Edwina Guckian grew up surrounded by the rituals and games of Ireland’s seasonal calendar — practices that shaped family life and marked time long before commercial Halloween arrived. Now a dancer, artist, farmer and folklorist featured in the four-part series Na Féilte Tine, she is working to keep those traditions visible and relevant.
Playing with purpose: games that held meaning
Guckian remembers childhood customs that combined play with folklore and a sense of the future. Activities such as ducking for coins and apples, Blind Man’s Bluff, and using mirrors or containers of soil and water to divine future partners or travel plans were all part of Samhain rituals in her family.
"It's actually how I lost my first tooth," she said, recalling an apple-biting game tied to Halloween celebrations.
Those games were not simply entertainment, she explains; they were embedded ways of understanding the year and one’s place in it — lessons handed down by older generations.
From family habit to cultural practice
Guckian says she only later realised that what she lived through as a child had a name: folklore. For older family members, these were ordinary ways of living. As she matured, she noticed that many of her contemporaries had not inherited the same knowledge. That observation helped shape her decision to bring traditional teachings into her creative work so they might continue to have a role in modern life.
Keeping the festivals alive
The four indigenous Irish festivals explored in the series — Samhain, Imbolg, Bealtaine and Lúnasa — measured the year for generations and are rich with symbolism and mythology. Guckian argues that survivability of these practices depends on giving them a contemporary purpose rather than letting them fade as mere curiosities.
| Festival | Traditional focus |
|---|---|
| Samhain | Transition of the year, associated games and divination around Halloween |
| Imbolg | — |
| Bealtaine | — |
| Lúnasa | — |
Note: The series presents all four festivals as central to traditional Irish seasonal life; specific practices for each are explored in the programme.
Practical ways to bring tradition into modern celebrations
Guckian points to small, tangible customs that people already adapt. For example, the older practice in parts of Ireland was to carve turnips as lanterns, though pumpkins have become common because they are easier to carve.
Her approach is not about resisting change but about letting historic rituals have present-day meaning. That may mean reviving a single household tradition or reinterpreting symbolism in a way that speaks to contemporary life.
- Reintroduce simple rituals — such as turnip lanterns — as a way of connecting with ancestry.
- Use traditional games and divination customs as family activities that encourage storytelling and intergenerational exchange.
- Adapt symbolic practices to fit modern safety and lifestyle needs so they stay relevant.
As commercialised Halloween practices continue to dominate, Guckian’s work — through art, farming and storytelling — offers a reminder that many of these festivities began as ways to measure the year, bind communities and pass knowledge forward. By giving old customs a role in today’s world, she suggests, they can survive and enrich modern seasonal life rather than be eclipsed entirely.
