Once the heated haze of summer fades away and October rolls in like a gilded fog, New England takes on an otherworldly nature. Known for the most vibrant and abundant autumn foliage in the world, crimson-lake cranberry harvests, quaint villages with fall festooned houses and shops, plentiful pumpkin patches and family-packed autumn festivals, and both fresh and hard apple cider enough to fill everyone’s mug all season long, New England is perhaps the most poignant, stunning, and enjoyable place in the world to celebrate autumn. In addition to being the highest set standard for all things autumn, New England also offers a deeply rooted connection to the very bones of Halloween and its history.
To brush off Halloween as mostly modern, consumerism-based, or evil is not only short sighted, it’s dead wrong. Our modern-day Halloween celebrations and traditions are a patchwork strewn together across cultures, theologies, centuries, and legends. If you want to understand the basis of how we got to the point of trick-or-treating and carving pumpkins, you must spirit yourself away to ancient Ireland.
The origins of Halloween are rooted in the ancient Irish festival known as Samhain – pronounced ‘sah-win’ in Irish language. Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter in Ireland. The day after, Nov. 1, marked the Celtic new year.
Like other ancient Irish festivals, Samhain was seen to be a liminal time -a time when the boundaries separating the spiritual and real world blurred and weakened. Thus, Halloween has become associated with appearance of spirits, fairies and ghosts from the mythical ‘Otherworld’. When the realms of the living and the dead mixed, Celts used the opportunity to honor and worship their ancestors. People set an extra place at the table for supper that their family and friends beyond would feel welcome and join them in spirit. They left lit candles in the windows as a gesture to light the way home for their loved ones.
Many, however, were also concerned about the darker and evil spirits using this night of blurred realms to trouble and influence those in the real world or to keep deceased loved ones from visiting their homes. Various precautions were taken by the living to ensure that as little mischief as possible took place to allow pleasant visits for and from their deceased loved ones and ancestors. The Irish Celts often went so far as to make striking masks and costumes and would dress their children as demons to confuse or scare the evil spirits in to thinking they had met their match and best be off. They also marked their doors with cattle blood from the harvest to deter unwanted visitors and protect all the living and dead who crossed the threshold.
Another important Samhain tradition was the lighting of bonfires. Irish Samhain bonfires, or tine cnámh (pronounced “cheen-ah kin-awe-vh” and literally meaning ‘bone fire’), were lit for both spiritual and practical reasons. In ancient Ireland cattle were used as currency. The highest-ranking Irish Rí (king) was also the person in the area with the most cattle. Samhain was the traditional time to slaughter excess or weak cattle. It was also the time set aside for preparing stores of meat and grain to support the people through the harsh winter.
Bonfires were a central part of the festivities at Samhain for every village and everyone attended. A communal blaze was used by villagers to cast the bones of slaughtered cattle upon the flames of a roaring fire. This was thought to cleanse the land and set forth the good fortune of health and harvest for the coming new year. Once the central Samhain bonfire was lit and fully ablaze, villagers extinguished their own fires in their homes. Then, after song, dance, and incantations, each family took a light from the common bone fire to rekindle the fire in their own hearth. This tradition was a reminder of the importance of community and charity during the time of year when it was hardest to exist, and symbolic for the new light of their new year beginning in the morning. Though not many of us continue to light bonfires on Oct.31, there are plenty of chimneys here in the countryside that start smoking around the end of October and anyone with a knowledge of tine cnámh is likely to see the faint similarity.
More common Halloween traditions we keep today are also harvested from the past and have been given new roles and function in modern day society. Bobbing for apples, for example, is derived from the Roman festival of Feralia that was traditionally celebrated in late October. It was a day to commemorate the souls and spirits of the dead, and was one of the first festivals to be combined with the Celtic festival of Samhain.
Another ancient festival was the Day of Pomona -the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol that represented this goddess was an apple. As the Roman Empire spread and its influence traveled north to Ireland, the lore and celebration of the apple found preplaced common acceptance and revering as Irish society already believed apples to be a sacred fruit from the Tuath Dé Danann (the Gods believed to have founded Ireland). Samhain festivals began to include bobbing for apples, and apple peeling divination where young, unmarried girls would peel an apple and the shape of the peel that fell to the ground could indicate the name or position/trade of their future husband.
Here in New England, we continue to integrate the humble apple into our autumn festivities through harvesting at local orchards, pressing our infamous apple ciders and fermenting apple jack, and baking, cooking, and preserving with apples. Some of the best Halloween parties around are highlighted with competitive apple-bobbing rounds between cider-buzzed adults or groups of sugar-spiked children with wet faces and giggles while trying to catch such a large fruit in tiny teeth. The apple, however, is certainly not the mainstay edible symbol of Halloween. That honor goes to the beloved pumpkin.
To understand how the inimitable, often orange member of the Cucurbitaceae family rose to the ranks of the ultimate symbol of autumn and Halloween, you first need to look back at turnips. Yes, turnips! Pumpkins are indigenous to North America -specifically Mexico, therefore the ancient Irish had never seen them.
During the harvest, there were often a few root vegetables to spare. As the harvest season coincided with Samhain, root vegetables, often turnips, were used as vessels to set small candles in to keep the flames from being extinguished easily by the wild Irish wind. These turnip lights were set on windowsills or carried by children from hut to hut while wearing demon-scaring costumes and “souling” or singing songs of good fortune and praise at the door to spread good luck and in turn be gifted with a “Soul Cake”. Children in costumes traveling about the community after dark and receiving treats… It sounds a bit familiar, yes? Another use for turnips and other root vegetables was to carve faces in -again to scare away evil or mischievous intruders from the Otherworld via menacing illuminated expressions meant to shock a wayward soul back to the hills where the Otherworld portals were said to be -thus the expression “running for the hills”.
One infamous tale of turnips and turmoil was the legend of Jack-of-the-Lantern. Stingy Jack, a troublesome Irish drunk, was said to have encountered the devil as he lay dying on Samhain in an intoxicated stupor. He was, however, as clever as he was inumbrated by his addiction, and he was able to trick the devil three separate times from taking his soul to Hell. Once Jack did finally pass away because of his reckless lifestyle, his soul was rejected at the gates of Heaven, but he had also outwitted the devil enough to burn that bridge as well. The devil gave Stingy Jack a small ember from the pits of Hell and sent him away to eternally wander the realm of the living -neither entirely dead or alive, using a carved turnip to hold his ember of Hell to light the way while aimlessly roaming the Irish countryside -thus becoming Jack-of-the-Lantern.
It is thought by modern historians and scientists that this legend was perhaps perpetuated by the increased phenomenon of “Will O the Wisps” or Peat Bog Flames that occur when methane gas is released from organic matter decaying in bogs. The late autumn weather and temperature led to an increase in these mysterious floating flames suddenly igniting and hovering over Ireland’s many peat bogs -thus providing a scapegoat scenario for the ancient Irish to explain a natural occurrence they did not understand.
During the Great Irish Famine when hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants desperately sought basic survival and dignity as they arrived on the East Coast, their traditions arrived with them and spilled out beautifully into our society. Instead of turnips and parsnips and other hard crops, they were confronted with the North American pumpkin and immediately and collectively saw it as the new ideal vessel for their carving and illumination traditions on Samhain. Today, New England carries on the revering of all things pumpkin and squash in both the most humble and ostentatious ways. From the countless local pumpkin patches dotting the New England countryside to the overwhelming splendor of the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at Roger Williams Zoo in Rhode Island, ancient meets modern in the most endearing and magical way all autumn long.
As ancient traditions met resistance and rejection from spreading Christianity in Europe, people found ways to keep the basis of their beloved practices by merging them with their newly either accepted or imposed beliefs. At the behest of Pope Gregory VI, ‘All Hallows’ Day’ was assigned to the date of Nov. 1 – the first day of the Celtic new year. The Pope, nevertheless, renamed the event ‘All Saints’ Day’, making it a formal and rule-regulated religious service in honor of only Christian Saints instead of the previous humble celebration by local communities to honor loved ones and celebrate the harvest.
‘All Saints’ Day’ and ‘All Hallows’ Day’ were used interchangeably by the Catholic Church throughout history. The evening before these dates was then called ‘Hallowe’en’ – a contraction of ‘Hallows’ Evening’. In the last century however, the holiday has been largely taken back to its ancient roots and traditions and is now simply referred to as Halloween. Through centuries of dogmatic hushing of superstitions and traditions, and spanning the distance of the Atlantic, modern-day Halloween is both what we make it and what it was made to be in the beginning.
Halloween in New England, specifically, has filled the role of a “Halloween Hub” for the world partially because of the high concentration of Irish heritage here, but also because the landscape is perfectly suited and destined to feature all things mysterious, beautiful, and community based. The oft moody skies contrasting lush, jewel-colored foliage, historic stone walls lined with bright pumpkins, village gazebos in the center of town flanked by bunched up corn stalks, and historic cities and towns with enough ghost stories to start ghost tour businesses, New England wears autumn more perfectly and effortlessly than any other season.
Though we no longer gather at the center of town for a tine cnámh, we do gather in parking lots to trunk-or-treat and at the farmstand down the road to pick or purchase the same Roman revered orbs prized centuries ago. We may not send our children to sing songs of faith from door to door in masks, but we do rely on our neighbors to put aside their worldly cares for an evening to indulge in needed frivolity. Society-weary adults depend on each other to greet our costume-clad kiddies with genuine smiles and handfuls of candy once the expected childhood incantation, “Trick-or-Treat!” is sung out in a tradition so adorable that it is sacred in its own right. Adults need Halloween as much as children -be it to dance or feast the night away with friends in disguise or attend a haunted house where the biggest threat is not world news and bills, but screeching out from a good ole jump scare.
Halloween is a much-needed respite for all ages to cast aside burdens for one night, become something fantastical, and believe in magic -even for just a moment or two. Perhaps the real spell cast by Halloween is the alchemical child of modern-day people still relating to the needs and dreams, fears and longings, of people long ago. The spirit of ancient Ireland’s Samhain is haunting all of us here in New England in the best and most enjoyable way. Happy Halloween and a Blessed Samhain to all~

In this day and age, it can be difficult to find and focus on the positive things happening in our communities and the world. We are exposed on a daily basis to over stimulation and an over saturation of constantly flowing information, good and bad, to an extent that humans have not experienced before. It sure is loud out there, but if we reign in our focus to a local level and, as Mr. Rogers said, “…look for the helpers…”, you will be amazed at what good is going on around you amidst the chaos.
One such source of good and decent is found in the South Shore Community Action Council. The SSCAC is a private 501(c)(3), non-profit Community Action Agency -one of 23 in Massachusetts and over 1,000 nationwide. The SSCAC mission statement is, “To eliminate poverty on the South Shore by coordinating, strengthening, and supplementing community efforts to empower and support individuals and families so they can live in decency and with dignity, realize their full potential, and participate to the extent of their capabilities in all that our communities have to offer.”
To back up this incredibly powerful and moving mission statement SSCAC has a team of dedicated, talented, and altruistic employees and volunteers that work tirelessly to ensure that people in our communities are supported in their times of need or where they may lack support and resources. Last year SSCAC employed 240 people and had 696 volunteers. In 2024 $33,075,620.00 program and service dollars were used by SSCAC on behalf of low-income residents of all ages. 28,970 residents were served, 322,627 meals were provided, and 14,459 residents were kept warm. With thirteen assistance programs and services available, from providing food over summer break to children with food insecurity to free assistance filing income taxes, SSCAC is able to make a significant and much needed positive, local impact.
The South Shore Community Action Council was founded in 1965 under the Economic Opportunity Act. This year SSCAC is celebrating its 60th birthday and six decades of local success with support and direction from the state as well as federal advocacy from the National Community Action Foundation. SSCAC branches out its services and programs throughout the state, covering as many as 38 towns for various assistance programs and as many as 50 towns for elderly services.
One of the most utilized services the SSCAC offers is their Food Resource Program. Over 450,000 pounds of fresh and non-perishable food items were gathered last year to provide meals and alleviate food insecurity on the South Shore, Cape, and Islands. They supplied 63 food pantries, schools, and Councils on Aging as well as other various food emergency assistance providers. SSCAC CEO, Lisa Spencer, says that donations from local farms, agencies, organizations, and individuals keep the supply of food flowing. “We get a lot of our fresh food from nearby Plymouth County Farm. They are very generous in donating fresh and local food. We also get food from the Greater Boston Food Bank and other larger food producers. But we also accept donations of non-perishable goods. We even have a rolling cart in the front office that you can drop your donations on.” In addition to donations, the SSCAC benefits greatly from food drives and fundraisers. “We get a lot of supplies when organizations do food drives for us. We never have enough of the non-perishable items, so anything coming in for the food warehouse is appreciated and needed,” says Spencer.
It is not just food that SSCAC provides to the community. Other programs and services offered include Home Energy Assistance or Fuel Assistance, Weatherization of Houses, Heating System Repair and Replacement (HEARTWAP), Appliance Management, Early Education and Childcare, Transportation, South Shore Family Network, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, Consumer Aid, and Emergency Assistance.
“We offer various services that enable independence and participation in the community,” says Spencer. Services are not only offered to the South Shore area but as far as the Cape and Islands and as far west as Attleboro. One of the most used programs offered is the SSCAC Transportation Program. In 2024, 90,788 trips were provided around the South Shore and beyond. “We have 38 vehicles that transport elderly or disabled individuals who can’t otherwise drive themselves. Even if the town they live in offers transportation within town boundaries but not out of town boundaries then we can offer to take them, door to door, where they need to go regardless of where it is.”
Another leading program offered by SSCAC is the Fuel Assistance Program. Residents can apply online to qualify for assistance in paying to heat their homes during the winter months. In 2024, 14,459 residents were kept warm through $9,950,782.00 in direct payments made by SSCAC to local heating companies. Spencer explains that paying heating bills is just one of the ways SSCAC can help with keeping homes and livings spaces safe and inhabitable during the winter months. “We can also help you maintain and even replace your heating system at no cost to the individual. We can get your heating system inspected, maintained, and replaced if needed. We put over a million dollars into heating system repair and installations last year.”
It is not just home maintenance offered by SSCAC. Outside of the home SSCAC offers the South Shore Early Education program. Last year 588 children in the state received care through the Early Education Program. “We offer Head Start, Early Start, and state funded preschool and before and after school programs for children in Plymouth, Marshfield, Wareham, and Cape Cod,” says Spencer, “This includes their daily meals, bus transportation, and any needed health screenings. We offer this at no cost to families.”
One of the SSCAC’s most used programs is their Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. “Last year we got tax payer returns for over 600 people,” says Spencer, “This was over a million dollars in tax refunds for locals which makes a big difference in people’s lives. We have one staff tax accountant and the rest are volunteer tax experts who donate their time to help people file their taxes.” In addition to helping community members save money on taxes, the SSCAC also offers Consumer Aid. This free consumer education and mediation program helped 519 Plymouth County households avoid costly court resolution valued at $136,571.00.
In spite of a seemingly endless list of offerings and funding, Spencer explains that some programs are facing cuts this year. “Our funding for Emergency Services this year was cut significantly. This is money used to help people pay their rent or mortgage in times of crisis and avoid food insecurity, foreclosure, eviction, and utility shut offs. Unfortunately, we do not know how much of this service we will be able to offer now due to government cuts in our funding for that. Our funds for this program are very limited right now.” Spencer goes on to explain that funding can also come through donations and fundraisers. One of the most impactful ways the community can help the SSCAC, however, is through donations of time and skill.
Last year SSCAC had 11,165 hours donated by their nearly 700 volunteers. Spencer explains the crucial role volunteers play, “We have individuals who show up regularly to volunteer -often retirees, but also families. Groups can also help out. We often have Scouts volunteer and other organizations looking for community service opportunities. We could not do any of this without our volunteers.” In addition to volunteers SSCAC also provides work opportunities with 239 local employees. “We are always looking for community members to offer their time, services, and expertise,” says Spencer, “and applications can be found on our website for anyone interested in applying.”
The SSCAC is also playing an ongoing and crucial role in assisting residents of the towns Plympton, Halifax, and Kingston. A look at a few of the local service reports (these are not full reports) shows the following:
Plympton:
57 residents received Home Energy Assistance
5 residents received Energy Conservation
2 children received South Shore Early Education
3,080 pounds of food was provided to Plympton residents
Halifax:
370 received Home Energy Assistance
15 residents received Transportation Services
4,079 pounds of food was provided to Halifax residents
121 children benefited from the South Shore Family Network
13 households received Consumer Aid
Kingston:
376 residents received Home Energy Assistance
14 children received South Shore Early Education
41,472 pounds of food was provided to Kingston residents
17 residents use Transportation Services
22 residents received income tax assistance

The SSCAC plays an undeniable role in the benefit, stabilization, and growth of our community. People from all walks of life, from senior veterans to preschoolers, and single mothers to large families needing help through unemployment, can find some of their burdens alleviated by the services and programs of the SSCAC. Hardship is never planned and can strike anyone, at any time. It is crucial that those of us who have excess and abilities to offer do so when and how we can. When the most vulnerable among us are supported and helped back on the path to self-sustainability we all benefit with a strengthened community. As long as people on the South Shore are willing to look beyond themselves and offer their time and money -to be “the helpers” in our community, the SSCAC will continue to positively impact thousands of lives of children, seniors, individuals, and families across the South Shore, Cape, and Islands. We may not be able to save the whole world, but we can save each other in little ways right here at home.

Two paragraphs on services -local town reports highlighted as well as overall impact: Food/heat/transportation/ head start/emergency funds (losing funding for this -mortgage, rents) 3. Volunteers and donations needed 4.WE are really only successful when the most vulnerable in our community are alleviated and thrive and when hardship strikes that community bands together for the collective good.
Visit: Welcome To SSCAC | Providing Access To Opportunity for more information on how you can apply for assistance or donate and volunteer.