Happy Halloween from Ballyyahoo

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Happy Halloween to all Ballyyahoo readers.

We are celebrating Halloween with a free book for you.

All you have to do is click here, or on the image opposite or scroll down to the end of the page for more options.

The Ballyyahoo Halloween celebration is very special and it starts with a special meal.

They always have lots of curly kale cabbage, potatoes, parsley and onions all mixed together and fried into a meal they call Ballycolcannon.

SECRETS AND CAKES

After dinner, they always enjoy a bit of Halloween cake.

They all have their own special recipes handed down from one generation to the next and everyone keeps their recipe secret.

But one thing they all do is they always add lots of blackberries and hazelnuts, freshly picked by the kids of Ballyyahoo.

A RAG, A RING AND A COIN

Inside the cake, they hide a little bit of rag, a ring and a coin, all wrapped in tin foil.

THE COIN.

Whoever gets the slice with the coin is said to have a lucky year coming up.

THE RING

If you get the ring it is said you are going to have lots of happiness.

AND THE RAG

If you get the rag – well let’s just say you might have to sing for your supper in the forthcoming year.

PUMPKINS

Ballyyahooians love pumpkins too and they place little candles inside their pumpkins and leave them around their windows and doors.

JACK O’LANTERN AND THE DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

This is to keep away the dreaded ghost of Jack O’Lantern, a fool and black-heart of a man who some say did a deal with the devil and was condemned to wander the roads for eternity.

The kids in Ballyyahoo love the story of Jack O’Lantern and love to dress up like him, carrying lanterns, and running around haunting anyone and everyone they come across on the dark lanes of Ballyyahoo.

LIGHTS OUT

At nine o’clock all the townspeople gather around in the main street and light a huge bonfire in the middle. They turn all the lights off so the only light comes from the moon above and the glow of the fire.

When the fire is hot enough, they toast chestnuts and big chunks of nutty bread and wash it down with freshly squeezed blackberry and apple juice, all freshly harvested that very day from the hedgerows and lanes of Ballyyahoo.

There’s nothing a true Ballyyahooian loves more than to hear a good Halloween story, so when everyone’s had plenty to eat, they all sit down on large logs and warm themselves in the glowing heat of the fire.

EERIE STORIES

Sometimes Maggie-many-cats plays an eerie tune. But, sometimes, only on Halloween night, the eerie tune plays all on its own…

Once they’re all feeling cosy and comfortable the Halloween stories begin and now here’s a free Halloween story for you.