When Hallowe'en rolls around, lots of Irish people will be eating this very traditional Irish dish over the October / Halloween three-day "bank holiday" weekend that coincides with the ancient Celtic harvest festival of Samhain (pronounced "sowan", to rhyme with "cow in").

Colcannon (sometimes also spelled "colchannon") is probably the single traditional Irish dish that is eaten by the largest number of modern Irish people. It's the food that's also a game... or an oracle for the year ahead... and there are even songs about it.

Know the dish already? You can click here for three recipes. Or read on for some colcannon lore.

(from IRISH TRADITIONAL FOOD, Theodora Fitzgibbon:)

"This is traditionally eaten in Ireland at Hallowe'en. Until quite recently this was a fast day, when no meat was eaten. The name is from cal ceann fhionn -- white-headed cabbage. Colcannon should correctly be made with chopped kale (a member of the cabbage family) but it is also made with white cabbage; an interesting version is the Irish Folklore Commission's, which gives it as mashed potatoes mixed with onions, butter, and a boiled white cabbage in the center.

Colcannon at Hallowe'en used to contain a plain gold ring, a sixpence, a thimble or button: finding the ring meant marriage within the year for the person who found it, the sixpence meant wealth, the thimble spinsterhood and the button bachelorhood."

(from THE POOLBEG BOOK OF IRISH TRADITIONAL FOOD:)

"For a dish that is not widely eaten or served today, colcannon remains remarkably widely known. Maybe the song about colcannon is better known than the dish. If you say "colcannon" in a crowded room, the chances are that half the room will break into one version of the song and the other into a completely different version. Like the recipe itself, there are two versions commonly known.

Did you ever eat colcannon when 'twas made with yellow cream And the kale and praties blended Like the picture in a dream? Did you ever take a forkful And dip it in the lake Of heather-flavored butter That your mother used to make? Oh, you did, yes you did! So did he and so did I, And the more I think about it, Sure, the more I want to cry.

Did you ever eat colcannon when 'twas made with thickened cream And the greens and scallions blended Like the picture in a dream? Did you ever scoop a hole on top To hold the melting cake Of clover-flavored butter Which your mother used to make? Did you ever eat and eat, afraid You'd let the ring go past, And some old married sprissman* Would get it at the last?

God be with the happy times When trouble we had not, And our mothers made colcannon In the little three-legged pot.

*The word "sprissman" is a slightly corrupted version of the 19th-century Irish slang word "sprissaun". It comes from the Gaeilge word spreasán, which means someone or something worthless. The idea here is that it would be a waste of time if a married person got the ring buried in the colcannon, as the ring was supposed to foretell its finder's marriage prospects.

" -- Colcannon is so like champ, cally, and poundies that it's difficult to understand how it ever came to have a different name. Yet, all over the country, colcannon is colcannon and known as nothing else. As in the two versions of the song, it can be made with kale or with greens, meaning cabbage. Those reared on the version made with kale can never understand how the cabbage version can be considered colcannon, and vice versa...."

Also see:

• this discussion of Colcannon the dish from a member of Colcannon the musical group
• And there's even sheet music for the song (one version of it, anyway)