Boxty—Another traditional Irish Halloween FOOD, boxty is a BREAD made of potatoes and flour. It is also sometimes called Boxty-in-the-Pan, Boxty-on-the-griddle or simply boxty pancakes. Boxty was sometimes first served on Halloween and then eaten throughout the following three months, or it might have been served only on Halloween and Boxing Day. In this stanza from an 1898 poem, B. M. Teggart sets up boxty as a popular Halloween food with the Irish poor:

Where there are neither sweets nor cakes
Nor mutton, fat or lean,
In a big pot the mother makes
Boxty, at Halloween.

One amusing traditional folk rhyme about boxty runs:

Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty in the pan,
If you don’t eat Boxty,
You’ll never get a man.

SOURCE:

The Halloween Encyclopedia Second Edition written by Lisa Morton © 2011 Lisa Morton. All rights reserved