By Sean Moriarty

A group of 50 Ukrainian children now living in the Eviston House Hotel on New St experienced the Irish traditions of Halloween for the first time last week.

Just like their counterparts at the Innisfallen Hotel (as featured in last week’s Killarney Advertiser), this was another new Irish experience for the children fleeing their war-torn country.

The event was organised by resident Natalia Eismont.

She explained: “There were three workshops on making Halloween decorations and a quest with an intriguing scenario at the Eviston Hotel.

“The children were divided into groups and had to boldly come together to pass the tests, after which they would open the rooms where the sweets were stored, each room had its own candy keeper, which scared them.
“Children ate witch’s eyes, rat brains, earthworms from sweets, drank witch’s blood (from grape juice) and took out sweets from flour.

“Having passed these and other tests, the children got access to all the rooms and rushed forward to have fun for their treasures, for their favourite treats!

“We, Ukrainians, have never celebrated Halloween like this before, we opened it from a new side, studied the history of this holiday and plan to make it just as fun and bright next year.”