Halloween in Edinburgh - Samhuinn Fire Festival

Apparently, Halloween is an American invention, but is starting to make inroads in Scotland and England. So while the stores had some costumes and decorations out, it was no where near the celebration we see in the states.

Adam insisted that we purchase a pumpkin on one of our trips to the large supermarket. Then the Edinburgh WeWork space that I frequent advertised that they would be providing free pumpkins for a lunchtime pumpkin carving. They were enthusiastic when I mentioned that I wanted to bring my kids. Good thing I did, because we were the only ones who carved pumpkins at the event - everyone else at WeWork wanted to work....at least they got some free marketing out of it, thanks to Sam carving the middle pumpkin.

The rest of the day was back to work for everyone, but that evening we had tickets to the Samhuinn festival on Calton hill. The festival loosely tells the story of Winter King defeating Summer King, but is experienced by watching multiple groups of street performers acting all over the hill.

With lots of fire, drumming, and performers painted solid red, green, blue, white, and black, it was certainly a spectacle. But with 10,000+ people and the performances moving continuously, it was a bit difficult to make sure the kids were able to get a good view most of the time.

A small portion of the audience members were decorated in face paint or wore horns and cloaks, it being Halloween and all. Adam unfortunately got a scare from a witch that was going around trying to scare people.

All in all, it was a little hard to track the story and would have been impossible has we not read about it beforehand. 

The festival seemed like an old time Pagan celebration.
Wait - that actually is what it is!

After 2 hours, the younger kids were cold, tired and ready to go home. Sam and Dad decided to stay to brave the rain and see the end. We got a tip from a guard to go to a lightly occupied area for the finale and final bonfire. 

We were fortunate to get front row seats, even though we had to wait for 30 minutes in the rain with nothing else going on near us. The final bonfire was interesting and we were both pleased that we decided to stay.

The Samhuinn Fire Festival is certainly something worthwhile to do once, but I would recommend that if you have kids, go when they are at least 13 or at least 5 feet tall so they can see.

We got home to our neighbors having a thumping adult Halloween costume party that looked like any you might see in the States. Any excuse for a party!