Whilst interviewing the SDLP deputy leader Dolores Kelly for Q Radio, I asked if she had any family traditions at Halloween.
The bubbly MLA immediately recalled her grandmother steaming apple puddings made with suet, wrapped in muslin and boiled for hours. Dolores said she was even keener on finding the hidden thruppence than eating the pudding.
Later that day my aunt also recalled similar apple dumplings that her mother made as a Halloween treat.
Suet puddings are less popular these days and if they do make an appearance it's more likely on a savoury steak and kidney pie rather than a desert pudding.
Many of us remember Halloweens very much like that described by the SDLP deputy leader, though barmbrack and apple tarts were more common than suet.
Over the years Irish Halloweens have changed. Like most things it has been spoiled by American commercialisation.
The new fad of dress-up days at school practically requires full-blown costumes. Trick or treating is now a competition amongst parents to find the most expensive outfit for little Liam or Laura.
Even pets can’t escape the horror show as dogs and cats are festooned with light-up overcoats and devil horns.
Gruesome and grisly makeovers require the skill set of a theatrical make up artist.
Some parents really love all this nonsense, hanging witches' hats as lanterns and putting cobwebs over their windows. Even those without children are coerced into buying sweets to distribute to the legions of Pugsley and Wednesday Addams lookalikes who turn up uninvited at the front door.
Halloween, like many traditional festivals, has become one big commercial con job aimed at milking every last penny out of already well-stretched wallets.
Not so long ago if a child needed a fancy dress costume for Halloween an old sheet or more likely a bin liner was used. Perhaps the introduction of the plastic bag tax has put bin liner costumes out of fashion. False faces were cheap and disposable.
In my youth Halloween used to be more centred on one’s own family and not running around other people's homes.
Baking went on for days before Halloween as my aunts divided the jobs up, provided treats and devised party games for my siblings and cousins.
Numerous apple tarts were made and ten and twenty pence pieces were wrapped in greaseproof paper for us to find.
Often we would try to watch carefully and then try to put a mark closest to where we thought the money was placed.
Rows over who was next invariably followed when one caught a glimpse of the greaseproof paper as a slice was about to be cut.
Apples were covered in toffee and used to drip over the worktops, leaving a beautiful sickly sweet smell throughout the kitchen.
No Halloween was complete without monkey nuts, which we only seemed to hanker after for that one day. As we got more adventurous our array of nuts got more exotic too including Brazilian, walnuts and hazelnuts.
It was easier to break into the Northern Bank than break into a Brazilian nut but still, getting the old fella’s lump hammer out to have a smash was good fun.
At some time in the 1980s, quite inexplicably, coconuts made the list even though they were much too much work for such little return. We never saw a pumpkin and had to content ourselves with lanterns made from turnips.
Due to the Troubles games were always played in the house. Bobbing for apples in a basin was a firm favourite. We also ducked for the new shiny fifty pence pieces as they could be stood on their sides.
Inevitably you could feel the hand of a rival on the back on your neck forcing your face into the water lest you became too successful.
Snap apple was popular too, stringing a row of apples across the room and with hands ties behind our backs we had to snap a bite from an apple. The cheat way was to lodge one near your opponents back.
Fireworks were illegal but that didn’t mean we couldn't get our hands on some. Catherine wheels, jumping jacks and rockets were launched from the safety of our back yard with children kept well back. Even sparklers were closely monitored in our hands.
Halloween memories from the past are hard to rival today because whilst you can camcorder the mini Captain Hooks and Cruellas trick or treating, you can’t buy back time not spent with their families.
