Trick or treaters are returning to streets across the country next week, but do we give Halloween's Irish roots enough recognition?
In Ireland about 2,000 years ago, the Celtic festival of Samhain marked the division of the year between summer and winter.
Traditionally at this point of the year the division between this world and the 'otherworld' was said to be at its thinnest, allowing spirits to pass through.
The word was famously mispronounced in the 1981 film sequel Halloween II by Donald Pleasence's character Dr Sam Loomis.
Barbara, who classes herself as a witch, told Lunchtime Live she still celebrates the traditional Samhain.
"Halloween I would consider the commercial aspect of Samhain," she said.
"It's the commercialisation and that's not a bad thing, don't get me wrong – I decorate my house, I put up my pumpkin lights, and I have scary witches and cauldrons.
"I'm all on for that."
Barbara said she celebrates all the major festivals in Ireland.
"I celebrate Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasadh, the equinoxes and the solstices," she said.
"I consider all of these as part of the great cycle of life, and Samhain is part of the great cycle of life.
"Samhain is about death and rebirth, so Samhain - for me in my personal practice - is about honouring the dead and honouring my ancestors.
"Laying out the dumb supper and making offerings to the land; everything that made us who we are.
"They're two completely different things, and they both have an equal validity."
Witchcraft
Barbara said witches are not something other people should fear.
"I know plenty of witches and I'm not afraid of any of them," she said.
I mightn't like them all but I'm not afraid of them.
"I just happened in my youth to meet witches and started to read up on the practice.
"It's not like you can just wake up one morning and go, 'Here's my magic wand, I'm a witch.'
"It requires a lot of study, a lot of dedication, a lot of inner knowledge of self and growth of self.
"The major part of witchcraft is understanding how your psyche works with the rest of the world, if you like, and how the rest of the world works with it."
'Shamed into it'
Another caller, Eimear in Louth, said she believes Ireland is coming around to bigger Halloween celebrations.
"I think we're slowly on the rise to it," she said.
"I wonder if we've maybe been shamed into it, after people look across the pond and see how it's being done in the US.
"I think you might be stuck to find a 12-foot skeleton in someone's front garden here like you would over in America.
"But I think it's slowly coming on the rise; even now when I'd be walking to work, I'd see a few houses more so as the years go on getting decorated and getting in the spirit for Halloween.
"There's more parties for kids, less bonfires - which isn't necessarily a bad thing - adults are getting more involved with it with dress up.
"It is becoming more of a festival as well, there's a lot more going on in Ireland."
'Cultural roots'
Eimear said the US wouldn't have the holiday if Irish immigrants hadn't brought it with them.
"They kept their heritage, they celebrate - the same with St Patrick's Day," she said.
"I think the Americans grasp on to it because in all honesty they're a new country, they don't have too much of their own cultural roots.
"So, I think anything that they can expand on they'll go full into it.
"I think with Ireland we'd be best off keeping to the cultural roots, to our mythical and cultural background with the Púca Festival and our Barmbrack and all that.
"I think we'd be best off sticking to our own ways," she added.
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