colcannon n also caulcannon [phonetics unavailable]. Cp OED ~ 'an Irish dish' (1774-); DINNEEN cál ceannfhionn 'cabbage, etc, dressed up with butter, etc.' A mixture or hash of various vegetables, and sometimes meat, eaten on Hallowe'en; hence attrib colcannon night; SNAP-APPLE NIGHT.
   1896 Dial Notes i, 378 Colcannon night: almost universal in St John's, Nfld, for Hallowe'en. The name is used by those who eat colcannon on that night. Others speak of it as 'snap-apple night.' The term Hallowe'en is not generally used. 1931 BYRNES 120 Remember how on Hallowe'en you ate 'caulcannon' till you nearly burst, in the fond hope, if you were a maid, of finding the button, or if you were a youth, in constant fear of finding the button, which doomed you to irrevocable bachelorhood? 1937 DEVINE 14 ~ The seven kinds of vegetables boiled in one pot and served on Hallowe'en. T 34-64 We had colcannon. We used to have our bit of cabbage, have our big feed of pork and cabbage, you know, and rabbit and perhaps a piece of fresh pork. T 347/50-67 Hallowe'en. or snap-apple night, or colcannon night.

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