend called it the devil. The cat attacked the younger woman and scratched her, while saying “I’ll teach you how to call me names…there now, you will be more civil another time when a gentleman comes to see you.”[12] The two women repeatedly beat the cat, but inflict little to no damage. The cat, however, has no trouble tearing into the women with its claws until they ran from the house in terror. The next day, when the cat returned to eat the best fish, the fisherman’s wife returned with Holy Water, snuck up on the cat, and doused it in the water. As soon as the Holy Water touched the cat, “a dense black smoke filled the place, through which nothing was seen but the two red eyes of the cat, burning like coals of fire. Then the smoke gradually cleared away and she saw the body of the creature burning slowly till it became shriveled and black like a cinder, and finally disappeared.”[13]

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Stories such as “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” a short story of Ichabod Crane’s terrifying Halloween encounter with the Headless Horseman, set in New England, are told over and over throughout the Halloween season.[14] In this American legend, the Headless Horseman often described as carrying his skull under his arm or sometimes with a Jack-o-Lantern in place of its head. Surprisingly, there are several cultures that have a myth of the Headless Horseman and the Irish are no exception.

T. Crofton Croker writes of this Irish supernatural being in “The Headless Horseman,” through an encounter that a man named Charley had with it on a dark night. Charley is on a solo nighttime ride home, when he is astonished to see a floating apparition of a white horse head coming at him and then passing with great speed.[15] Charley then found himself beside a white horse with a very tall figure, whose head appeared to be in shadows, for Charley could not see it. Suddenly a voice told him to look again and he saw a head under the man’s right arm, a head that was talking to him! What Charley had seen, no mortal had ever seen before: the head “looked like a large cream cheese hung round with black puddings: no speck of colour enlivened the ashy paleness of the depressed features; the skin lay stretched over the unearthly surface, almost like the parchment of a drum. Two fiery eyes of prodigious circumference, with a strange and irregular motion, flashed like meteors…and a mouth that reached from either extremity of two ears…”[16]

The sight filled Charley with terror, but he remained civil. The horseman eventually asked Charley to race him, and at first Charley was hesitant, for he feared his horse would not live through a race, but the horseman assured him she would, so Charley agreed. They raced and Charley lost. Charley began to fear for his soul, but the horseman appreciated his bravery in accepting the challenge and promised that not only would he let him leave with his soul intact, but the horseman would never desert Charley or his old mare.[17] With stories like these, of terror-inducing encounters with fairies/demons in animal form and supernatural beings, it is no wonder that the Celtic and Irish people would hide their faces under masks during festivals such as Samhain, where the supernatural known not only to walk amongst the living, but to play tricks on them as well.

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The Halloween of the 21st century is a time of both festivity and horror, horror stories that is. The American traditions associated with Halloween reflect the makeup of America itself: a hodgepodge of cultures, histories, religions, and folklores. Despite popular belief, the Celtic festival of Samhain is not the true origin of today’s Halloween, but rather, as the snippets of folklores have shown, Halloween has evolved from the mixing of various folklores, particularly those of the Celtic and Irish peoples. This can be seen in the fact that Samhain and Halloween are both still celebrated today, but as separate events. Samhain continues to be a sacred festival that both honors the dead and welcomes the dark half of the year, or winter. Halloween and its folklores: black cats, jack-o-lanterns, masks, and horror stories continue to be celebrated as a fun and sometimes scary festivity. However, we should understand the differences between the two holidays and recognize that just because one may have stemmed from the other, does not mean that we can say they are the same event. We celebrate the fun and mischievous side of Halloween, but the Celtic and Irish peoples who told these stories actually believed them…so this Halloween as you watch scary movies or dress up to go to a party, these folktales were based on the belief that the supernatural who come out to play on All Hallows Eve could very well steal your soul. The fairies are tricky creatures…just think- the next time you see a black cat it may just talk to you!


Author Bio: Amanda Svehla is a M.A. student studying Early Modern European history. She is currently researching the effects of late medieval and early modern education and manners on politics, gender, and society in the Elizabethan court.

[1] Anne Ross, Druids (Charleston, Tempest Publishing Ltd., 1999),
[2]Miranda J. Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1992), 185-186.
[3]Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, 185-186.
[4]Ross, Druids, 117.
[5]Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, 99-100.
[6]Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, 190.
[7]Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, 186.
[8]Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, 168.
[9]A Treasury of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2015), 8.
[10]T. Crofton Croker, “The Legend of Knocksheogowna,” in A Treasury of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2015), 11.
[11]Croker, “The Legend of Knocksheogowna,” 12-14.
[12]Lady Wilde, “The Demon Cat,” in A Treasury of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2015), 533.
[13]Wilde, “The Demon Cat,” 534.
[14]Washington Irving, and Rackham, Arthur, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, (New York: Books of Wonder, 1990).
[15]T. Crofton Croker, “The Headless Horseman,” in A Treasury of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2015), 344-345.
[16]Croker, “The Headless Horseman,” 346.
[17]Croker, “The Headless Horseman,” 347-348.