Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween 2012! Only a year to go!

"Come with me All Hallow's night, we'll frighten everyone in sight..."

Halloween 2012 - this is my favourite time of the year - dark, misty nights, the scent of leaves and wood burning in the air and the mystical, magical holiday of Halloween!

Halloween will fall on Wednesday, October 31st, the same date every year, and is also known as Samhain. Another name for this festival is All Hallow’s Eve. This is because November 1st is known as All Hallow’s Day and November 2nd is All Soul’s Day. November 1st is sometimes called the Day of the Dead and is a time in which many cultures show respect for those who have passed on by visiting graveyards with gifts and offering up prayers for the departed souls. Samhain is considered by many as the most important Sabbat or Festival for the Wiccan community and Halloween 2012 will be no exception!

Halloween 2012 Treats

They were also used to pay travellers and beggars who visited houses on All Hallow’s Eve offering to say prayers for family members who had departed this life. The ancient history surrounding these little cakes makes them all the more tasty.It’s pretty essential to eat these while they’re still warm, maybe with a little butter or whatever takes your fancy on the night of Halloween 2012...

Soul Cakes
Makes approx. 12 delicious Soul Cakes

7 oz (2 cups) plain or all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated is best
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Large pinch of dried saffron
4 fluid oz (1/2 cup) milk
4 oz (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature and soft
4 oz (1/2 cup sugar)
2 egg yolks
4 oz (1/2) cup golden raisins

For the glazing:
1 egg yolk, beaten
Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit

Mix together the flour, mixed spice, nutmeg and salt in a medium sized bowl. Thoroughly combine using a balloon whisk or a fork.
Crush the saffron threads into a saucepan and warm gently over a low heat until you can just get their scent – do not burn or singe! Add the milk and again heat very gently until just warm. Remove from the heat.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a medium to large bowl with a wooden spoon (this is why you want the butter softened!) Add the egg yolks and mix well. Next, add the spiced flour mixture and combine; it will be dry and pastry-like.
One tablespoon at a time, start to pour in then warm milk, mixing very well with the spoon. Watch carefully and go slowly; when you have a soft, pliable dough stop adding the milk.
Place the dough onto a well floured board and knead gently until the dough feels smooth, about 5 minutes. Roll out to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Using a floured 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out as many rounds as you can get from the dough and place on an ungreased baking sheet.

Decorate the Soul Cakes with the golden raisins, just pushing them in slightly. Brush each cake with the beaten egg yolk. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, until just golden and glossy. Serve warm, traditionally with punch or mulled wine.

For Halloween 2012, we just had to include a recipe for Irish Barmbrack. This yummy fruit bread/cake is centuries old and traditionally eaten at Samhain. Various items are placed in the brack, foretelling what the coming year will bring for the recipient of that piece.

A pea or bean to denote no marriage in the year.
A matchstick to foretell domestic disharmony!
A silver sixpence would bring good fortune to the lucky person.
A piece of cloth to indicate poverty or ill luck.
A ring to foretell marriage within the year.
A thimble to show spinsterhood.
A button to show batchelorhood.

Barm Brack

Ingredients

• 1 lb flour
• 6 oz sugar
• 1 lb mixed dried fruit
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg – for good fortune
• Pot of hot Irish tea

The 'special lucky' ingredients:
a pea, matchstick, coin, small piece of cloth, ring, thimble, button

Method:
Wrap each 'lucky' item carefully in greaseproof/wax paper.

The secret to making a Barm Brack is the soaking of fruit overnight in thetea. Add the sugar and egg to the fruit mix the next day. Sift in the remaining dry ingredients. Mix very gently. Stir in the wrapped 'lucky' items and try to distribute them evenly. Use a 7" roundbaking tin at 350°F for 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

The Barm Brack can be made up to a week in advance and stored in an air-tightcontainer – it actually tastes much better this way!. Traditionally served spread with pure butter and a hot cup of tea – delicious!

Why not take a look at our Magical Spell Bottles as well - just to get in the mood for Halloween!

Halloween 2012 Superstitions

~ On All Hallow's Eve, all the Fairy forts, dwellings, mounds and hills are flung wide open and their occupants, all members of the Fairy Kingdom come forth and wander all over, sometimes causing grave mishief. Only the foolish or the bold venture out after dark on All Hallow’s Eve.

~ An old belief is that all souls in Pergatory are let out for two days at Halloween 2011. Watch your back!

~ If a bat flies into the house at this time of year, it indicates that there are ghosts around.

~ Everyone in the household should place stones with their own personal marks into the Halloween 2012 fire. These need to be be retrieved from the ashes of the fire on November 1st - if your stone is undamaged it's a sign of luck for the coming 12 months. If damaged or not found in the ashes, this indicates a spell of misfortune.

~ To find out who your future husband will be, stand in front of a mirror at midnight, light two candles and start brushing your hair. The ghost of your sweetheart will appear in the glass.

~ Spiders in the house on the night of Halloween 2012 indicate that the spirit of a loved one is watching over you from the other side. Be kind to that spider!

~ Walking around the outside of your home counterclockwise and backwards before the sun sets on Halloween is said to protect against negative entities and souls. It will also make you quite dizzy...

~ Another tradition regarding marriage is to place a sprig of fresh rosemary and a silver coin under your pillow on the night of October 31st. Your future partner is reputed to appear in your dreams.

~ Placing a black candle in each window of the house at Halloween is an ancient Irish custom, believed to protect the occupants from the dead wandering around outside. It must be allowed to burn down completely – not to be blown out, for this is considered the height of ill luck. Note: If following this Samhain tradition, please make sure to place lighted candles in safe, fire-proof containers, away from fabrics, draughts, children and pets! Be careful and responsible!

~ If you're out for a stroll on Samhain night and hear footsteps behind you, never look back to see who it is - if it's a spirit, superstition says you may soon be joining it on it's nightly wanderings.

~ In many Celtic countries, plates of food are left out on Halloween night, both for the Dead and the Fairies that are surely out and about this most magical of nights. Why not try it this Samhain?

~ If a candle goes out suddenly or the flame turns blue on Samhain, beware, there’s a ghost about…

~ Crossroads have always had significant other-worldly properties in Ireland, for they are the places that ghosts are frequently seen and heard at any time of the year. However, at Samhain, if one journeys to a crossroads, it is likely the wind will tell you all you need to know for the following twelve months.

~ Hawthorn trees and bushes are to be avoided on October 31st, for the chance of becomed ‘bewitched’ near these plants is very high.

~ The traditional Jack-o-Lantern lit at All Hallow’s Eve is specifically to keep ghosts, ghouls and other worrisome things away.

Halloween 2012 Party Fun

• A Tea Cup -- means an old maid or bachelor
• A Saucer with Water -- a trip abroad is in their future
• A Dollar Bill -- a fortune will soon be inherited
• Deck of Cards -- means business success
• Toy Car -- A romance will begun during an automotive trip
• Pen -- fame through writing
• Ring -- a wedding or engagement
• Stone -- problems will arise, but not difficult ones
• Cookie -- will become successful as owner of a tea room
• Saucer containing Dried Beans -- will indicate the size of the future family
• Bride Doll -- indicates a second marriage

Ghoulish Delights
I remember this one from my childhood – yikes! On Halloween 2012, have jars filled with the following shocking items, dim the lights very low, and dare everyone at the party to stick their hand into the jar and guess what’s in it. Of course, be as fiendish and ghoulish as you like…

• Baby carrots – Dead Man’s fingers
• Peeled grapes - eyeballs
• Cooked, slightly damp spaghetti – someone’s intestines
• Jello (jelly for my European readers!) – squishy liver
• Small, slimy cauliflower – a brain…
• Candy Corn – loose teeth from a skull
  

Scary, Scary Story
Dim the lights, gather everyone in a circle on the floor, with a small flashlight in the centre. One person starts the first sentence of the Scary Scary Story. Each person adds a sentence or two going around the circle at least once. Try our chilling suggestions for a beginning line:

• The old woman was said to be a witch and lived alone in a dark, eerie….
• As the thunder crashed, the lightning struck a street lamp, knocking out the power….
• The two girls hid under the table, trembling, as they watched the ghost glide towards them…
• She listened, terrified, as she heard the shuffling steps getting every closer...
  

"It was late one fall in Halloweenland, and the air had quite a chill.
Against the moon a skeleton sat, alone upon a hill.
He was tall and thin with a bat bow tie;
Jack Skellington was his name.
He was tired and bored in Halloweenland -
Everything was always the same..."



Wishing you a Spooky, Mystical and Fun-Filled Halloween 2012!

~Siobhan and the Ghouls at Moonslipper

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