From My Favorite Source (the Bannatyne book):
"Famine in Ireland in 1820, and another more devastating famine in 1846, sent thousands of Irish Catholics looking for new homes in America. It was a vast immigration: between 1825 and 1845, 700,000 Irish Catholics emigrated to North America; in just the seven famine years between 1847 and 1954, 300,000 entered the United States
Like the Catholics who settled here in colonial times, the Irish celebrated All Saints' and All Souls' Days. But as direct descendents of the Celtic culture, the also preserved elements of their pagan Samhain rituals. The Irish customs reinforced the embryonic American Halloween tradition and added lush details to its symbols."
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