Coel Coeth
Coel Coeth (also Coel Certh)—Welsh name for the BONFIRE each family built in the most prominent place near the house on November Eve. Part of…
Month: October 2022
Clowns
Clowns— Clowns have been popular Halloween figures ever since COSTUMING began to figure prominently in the holiday’s celebrations. Clowns—principally the “whiteface” comic figures typically found…
Churches
Churches—Churches figure in Halloween history not only as places of worship on ALL SAINTS’ DAY and ALL SOULS’ DAY, but also as much-frequented sites in…
Christmas
Christmas—The most popular holiday in Western culture, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25. Surprisingly, Christmas shares a number of factors in common…
Ch’ing Ming
Ch’ing Ming (also Qing Ming)— Chinese festival of the dead with some similarities to ALL SAINTS’ DAY and ALL SOULS’ DAY. Ch’ing Ming is the…
Chickens
Chickens—In some parts of Britain, WITCHES were supposedly unable to go near black chicken feathers, so on Halloween it was customary to kill a black…
Changelings
Changelings— One Irish belief was that FAIRIES occasionally kidnapped human children and replaced them with a fairy child; this was often performed on Halloween. A…
Champ
Champ (also pandy)— Popular Irish Halloween FOOD similar to COLCANNON, made of mashed potatoes with milk, butter and LEEKS, sometimes prepared with FORTUNE-TELLING tokens (a…
Chalking
Chalking —One old Halloween PRANKING practice was to chalk the backs of passersby, shout “Halloween!” and then run off. Chalking was popular in parts of…
Celts
Celts—A number of barbarian tribes organized under the name Celtae (or the Greek form Keltoi), and spread across Europe and the British Isles; the Irish…