How to Halloween Abroad
and a few Samhain misconceptions
I swear, sometimes I think non-Americans hear my accent and immediately assume I’m blind to all cultures outside of the middle-class, East Coast US. After discussing holidays and being corrected by an Australian1, I'd like to make a distinction here between Halloween and Samhain.
Yes, I know that Samhain was the original holiday celebrated in Celtic cultures. Yes, I know that Christianity took over ancient Celtic holidays, moving All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints and All Soul’s Days to coincide with Samhain specifically. Yes, I know that it’s celebrated differently here. And you can read more about the cool mythology, folktales and fairy tales surrounding the holiday here — it’s really cool!
Today, Samhain is mostly celebrated in various Pagan and Wicca communities, and is a personal religious event2. It’s a time for letting go of the old, of the beginning of the end. It’s bonfires and meditation and intention-setting. It’s a time to honor and welcome the dead while warding off evil spirits. It’s a beautiful sacred thing in its own right, but it’s not what I’m looking for. Anyways, Googling “Samhain in Galway” leads only to one witchy event that’s impossible to get to without a car. All other hits are labeled “Halloween”.
Though Samhain is a Celtic holiday originating in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, it seems like we’re skipping to Christmas here! On my walk back from lunch, I saw men setting up string lights along the canal, and displays of ribboned red-and-green boxes are already being prepped behind the glass of department stores. I’m not ready for this! I need my Halloween, my Thanksgiving. I need my autumn before the fall to winter.
After spending over a month in a foreign country, I’m yearning for a US Halloween – over a month of going over-the-top on all things spooky. When the TV is turned on, a Tim Burton or Charlie Brown special should be airing. When I walk into Dunnes or whatever, there should be costumes for those over the age of 10… right? And why the hell can’t I find canned pumpkin anywhere?
Thankfully, there is some programming going on in Galway pre-Samhain. And the holiday is falling on a Thursday here, so you can be sure that there will be partying3.
So without further ado, here’s how I made October a little more spooky:
10/10: Celtic tales at The Crane Bar
Full Disclosure: I’ve been attempting to go to these candlelit storytelling nights about a month now, but something inevitably came up. So when my roommate Vera spontaneously asked if I’d be interested, of course I said yes! The Crane’s upstairs was crowded in the best kind of way. Rab Fulton blends a variety of magical folktales with the warmth and familiarity of a gossiping neighbor to absolutely captivate the audience with three stories over 90 minutes. I’ll definitely be going again.
10/24: Ghostly Walking Tour
Though haunted tours are available in Galway, they can cost up to 40 euro per ticket. I may not have a ton of money, but I do have a computer and a homing-pigeon brain4. So after looking up the stops on the tour, I found two cool ghost stories within walking distance of each other and decided to visit.
First stop was Lynch’s Castle, now a bank. Lynch’s Castle was built in the late 1400s by a wealthy merchant family. There’s a well-circulated myth surrounding the castle: James Lynch, the patriarch of the Lynch family in the late 13th century, was also the Warden of Galway at the time. He had a son, and like many sons of wealthy families, the younger Lynch was a bit of a scoundrel. He gambled, he drank, he was constantly getting in trouble. One day in 1493, the Lynch son got into a drunken duel and murdered the son of another merchant. James Lynch had a dilemma — either uphold the rule of law through public execution or spare his son. He chose to put his duties as Warden first and scheduled the hanging. When the people of Galway discovered what was about to happen, they swarmed the castle in an attempt to stop the Lynches from making their way to the square. Instead, it’s said that the edler Lynch hanged his son from the top floor of the building, above all of the townspeople.
The Spanish Arch is the mouth of Galway’s famous Long Walk. In 2012, a photographer captured an image of a ghostly woman in a dark habit and veil standing near the water’s edge. Thing is, when he looked up from his viewfinder, she wasn’t there. He asked if passersby had seen her, but none had. The photo went viral and the theories came flooding in. Now called the Claddagh Ghost, she’s thought to be either a nun from the nearby Claddagh convent or the Poor Clares of the Dominicans, or a mourner from the Claddagh.
10/27: Macnas Halloween Parade
The Macnas Parade is one of the first things I heard about when it came to Halloween in Galway. After hyping it up in my head for months, the experience was… a bit different than what I expected. Macnas chooses a theme each year, usually having to do with mythical creatures or tales like the Púca or Pegasus. The theme this year featured a giant newt named Alf, manned by 5 or 6 puppeteers, who chased “flies” on stilts and was followed by drummers and people with torches. It was small, but a really cool experience.
For videos of previous Macnas parades, click the link here.
10/29: Nightmare on Elm Street at the PÁLÁS
The PÁLÁS is Galway’s arthouse and indie cinema, and has been featuring spooky movies all October, including classics like Bell Book and Candle and other favorites like Hocus Pocus. With two days left to Halloween, I had to dress up and see what was showing. I settled on a 9pm showing of Nightmare on Elm Street. I’d actually never seen the iconic Freddy Krueger flick before, and it was super campy and fun. Plus the building the PÁLÁS is in is this really cool brutalist structure that added to the Halloween vibes.
10/31: Halloween Night
Thankfully, Halloween night is falling on one of the University of Galway’s going-out nights. After coming up with half a million ideas that I would be unable to execute, I decided on a basic vampire outfit using what I packed. The most fun part was getting to practice makeup in a fun way — you can’t be scared of the end result when the whole point is to be scary! Armed with a fun new look, my purse, and a Bulmers cider, I’m ready to head out for the night.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
I’m choosing to believe it was a now-classic case of “White Millennial Tries Her Best” rather than a jab at my percieved ‘ignorance’.
God, I hope I’m right about this. Please don’t let this be an episode of “White Gen Z Tries Her Best”.
University of Galway students go out mainly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as most bars are 21+ on Fridays and locals tend to go home on weekends. This has been my biggest culture shock — don’t you guys have class on Wednesdays?
Though I will not remember street names or distances or my right from left, I do know various landmarks, and I do know that when walking downhill, you’re bound to hit the river. So I’ve been able to figure out most of Galway using this information.
Happy Halloween Maeve!