How we checked this site
All 107 facts, the source for each, and how many checks it passed.
How it works
Each fact is written in our own words with its source open beside it. Our build script keeps a copy of the text of every source and checks that the key words and figures in each fact really appear there. If a check fails, the site won’t build. Anything that isn’t a sourced fact, such as a view, safety advice or a joke, is labelled Our opinion or comes from Useless. The drawings are our own and simplified.
Known disagreements and stories
- Did the Church set All Saints’ Day to replace Samhain? Britannica’s Halloween article says Gregory III moved it to 1 November in the 8th century, perhaps in part to replace pagan holidays; Historic Environment Scotland says Samhainn was possibly deliberately absorbed; the Library of Congress says missionaries chose the dates to replace Samhain. Britannica’s Samhain article says the dates were set in the 9th century, entirely independently of Samhain. We give all of them.
- Are turnip lanterns a leftover from Samhain? Britannica’s Samhain article says they are sometimes said to be, but may instead come from All Saints’ Day or Guy Fawkes Day. The National Museum of Ireland and Culture Vannin describe the turnip tradition but not how old it is. We don’t say it is ancient.
- Was Jinny the Witch real? Culture Vannin says some people think she was Joney Lowney, who lived about 300 years ago, and tells her story. We present it as a story.
- Samhain bonfires. Historic Environment Scotland describes Samhainn bonfires in Scotland; Britannica says the evidence for Samhain fires in Ireland is thin. Both can be true.
What we left out
- Claims that Halloween is thousands of years old, unchanged since the Celts. The sources say the evidence for ancient Samhain is sparse, so we don’t repeat them.
- Recipes. We describe the traditional foods but don’t give recipes we haven’t sourced.
- The Hop tu Naa songs vary from place to place; we quote only the Douglas version and the Manx Gaelic chorus as Culture Vannin gives them.
The log
| # | Fact | Source | Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Halloween falls every year on 31 October. It has pagan origins, Christian roots and plenty of non-religious traditions. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 2 | The name comes from All Hallows’ Eve: the evening before All Hallows’, or All Saints’, Day. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 3 | Halloween starts Allhallowtide, three Christian days for remembering the dead: All Hallows’ Eve (31 October), All Saints’ Day (1 November) and All Souls’ Day (2 November). | Britannica: Halloween | 3 passed |
| 4 | In most of Europe and North America today, Halloween is mostly non-religious: parties, costumes, jack-o’-lanterns and trick or treat. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 5 | Samhain was a festival in ancient Celtic religion that marked the end of summer and the start of winter. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 6 | Samhain has been celebrated on 31 October or on 1 November. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 7 | In ancient Ireland, Samhain was a time of gathering in for the winter, the opposite bookend to Beltane on 1 May, which began the summer. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 8 | People believed that at Samhain spirits came into the world of the living, and they were wary of them. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 9 | Very little can be said for certain about ancient Samhain, because the evidence is sparse. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 10 | The ancient Irish left few records of it. Short mentions appear in Irish tales of the 10th and 12th centuries; fuller descriptions only date from the 18th century, from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man. | Britannica: Samhain | 3 passed |
| 11 | Fairies were believed to come out of mounds at Samhain and play tricks on the living. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 12 | The Samhain day, roughly 1 November on our calendar, was believed to begin the new year: winter, when livestock came in from pasture. | Britannica: Halloween | 2 passed |
| 13 | An Irish tale, the Tochmarc Emire, treats Samhain as a New Year festival, but it isn’t clear whether that was true everywhere in Ireland. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 14 | It was commonly believed that on the eve of Samhain the boundary between the living and the dead blurred, and spirits could roam the earth. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 15 | In the 7th century Pope Boniface IV set up All Saints’ Day, at first on 13 May. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 16 | In the 8th century Pope Gregory III moved it to 1 November, Britannica says perhaps partly to replace pagan holidays. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 17 | Historic Environment Scotland says Samhainn was possibly deliberately absorbed when All Saints’ Day moved from 13 May to 1 November in the 8th century. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 1 passed |
| 18 | Britannica’s Samhain article says these Christian holidays were set on these dates by the Roman Catholic Church in the 9th century, entirely independently of Samhain. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 19 | The Library of Congress says Christian missionaries put All Saints on 1 November and All Souls on 2 November to replace Samhain; instead, Christian and older beliefs mingled into Halloween. | Library of Congress: Halloween and Día de Muertos research guide | 2 passed |
| 20 | Britannica concludes that modern Halloween came from neither Samhain alone nor Allhallowtide alone, but from a mix of the two. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 21 | After the Reformation, Protestants stopped keeping the religious holiday, but in Britain especially Halloween carried on as a non-religious one. | Britannica: Halloween | 2 passed |
| 22 | Halloween was largely forbidden among early American colonists. Immigrants, including many from Ireland, brought their customs from the mid-19th century, and in the 20th century it became a major American holiday. | Britannica: Halloween | 3 passed |
| 23 | In some places people lit candles or lanterns on graves or in windows on All Hallows’ Eve to guide souls. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 24 | Mexico’s Day of the Dead, from 31 October to 2 November, is a separate festival, with altars of flowers, candles, food and photos. | Britannica: Halloween | 3 passed |
| 25 | Samhain is also an important holiday in modern Paganism, especially Wicca, where it is mainly a time for honouring the dead. | Britannica: Samhain | 2 passed |
| 26 | Halloween is the eve of Samhain, one of four Quarter Days in the traditional Irish calendar. As with most Irish festivals, the main celebrations were on the night before. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 2 passed |
| 27 | The festival is Samhainn in Scottish Gaelic, Samhain in Irish and Sauin in Manx. Samhainn is said ‘Sa-wayne’. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 2 passed |
| 28 | In Scottish Gaelic, Halloween is Oidhche Shamhna. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 1 passed |
| 29 | Hop tu Naa is the oldest continuously existing tradition in the Isle of Man. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 1 passed |
| 30 | It is celebrated on 31 October. In the old calendar it fell on 11 November, Old Hollantide Eve. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 31 | Culture Vannin calls Hop tu Naa the Manx equivalent of Halloween, with some very important differences. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 1 passed |
| 32 | The name Hop tu Naa is thought to come from the Celtic New Year, like Hollantide and Hogmanay. It marks the end of summer and the start of winter. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 1 passed |
| 33 | In Manx, “Hop! T’an Oie” means “It is the Night!” | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 34 | It is also Celtic New Year’s Eve, Sauin in Manx Gaelic. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 35 | Hop tu Naa traditions include songs, dancing, carving turnip lanterns, divination, stories of Jinny the Witch and special food. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 36 | In the Isle of Man the turnip lantern is a ‘moot’. To make one, cut off the top, level the bottom so it sits, hollow it out with a spoon, then draw and cut your design. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 2 passed |
| 37 | Traditional Manx turnip designs include Peel Castle, witches and Manx cats, not just scary faces. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 38 | Some children carved pictures instead of faces: a moon, stars, a cat, a witch, a castle, a boat or a cottage with smoke coming from the chimney. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 1 passed |
| 39 | Some people carve only the skin and leave a thin wall of turnip, which stops the wind blowing the candle out. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 2 passed |
| 40 | Hollow out the stalk of the lid to make a chimney, and put in a tea light (or, these days, a torch). | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 2 passed |
| 41 | You can also use the stalk as a handle and carve the turnip the other way up. That was often done in Peel. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 42 | Children sometimes put marbles in the eyes to stop the wind blowing out the candle, and used old matchsticks for teeth. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 2 passed |
| 43 | Before turnips, children put cabbages on sticks and banged them on people’s doors. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 1 passed |
| 44 | Some Manx children now use pumpkins, an American tradition; long ago there were no pumpkins on the Island, so turnips were used, as they still are here and in Ireland. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 2 passed |
| 45 | Children sang Hop tu Naa songs from door to door, and still do. The songs vary from place to place on the Island. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 46 | The best-known song, from Douglas, goes: “Hop tu Naa! Your mother’s gone away and she won’t be back until the morning. Jinny the witch flew over the house to fetch the stick to lather the mouse.” | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 2 passed |
| 47 | There is a Manx Gaelic chorus too: “Hop-tu-Naa as Trol-la-laa”, said roughly ‘hop-chu-nay as trol-la-lay’. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 48 | Today children get sweets, chocolate and sometimes money for singing. Long ago they got butter taffy, apples, bonnag and Hollantide fairings, which are ginger biscuits. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 2 passed |
| 49 | Long ago, children had no elaborate costumes: they disguised themselves by wearing clothes inside out or back to front and covering their faces. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 2 passed |
| 50 | Many of the songs mention Jinny the Witch. Some people think she was a real woman, Joney Lowney, who lived about 300 years ago. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 1 passed |
| 51 | In the story, Joney was found guilty of witchcraft, locked up in Peel Castle for 14 days, fined £3 and made to stand at the market cross in Castletown, Peel, Ramsey and Douglas. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 3 passed |
| 52 | Culture Vannin points out that she got off lightly: in England or Scotland she could have been hanged or burnt. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 53 | Young women baked a soddag valloo, or dumb cake, of flour, salt, eggshells and soot, ate it in silence and walked backwards to bed to dream of a future husband. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 2 passed |
| 54 | The traditional Hollantide Eve supper was potatoes, parsnips and fish mashed together with butter. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 55 | Gorse bonfires were lit to keep bad fairies away. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 56 | It was a tradition to steal the first salted herring from a neighbour’s house. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 57 | There is a traditional Manx Hop tu Naa dance, still danced today, with a song in Manx Gaelic. | Culture Vannin: Mheillea and Hop tu Naa teaching resource | 2 passed |
| 58 | Some Manx Gaelic words for the night: moot (turnip), buitch (witch), scaanjoon (ghost), kayt doo (black cat) and craitnag (bat). | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 2 passed |
| 59 | Culture Vannin’s leaflet says the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest at Hop tu Naa. | Culture Vannin: Hop tu Naa leaflet (2018) | 1 passed |
| 60 | The jack-o’-lantern began in the British Isles, where people carved large turnips or other vegetables, not pumpkins. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 61 | In Irish folklore, Stingy Jack tricks the Devil twice. When Jack dies, neither heaven nor hell will take him, and he wanders the dark with a glowing coal inside a hollowed-out turnip. | Britannica: Halloween | 2 passed |
| 62 | His wandering spirit became known as Jack of the Lantern, or Jack O’Lantern. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 63 | In 1943 the National Museum of Ireland was given a turnip lantern by a schoolteacher near Fintown, County Donegal. She said that type was always made there around 1900. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnip (Irish Folklife Collection, F1943.350) | 3 passed |
| 64 | The museum’s ‘ghost turnip’ is a painted plaster cast made by the museum artist Eileen Barnes. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnip (Irish Folklife Collection, F1943.350) | 1 passed |
| 65 | In Ireland, candles were put inside carved turnips, which were used to frighten people on the night of 31 October. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnip (Irish Folklife Collection, F1943.350) | 1 passed |
| 66 | The National Museum of Ireland says today’s pumpkin is an American development of the Irish turnip tradition. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnip (Irish Folklife Collection, F1943.350) | 1 passed |
| 67 | In Scotland the carved turnips were ‘tumshies’, given evil faces to scare off fairies and ghosts. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 1 passed |
| 68 | Britannica says carved turnip lanterns are sometimes said to be a leftover from Samhain, but they may instead come from All Saints’ Day or Guy Fawkes Day. | Britannica: Samhain | 2 passed |
| 69 | Historic Environment Scotland calls guising the original form of trick or treating. Children were disguised so the roaming fairies and spirits wouldn’t steal them. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 2 passed |
| 70 | Guisers went from house to house telling jokes to earn their treats. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 1 passed |
| 71 | King James V is said to have liked dressing up and visiting his subjects in the villages near Stirling Castle. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 1 passed |
| 72 | In Ireland, guisers, men or children in disguise, went from house to house to frighten the neighbours, and entertained them to earn a treat. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 2 passed |
| 73 | It was a night for pranks and dares, often called ‘mischief night’ or ‘trick or treat’; knocking loudly on doors, or throwing cabbages at them, and running away was a favourite. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 2 passed |
| 74 | Trick or treat means threatening a usually harmless prank if no treat is given. It is thought to come from the British custom of letting the poor beg for food called ‘soul cakes’. | Britannica: Halloween | 2 passed |
| 75 | Going ‘souling’ took place around Halloween and All Souls’ Day, especially in the Middle Ages. People went door to door singing and praying for the dead in return for a soul cake. | English Heritage: No tricks, just treats: try a medieval soul cake (27 October 2023) | 2 passed |
| 76 | A soul cake, or soulmass-cake, was a small round cake, more like a biscuit, usually made with oats and perhaps spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger, with raisins or currants. | English Heritage: No tricks, just treats: try a medieval soul cake (27 October 2023) | 1 passed |
| 77 | English Heritage quotes a source of 1511: “we read in old time good people would on All Halloween Day bake bread and deal it for all Christian souls.” | English Heritage: No tricks, just treats: try a medieval soul cake (27 October 2023) | 1 passed |
| 78 | Groups of poor people, usually children, were still going souling in the 20th century. | English Heritage: No tricks, just treats: try a medieval soul cake (27 October 2023) | 1 passed |
| 79 | Scottish accounts say children and poor adults collected food and money from homes on All Saints’ Day in return for prayers for the dead; later, the prayers were replaced by tricks, songs and jokes. | Britannica: Halloween | 2 passed |
| 80 | Mumming was an early Irish form of trick or treat: people dressed as spirits did silly acts in exchange for food and drink. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 81 | In England, masked mumming plays became a widespread part of Halloween only by the 20th century. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 82 | At Samhain people may have worn animal skins or disguises to confuse or hide from the spirits of the dead. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 83 | Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF began in 1947, when a teacher and her husband in Philadelphia asked children to collect spare change for UNICEF instead of sweets. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 84 | The National Museum of Ireland – Country Life has scary old Halloween masks on display in its Samhain section. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 1 passed |
| 85 | Bobbing for apples means trying to catch apples floating in water with your teeth, without using your hands. Britannica says it may come from Roman traditions linked to Pomona, goddess of fruit trees. | Britannica: Halloween | 2 passed |
| 86 | Common Irish Halloween games included bobbing for apples and ‘apples on a string’. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 1 passed |
| 87 | The báirín breac was the traditional Irish Halloween cake. A ring baked inside meant whoever found it would be next to marry. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 2 passed |
| 88 | Other things went in the cake too: a thimble, a button, a stick, a rag, a coin and a crucifix, each foretelling a different future. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 1 passed |
| 89 | Other traditional Irish Halloween foods include colcannon, which is mashed potato with cabbage and onions, and boxty potato cakes. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 1 passed |
| 90 | In Scotland, Fuarag na Samhna, toasted oats and whipped cream, was made with tokens folded in: a coin for money, a ring for an engagement. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 2 passed |
| 91 | Couples put nuts on the Samhainn bonfire. If they hissed, the relationship would be stormy; if they burned quietly and evenly, it was a good match. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 1 passed |
| 92 | In a custom mentioned in Robert Burns’ poem ‘Hallowe’en’, people pulled up a kale stalk in the dark with their eyes shut; its shape and size foretold their future partner. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 2 passed |
| 93 | Britannica describes ‘dumb suppers’ or ‘dumb cakes’, food eaten in silence that was thought to bring visions of a future husband. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 94 | In Ireland, putting apples, cabbages or other things under your pillow on Halloween was believed to bring a dream about your future spouse. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 1 passed |
| 95 | Irish children were told that the púca went about on Halloween night spitting on the wild fruit, so they wouldn’t eat damaged berries and apples after that date. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 2 passed |
| 96 | In Ireland, holy water was sprinkled on people, animals and the farm, and small wooden or straw crosses were hung for protection and luck in the coming winter. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 2 passed |
| 97 | People avoided travelling alone on Halloween night for fear of being taken by evil spirits, and avoided fairy mounds and forts. Those who had to go out carried a black-handled knife or a steel needle. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 2 passed |
| 98 | In Scotland, Samhainn bonfires, ‘samhnagan’ in Gaelic, were lit for protection from evil spirits. On the islands, neighbours competed to build the biggest fire. | Historic Environment Scotland blog: Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en (Lucy Rodger, 27 October 2023) | 2 passed |
| 99 | In Ireland, 31 October is a night for community bonfires, especially in towns and cities. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 1 passed |
| 100 | In 1589 “hollowmass” fires were banned in Stirling, Scotland. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 101 | The evidence for Samhain fires in Ireland is thin; it is stronger for fires at Beltane. | Britannica: Samhain | 1 passed |
| 102 | The idea that a black cat crossing your path is unlucky goes back to medieval Europe, when folklore said witches, or even the Devil, could take the form of black cats. | Britannica: Halloween | 1 passed |
| 103 | Not everywhere fears black cats: in Scotland and Japan a black cat can stand for good fortune, and in ancient Egypt cats were sacred to the goddess Bastet. | Britannica: Halloween | 2 passed |
| 104 | In European folklore, bats were messengers between witches and the Devil, and a bat on Halloween was a bad omen. | Britannica: Halloween | 3 passed |
| 105 | The National Museum of Ireland’s folklife keeper notes that before electricity the countryside was very dark, adding to the scariness. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 1 passed |
| 106 | She also says Halloween is one of the few festivals still kept in much the same way as for generations; now the supermarket supplies the barmbrack, costumes and treats. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 2 passed |
| 107 | Halloween was also called ‘ghost night’ or ‘spirit night’ in Ireland: the souls of the dead were expected to come back to the family home. | National Museum of Ireland: Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions | 2 passed |