Ahead of the 31st, many people asked if they celebrated Halloween in Ireland. We were very surprised to hear Halloween originated in Ireland! After a bit of research (and some wonderful cards from Aunt Connie) we learned Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.
Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter. Also, a key fact that the girls were most interested in was the fact that instead of carving pumpkins, they carved turnips and used those to collect their treats!
After much debate and discussion the girls decided on their costumers... Annelyse choose to be a Chinese Princess and Loralye, Sophia the First. How they picked these, we have no clue. There are so many other things and characters they are interested in, however, I guess that is what Halloween is all about.
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| Annelyse and some friends. Emily is the "dead bride"... that costume got quite a few questions! |
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| Loralye (aka Sophia) and Jessica (aka Elsa) |
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| Lo with her "twins" Patricia and Carlotta (transplants from Spain) |
Pumpkin carving was sort of an afterthought, given we had been traveling. We did manage to find two little pumpkins on Halloween morning. We heard there was a virus that had destroyed much of the pumpkin crop, so we felt fortunate to find the ones we ended up with. Plus, Russ always says I over complicate pumpkin carving. This year, that was impossible given the options for carvings were quite limited! In the end, the little pumpkins probably saved us a lot of time and arguments!
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| Lo with her pumpkin face draw on... Russ was the lucky one who got to carve those lines :) |
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| Squeezing the GOO! |
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| The Final Product! This pumpkin was very fitting in design given Annelyse lost her second tooth shortly before. She and the pumpkin have a very similar smile :) |
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| Loralye's final product... she was crying because the pumpkin was "too heavy" and "Daddy didn't get her the right size!" |
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| Worst Parents of the Year Award Goes To... Daddy... how dare he buy her such a "HUGE" pumpkin! |
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| The 50's Girl Costumes... |
The other mistake I made this evening, was pulling out the dress-up stuff to find some "accessories" for their costumes. This idea completely backfired on me. While looking through the massive box of dresses, both girls found 50's Girl Costumes that they wore previous years. They decided that this is what they were going to wear for Halloween. I of course, was not happy given the effort and money spent on the costumes they had to have (Chinese Princess and Princess Sophia) not to mention, the week before in Spain, they both got Flamenco dancer costumes which too were not up for consideration. Russ decided to document the conversation about the costume, which ended with him saying... "If you wear the 50's Girl costumes tonight, next year you are not getting new costumes, because you both have two here that you have never worn... to which they said "OK!" Wow, big FAIL!
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| Better smiles after 587 pictures, all of which are blurry because they wouldn't hold still. The idea of being given massive amounts of sweets was definitely getting the best of them. However, my threat of eating nothing they received if they didn't take a nice picture, was effective. |
After pumpkin carving I tried to coerce them to eat some warm chilly, a tradition my mom had with us when we were kids. Very similar to my memories of Halloween night, Annelyse whined and complained about not liking chili and negotiated how many beans she had to eat in order to partake in trick-or-treating. Lo ate her weight in chili and proudly boasted to her sister that she was a better eater and was going to get more candy. The competition between these two continues...
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| Eating Chili... one of them anyway. |
Given Ireland's position on the earth, during the winter it starts to get dark at about 4pm. Of course, this meant that the girls were ready to go out trick-or-treating at 4:01. We attempted to distract them for an hour and then headed out. Of course, we quickly realized we were the only people out, but when yelling "trick-or-treat" at our neighbor's house, we happily discovered they too had little ones who were just as eager to get started!
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| Walking uphill typically proves to be a daunting task... NOT TONIGHT!!! They were on a mission!! |
They convinced their parents to start early and joined us for our entire tour of the neighborhood! Trick-or-treating in Ireland is very similar to the US, except for the fact that everyone invites you in and tells the kids how adorable they are. While doing so, they drop about 55 pieces of candy into their bag... they were dragging before we reached the end of the first block. Russ and I both commented how they complain about carrying their backpacks which have nothing in them, but had no issue with carrying their bags of candy which easily weighed 8 pounds. Too funny!
The candy was a bit different, but it didn't phase them a bit... much like the chili, the negotiations began again, only this time in the opposite direction... it was how many pieces they could eat. I see lawyers or lobbyists in our future. All in all it was a great night full of lots of laughs and even more fun!
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| Annelyse wasn't impressed with the random peanut and apple she received. Apparently "healthy stuff" isn't an option on Halloween! |
All in all it was a great night full of lots of laughs and even more fun!
After pumpkin carving I tried to coerce them to eat some warm chilly, a tradition my mom had with us when we were kids. Very similar to my memories of Halloween night, Annelyse whined and complained about not liking chili and negotiated how many beans she had to eat in order to partake in trick-or-treating. Lo ate her weight in chili and proudly boasted to her sister that she was a better eater and was going to get more candy. The competition between these two continues... 
Given Ireland's position on the earth, during the winter it starts to get dark at about 4pm. Of course, this meant that the girls were ready to go out trick-or-treating at 4:01. We attempted to distract them for an hour and then headed out. Of course, we quickly realized we were the only people out, but when yelling "trick-or-treat" at our neighbor's house, we happily discovered they too had little ones who were just as eager to get started! 
They convinced their parents to start early and joined us for our entire tour of the neighborhood! Trick-or-treating in Ireland is very similar to the US, except for the fact that everyone invites you in and tells the kids how adorable they are. While doing so, they drop about 55 pieces of candy into their bag... they were dragging before we reached the end of the first block. Russ and I both commented how they complain about carrying their backpacks which have nothing in them, but had no issue with carrying their bags of candy which easily weighed 8 pounds. Too funny!
