SOUTH BEND -- Fiddler's Hearth, 127 N. Main St., will host its annual costume party 9 p.m. to midnight Saturday.

The event will feature Kennedy's Kitchen in concert at 9 p.m. The Celtic Fire Stepdancers will also take the stage. Fiddler's owner-manager Carol Meehan says Halloween takes its roots from Celtic traditions, when costumes were worn to scare away the dead, and is known as Samhain ("summer's end") in Irish.

"On this night, there's a thin veil between the living and dead," Meehan says. "The dead will walk the earth, so it's a custom to set an extra place setting in case you get a visit from an ancestor." With regard to costumes, Meehan says the Irish believe that only male spirits can inhabit a man and only female spirits can inhabit a woman. "So you should cross-dress in order to confuse the spirits so they can't get you," she says with a chuckle.

A second party at Fiddler's is scheduled to take place at 5 p.m. Monday and will include a buffet filled with foods typical of an Irish Halloween. The weekly Irish music session will begin at 8 p.m. Children of all ages are welcome to come in costumes, Meehan says.