Halloween Breaks in Ireland and Britain: Derry, Edinburgh, York and Whitby

We're going to start in Derry, formerly Londonderry, which is in Northern Ireland, and which is an absolutely fantastic city.

In Ireland, Halloween actually goes back to Samhain, which marked the beginning of the dark part of the year.

The harvest was in.

Winter was coming.

And as you can imagine, in the days before central heating and electric light, that change in the season meant rather more than it does to most of us nowadays.

The night before Samhain was Ogham.

People gathered together.

They ate.

They played games.

And most importantly, they told stories to one another.

Later, when Christianity came, we had All Saints' Day on the first of November.

The evening before became All Hallows' Eve, hence the name Halloween.

Customs changed, and even the lantern changed.

In Ireland, people carved frightened faces into...

Can you guess? It wasn't the pumpkin.

No, it was a turnip.

Now, I rather love the thought of a turnip lamp.

You'd have to work really hard to hollow one out, and I think it would look considerably more sinister than the cheerful orange pumpkin.

Anyway, enough of that.

So Halloween has many layers.

There's the change of season, the old stories, now a Christian feast, family games, dressing up, and the simple pleasures of being terrified.

[chuckles] All four of our destinations have taken these ingredients and done something rather magical.

So let's go and deep dive into Derry, a city that really throws its doors open in welcome.