Wherever you are in the world, most of you will come across some ghost, ghoul or witch at some point today and a lot of you will be getting a familiar *knock knock – TRICK OR TREAT!* at the door. Here on our windswept little peninsular we’d probably get a bigger fright than most if we got a knock at the door tonight, as we live at the end of a very bumpy and isolated lane. It would be a very dedicated trick or treater who made it down here!
But that doesn’t stop us celebrating the day, especially as we live in Ireland where the ancient festival of Samhain would have been held for thousands of years on or around this same day. Long ago people would have brought their livestock down from summer pastures, slaughtered animals for the winter months ahead and marked the beginning of the darker half of the year with fire rituals and autumn foods such as nuts, apples and seeds. These days old and new traditions have merged and we have apple bobbing and bonfires along with the slightly more modern sight of Spiderman and Princess Arendelle collecting sweets door to door!
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting a few mums of children who had attended some of the Halloween art classes I held in the past and it was an absolute joy to hear that wool-witches and pipe-cleaner spiders that had been made ‘way back when’, had been pulled out year after year to re-decorate the house. It means that other people are also making their own traditions and memories for their children to remember and continue and that in my opinion is worth celebrating!
Happy Halloween everyone!

Danish Carving Craft