Samhain

The story behind the day

Samhain, in Irish Samain, is the festival of the turn from summer to winter, kept on the night of 31 October into 1 November. Early Irish texts name it as one of four great festivals of the year, and Irish folk belief into modern times held that the souls of the dead and spirits were abroad on its eve. Modern Wiccans, Druids and other Pagans keep it as one of eight festivals, honouring ancestors and often treating it as a new year. Little is known directly of what ancient Irish people did on the day.^[1–7]

Origins

The name is Old Irish Samain, which the Irish dictionary of the Royal Irish Academy defines as 1 November and the festival kept on that day. A medieval Irish saga, the Wooing of Emer, glosses the word as the end of summer and explains that the year once had two divisions, summer from Beltaine and winter from Samain. The same text names it among four festivals, with Imbolc, Beltaine and Lughnasa, that mark the turning points of the farming year. Scholars stress how little is known of what people actually did. Almost all that is written about pre-Christian practice was set down by Christian clerics, centuries later.^{[1–2, 4, 9]}

What it marks

In Irish tradition Samhain marked the end of summer and the harvest season. The dictionary also records it as a legal reference date for assessing the age and value of livestock. Folk tradition made the night a doorway as well: the veil between this world and the supernatural was said to thin, souls of the dead were thought to return for a short time, and offerings of food and drink were left out for the wandering spirits.^{[3, 10]}

How it came to be

The Church placed the feast of All Saints on 1 November, and the night before became All Hallows' Eve, so that the dates of old festivals became occasions for church feasts. Historians note that the one thing modern Halloween clearly shares with Samhain is the date. The modern Pagan festival is a separate development. The eight-festival wheel of the year in use among Pagans dates from the mid twentieth century, when Gerald Gardner adapted older festivals into the sabbats of his new witchcraft religion.^[11–13]

How it is kept

Tlachtga hill fireIllustration · AI-generated

Halloween in Ireland has been called Nut Crack Night, and the customs of the night grew from older beliefs about the returning dead, including offerings left for the wandering spirits. For Wiccans, Samhain is the holiest of the sabbats, a time to honour the dead, when the veil between the worlds is held to be thinnest. Druids speak of the same thinning veil and of honouring ancestors as living guides.^[5–7]

Across traditions

The Irish festival and the modern Pagan sabbat are related but not the same. Wicca emerged in mid-twentieth-century England, and its founder's claim that it was an ancient survival has been rejected by scholars. Many Pagans treat Samhain as the start of their year, and Druids describe it as the point where the Celtic year closes and opens again. Dates differ: Wiccans keep 31 October, while the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids extends the festival from 31 October to 2 November.^{[8, 14–15]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.