Samhain, Halloween & the Dead: Food, Folklore & Tradition
If you only do one thing for Samhain, cook. Of all the ways people have marked this time of year, feeding people — the living and, in a sense, the dead — is one of the most consistent. Soul cakes in England, barmbrack and colcannon in Ireland, a plate set aside on the table for someone who isn't there. You don't need an altar or a ritual script to take part in that. You need a kitchen.
This guide covers the traditional foods tied to Samhain and Halloween in Ireland and Britain, a full soul cake recipe, how to cook a Samhain meal with some intention behind it, and what to do with the food afterward.
Why Food Belongs to This Night
In Ireland, Samhain marked the beginning of winter and came at the end of the harvest season. Food gathered in autumn helped supply the feasting associated with the festival and the winter ahead. Feasting was part of the celebration, while preserving and storing food was necessary for the colder months to come.
Food and hospitality were also connected with the dead. In Irish Halloween tradition, the souls of the dead were believed to return to the family home. Folklore accounts describe households leaving the door unbolted, the hearth swept, the fire burning, and a supper ready for the returning dead. The dead were treated as guests, and guests get fed.
So Samhain cooking tends to do two things at once: it celebrates the abundance of the harvest, and it remembers people who aren't at the table anymore.
Soul Cakes
Soul cakes weren't originally a Pagan Samhain food. The tradition we can actually document comes from medieval Christian observances around All Hallows' and All Souls' Day in England and elsewhere in Britain.
They still belong in a discussion of food at this time of year, though. All Souls' Day falls immediately after Halloween, and the custom of souling centered on remembering the dead — something that overlaps naturally with the way many modern Pagans observe Samhain.
Soul cakes were small breads or cakes given to "soulers," often poor people and later children, who went from house to house and offered prayers for the household's dead in exchange. One cake, one prayer.
Traditionally, the cakes were marked with a cross before baking. That marking came from their Christian context; there isn't good historical evidence that soul cakes were carved with pentacles, spirals, runes, Ogham, or other Pagan symbols.
For a modern Samhain practice, though, there's no reason you can't adapt the custom deliberately. You might mark your cakes with a spiral for the turning cycle, a symbol connected with an ancestor, or another mark that represents remembrance or the dead to you. The important distinction is simply knowing which part is historical tradition and which part is your own practice.
Bake a batch for Samhain night, set one aside as an offering if that's part of your practice, and share the rest.
Soul Cake Recipe
Makes about 16 cakes
Ingredients:
½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (100 g) superfine or granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
Pinch of salt
⅓ cup (50 g) chopped raisins
3 to 4 tablespoons milk, plus a little extra for brushing
Optional: a small pinch of saffron steeped in the warm milk for 10 minutes, as some older recipes call for
Method:
Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment.
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and soft.
Beat in the egg yolks one at a time.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, spice, and salt. Stir the dry mixture into the butter mixture.
Add the raisins, then add the milk a tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together. It should be soft but not sticky.
On a floured surface, roll the dough to about ¼ inch (6 mm) thick. Cut into rounds about 2½ to 3 inches across.
Place on the baking sheet. With the back of a knife, mark a cross on the top of each one, as was traditional for soul cakes. If you're adapting them for a modern Pagan Samhain practice, you can use another symbol instead — just know that this is a modern adaptation rather than a historical soul-cake tradition.
Brush the tops lightly with milk.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden at the edges.
Cool on a rack.
They keep for several days in an airtight tin and taste better on day two.
Variations: Swap the raisins for chopped dried cranberries, currants or candied ginger. Use brown sugar for a deeper, more molasses-like flavor. For a dairy-free version, use a plant-based butter and oat milk; the texture is a little more crumbly but they hold together fine. If you want them less sweet and more like a scone, cut the sugar to ⅓ cup and serve them warm with butter. Kids are usually happy to do the cutting and the cross-marking.
While they bake, you can bring the same intention into the process. Think about whom you're making the cakes for, or say the name of someone you're remembering as you cut each one out. You can also just let the smell fill the house.
Other Traditional Samhain and Halloween Foods
Barmbrack
Barmbrack, or báirín breac, is an Irish fruit bread traditionally eaten at Halloween. Small objects were sometimes baked inside to tell the fortune of whoever found them: a ring for marriage, a coin for wealth, a rag for poverty, a thimble for spinsterhood, and a button for bachelorhood. Other objects varied by place and household. Whoever got the ring in their slice was said to be the next to marry. Shop-bought barmbracks in Ireland still often include a ring.
If you bake a brack and hide anything in it, tell everyone before they bite.
Colcannon
Colcannon is mashed potatoes mixed with cabbage or kale, often with butter and onions or scallions. It's a traditional Irish Halloween food. Like barmbrack, it was sometimes used for fortune-telling, with small objects hidden in the dish for people to find. It's simple, filling, and an easy traditional dish to build a Samhain meal around.
Turnips/Pumpkins
Turnips have a particularly strong connection to Irish Halloween tradition. Before pumpkins became the familiar Halloween lantern in North America, hollowed turnips were carved with frightening faces and lit with candles in Ireland.
Bread
Bread was everyday food rather than something reserved for Samhain, but certain breads do appear in Irish Halloween traditions. Folklore accounts record potato bread, boxty bread, and boxty dumplings being made for Halloween. If you want bread on your Samhain table, a traditional Irish potato bread or boxty has a stronger historical connection to the holiday than a generic loaf.
Pomegranates
Pomegranates aren't traditional in Irish or British folk practice, but they've become a common Samhain food among modern Pagans because of the Greek story of Persephone, who ate pomegranate seeds in the underworld and was bound to return there each year. They're in season in autumn and they look extraordinary on a dark table.
Warm drinks
Mulled cider or wine, spiced tea, or hot milk with honey and nutmeg.
Herbs for a Modern Samhain Kitchen
If kitchen witchery is part of your practice, herbs can add another layer of intention to what you're already cooking. The correspondences below aren't a definitive list of historically traditional Samhain herbs. They're modern magical associations that work well with themes of remembrance, protection, release, and the darker half of the year.
Rosemary for remembrance. Use it in roasted vegetables, bread, or a simple pot of beans.
Sage for wisdom. Brown it in butter and pour it over squash or pasta.
Thyme for courage. Add it to roasted vegetables, soups, or stews.
Bay for protection. Add a leaf to soups and stews, and remove it before serving.
Nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove for warmth and seasonal spice. Use them in baked goods, mulled drinks, or desserts.
If you want to go further with herbs, Build an Autumn Kitchen Apothecary covers putting together a seasonal herb shelf, and What Herb Correspondence Lists Don't Tell You gets into why the lists online disagree so much. As always, use your own discernment and consult a qualified practitioner for anything related to your physical health.
Cooking a Samhain Meal With Intention
Kitchen witchery, as most people practice it, comes down to paying attention while you cook. The overview of green, hedge, and kitchen witches goes into that approach if it's new to you. For Samhain, a few specific things are worth doing.
Cook something from someone who died. A grandmother's stew, a friend's go-to dessert, the dish a parent always made on cold nights. If you don't have the recipe, approximate it. The attempt is part of the remembering.
Use what's in season. Shop for what's actually being harvested where you live. It keeps the meal connected to the season you're actually experiencing.
Stir with attention. In modern kitchen witchcraft, some practitioners stir clockwise to bring things in and counterclockwise to send things out. At Samhain, counterclockwise suits a dish meant for letting go. You can also just stir and think about the people you're cooking for.
Set food aside for the dead. Irish folklore records households leaving supper ready for returning souls on Halloween. You can adapt that idea by setting an extra place at your table and putting a small portion of the meal on it, or simply setting some food aside as an offering. If you want to go further, the dumb supper — a meal eaten in silence with a place set for the dead — is described in the Samhain overview.
Talk about them. If you're eating with others, tell stories about the people you're remembering. What they liked to eat. What they said at the table. Most families already do this at holidays without calling it anything.
A Simple Modern Samhain Menu
If you want a starting point:
Soup: roasted squash or pumpkin with sage
Main: colcannon with sausages, or a root vegetable and bean stew with bay and thyme for a vegetarian table
Bread: soda bread or a bought loaf, torn by hand
Something sweet: soul cakes or barmbrack
Fruit: pomegranate and pears
Drink: mulled cider
Everything here can be made ahead or in under two hours.
What to Do With the Offerings Afterward
Food left out for the dead raises a practical question the next morning. If you've set aside food as part of a modern Samhain offering, you'll need to decide what to do with it afterward. Modern Pagan practices vary, and there's no single rule. Some common approaches:
Return it to the earth. Bury it, compost it, or leave it outside for birds and animals — as long as it's safe for wildlife. Skip anything heavily salted, spiced, or containing chocolate, onion, or raisins, which can be harmful to animals.
Dispose of it respectfully. Some people simply put the plate's contents in the trash with a word of thanks.
Eat it. In some traditions, the essence of the food is understood to have been taken by the dead, and the rest is shared among the living. Others never eat offerings. Go with what feels right to you and fits your household.
Wash the plate and glass separately from the other dishes if you like, and put them away until next year.
If You Don't Cook
If cooking isn't your thing or you don't have the time, buy the food. Pick up a loaf of good bread, a pomegranate, a bag of spiced cookies, and something warm to drink. Set them on the table with a candle and an extra plate.