Events and News Item

Spirits of Meath Halloween Festival draws to a close...

The Spirits of Meath Halloween Festival took place all around County Meath from October 22nd - 31st 2010!

Visitors came the length and breadth of the country to see the 40 spine-tingling events - and there was certainly Fun by Day and Frights by Night!!

There was huge media interest in the fact that that Samhain, the ancient celtic festival of fire that we today know as Halloween, originated at the Hill of Ward (Tlachtga) near Athboy.
There was extensive media coverage on RTE Radio & TV and in the leading national newspapers.

We are already looking forward to spooking you with the 2011 Spirits of Meath Halloween Festival!

More information on Spirits of Meath Halloween Festival 2010

We would like to thank and credit Robert & Cathy Ardill of Ireland Up Close (www.irelandupclose.com) who personally photographed a selection of the Spirits of Meath Halloween Festival - we will be updating the images here

Trim Halloween Street Festival                

 Pucas & Potions Childrens Arts Day    

History of Halloween in Meath

Hill of Ward (Tlachtga), County Meath - The Birthplace of Halloween

Samhain, the ancient Celtic Festival that we now call Halloween, originated here in Co. Meath more than 2,000 years ago. Samhain marks the end of the old Celtic Year and the beginning of the New Year. The Celts believed that this was a time of transition, when the veil between our world and the next came down, and the spirits of all who had died since the last Oíche Shamhna (Night of Samhain) moved on to the next life.

One of the main spiritual centres of the ancient Celts was located on top of the hill of Tlachtga, now called the Hill of Ward, near Athboy, Co. Meath. The druids felt that this world and the otherworld were closest at Tlachtga and it was here that the festival of Samhain, or Halloween, was started. The old year’s fires were extinguished and, after sunset, the ceremonial New Year Samhain fire was lit here. Torches were lit from this sacred fire and carried to seven other hills around the county including Tara and Loughcrew, and then on to light up the whole countryside.

Today, the old Celtic ceremony at Tlachtga has been revived and we mix the ancient past and the twenty-first century with a re-enactment of the Celtic celebration starting with a torchlit procession from the Fair Green in Athboy, Co. Meath to the top of the Hill of Tlachtga, at 7pm on October 31st each year.