Halloween traces many of its distinctive traditions to ancient Celtic practices, such as the carving of jack o’lanterns and trick or treating. Even many of the creatures we may dress up as or decorate our homes with, such as ghouls, goblins, banshees, and wights, are commonly encountered in folklore across Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales.
One Celtic practice that is not quite as common today is the act of divination. Games of fortune-telling have a rich history across the British Isles and feature prominently on a holiday as heavy with the supernatural as Halloween. Examples of the augury-revealing games include:
- Tossing a long strip of apple peel over one’s shoulder, the letter that the shape of the fallen peel most resembles is the first letter of the first name of the player’s future partner
- Roasting two hazelnuts in a fire, one representing the player and the other representing the person the player desires. If the nuts jump, dance, and pop in the heat, it is the sign of a bad match. If the nuts roast calmly, it is a sign of a good match
- Women who stared into a mirror alone in a darkened room would see the face of their future husband
- “Saucers” was a game in which a blindfolded person chose between different saucers while blindfolded. Each saucer contained a different object, indicating the future of the person. A ring indicated future marriage, clay meant death was on the horizon, water foretold their future emigration, rosary beads meant the joining of the Church (become a nun, monk, etc.), a coin meant prosperity, and a bean meant poverty.
Another tradition of Halloween divination is the hiding of objects in foodstuffs, with the individual finding the object in the portion of the food obtaining portents of their future from the foreign object in their forkful. Common items include:
- Pea – the person would not marry that year
- Stick – the person would have an unhappy marriage or a large amount of disputes with their significant otherPiece of Cloth or Rag – bad luck/poverty
- Coin – good luck/prosperity
- Ring – the person will get married
These objects could be hidden in a variety of foodstuffs, such as champ or colcannon (potato mash with leafy greens, common in Ireland), cranachan (a dish of cream, raspberries, oats, and whisky common in Scotland), or most commonly barmbrack.
Barmbrack (also shortened to Barm) is an enriched bread (meaning the dough has been “enriched” with sugar and eggs, as opposed to basic bread, which contains just flour, salt, and water) that also contains rehydrated dried fruits. Barmbrack can be made as a yeasted bread (allowed to rise and condition using baker’s yeast) or as a quick bread.
Quick breads use a leavening agent (ingredients that cause bread to rise) other than yeast. The two most common non-yeast leavening agents are baking soda and baking powder. Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate is a mineral that, when combined with an acid such as vinegar, lemon juice, or tartaric acid, creates carbon dioxide (think of a science fair volcano). This release of carbon dioxide mimics the carbon dioxide produced by growing yeast. Baking powder is a premixed combination of baking soda and cream of tartar (tartaric acid) that allows for the chemical reaction making carbon dioxide to occur, without adding the tart flavors associated with vinegar or lemon juice.
Make your own Halloween barmbrack using the following recipe.
*NOTE* – It is not recommended to add foreign objects to any food items, as it can present a choking hazard to those unaware of their presence
Irish Halloween Barmbrack (Recipe Adapted from Ciaran Vipond)
Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups of all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups of mixed dried fruit (such as raisins, currants, sultanas, apples, peaches, apricots, or plums) *for this recipe raisins and dried apples, made using the method described in HGIC 3084, Drying Fruits
1 cup of strong, unsweetened black tea (Irish or English Breakfast tea works best)
¼ cup of whiskey (optional, replace with ¼ extra of tea if not using alcohol)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
½ of mixed spice (equal parts allspice, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg) or pumpkin pie spice
Method:
- Place dried fruits in a bowl or mason jar and add mixture of tea or tea/whiskey and soak covered overnight
- The following day, preheat oven to 340 ℉ and grease a loaf pan
- Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl
- Mix egg into dry ingredients
- Slowly add the fruit soaking liquid to the dry ingredient/egg mixture until a wet dough is formed
- Add rehydrated fruit and thoroughly combine the mixture
- Transfer the wet dough to the greased loaf pan
- Place the bread into the middle rack of the oven for one hour
- Allow to cool slightly and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling
- Serve the slices of barmbrack with a generous spread of butter and a glass of tea for a traditional Halloween treat. Leftover bread is best toasted in butter and served warm.
