The eerie roots of Spanish Halloween can be traced back to Galicia, a region famous for its rich local folklore and ghost legends, where ancient Celtic rituals still echo through the mists to this day. Samhain, an ancient Irish festival, was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Celts thousands of years ago.
Samhain is a Gaelic festival on 1 November marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or "darker half" of the year. It is also the Irish language name for November. Celebrations begin on the evening of 31 October, since the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. Samhain is believed to have Celtic pagan origins, and some Neolithic passage tombs in Great Britain and Ireland are aligned with the sunrise at the time of Samhain. It is mentioned in the earliest Irish literature, from the 9th century, and is associated with many important events in Irish mythology. The early literature says Samhain was marked by great gatherings and feasts and was when the ancient burial mounds were open, which were seen as portals to the Otherworld. Some of the literature also associates Samhain with bonfires and sacrifices.
In Galicia, the night of October 31st is known as Noite dos Calacús (Night of the Pumpkins) and is celebrated with related activities like pumpkin carving, costume parties, bonfires, rituals, and sometimes even trick-or-treating. A special Halloween tradition in Galicia is drinking queimada – a strong alcoholic drink, usually made from aguardiente, unground coffee beans, sugar, and lemon rind or orange peels. Traditionally, the queimada is prepared within a pumpkin and consumed after reciting a spell (esconxuro). The Night Tour Land of Legends and Meigas in Santiago de Compostella combines myth and history into a captivating 2-hour experience filled with legends, secrets, and, if you’re lucky, a mysterious ghost encounter.