Samhain ( , ; ; ) or () is a Gaelic festival on 1 November marking the end of the harvest season in autumn and beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year.Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Myth Legend and Romance: An Encyclopaedia of the Irish Folk Tradition. Prentice Hall Press, 1991. p. 402. Quote: "The basic Irish division of the year was into two parts, the summer half beginning at Bealtaine (May 1st) and the winter half at Samhain (November 1st) ... The festivals properly began at sunset on the day before the actual date, evincing the Celtic tendency to regard the night as preceding the day". It is also the Irish and Scottish Gaelic name for November. Celebrations began on the evening of 31 October, since the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. The festival originated in Ireland and it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. Its Brittonic Celtic equivalent is called Calan Gaeaf in Wales.
Samhain is believed to have Celtic pagan origins, and some Neolithic passage tombs in Great Britain and Ireland are aligned with the sunrise at the time of Samhain. Samhain is mentioned in the earliest Irish literature, from the 9th century, and is associated with many important events in Irish mythology. The early literature says Samhain was marked by great gatherings and feasts and was when the ancient burial mounds were open, which were seen as portals to the Otherworld. Some of the medieval tales also associate Samhain with bonfires and sacrifice.
The festival was not recorded in detail until the early modern era. It was when cattle were brought down from the summer pastures and livestock were slaughtered. Special bonfires were lit, which were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers.O'Driscoll, Robert (ed.) (1981) The Celtic Consciousness New York: Braziller pp. 197–216: Ross, Anne "Material Culture, Myth and Folk Memory" (on modern survivals); pp. 217–42: Danaher, Kevin "Irish Folk Tradition and the Celtic Calendar" (on specific customs and rituals) Like Bealtaine, Samhain was a liminal or threshold festival, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld blurred, making contact with the aos sí (the 'spirits' or 'fairies') more likely. Most scholars see them as remnants of pagan deities. At Samhain, they were appeased with offerings of food and drink to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. The souls of dead kin were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality, and a place was set at the table for them during a meal. Mumming and guising were part of the festival from at least the early modern era, whereby people went door-to-door in costume, reciting verses in exchange for food. The costumes may have been a way of imitating and disguising oneself from the aos sí. Divination was also a big part of the festival and often involved nuts and apples. In the late 19th century, John Rhys and James Frazer suggested it had been the "Celtic New Year", but that is disputed.
In the 9th century, the Western Church endorsed 1 November as the date of All Saints' Day, possibly due to the influence of Alcuin or Irish missionaries, and 2 November later became All Souls' Day. It is believed that Samhain and All Saints'/All Souls' influenced each other and the modern Halloween. Most American Halloween traditions were inherited from Irish and Scottish immigrants.Brunvand, Jan (ed.). American Folklore: An Encyclopedia. Routledge, 2006. p.749 Folklorists have used the name 'Samhain' to refer to Gaelic 'Halloween' customs until the 19th century.Hutton, Ronald. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press, 1996. pp. 365–69
Since the later 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Samhain, or something based on it, as a religious holiday.
Name In Modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic the name is , while the traditional Manx Gaelic name is .Rhys, John (1901). Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx. Cambridge University Press, 2016. pp. 315–16 It is usually written with the definite article (Irish), (Scottish Gaelic), and (Manx). Older forms of the word include the Scottish Gaelic spellings and .Macbain, Alexander (1911). An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language."Samhainn". Am Faclair Beag. The Gaelic names for the month of November are derived from Samhain.Koch, Celtic Culture, p. 331 The Irish name for Samhain night is ( ).
The name of the superficially similar Galician festival of Samaín from the Cedeira comarca is etymologically unrelated, being derived from Latin 'elderberry'. "SAMAÍN [sama'iŋ] s.m. Festa orixinaria da comarca cedeiresa que se celebra pola época de defuntos. ETIM. lat. sambucu(m) 'salguerio'" [Translation: A festival from the Cedeira region celebrated around All Souls' Day. Etym. lat. sambucu(m) 'elderberry'].
Etymology These names all come from the Old and Middle Irish Samain or Samuin , the name for the festival held on 1 November in medieval Ireland. Traditionally, it is derived from proto-Indo-European ('summer').Pokorny, Julius. IEW (1959), s.v. "sem-3", p. 905.Rogers, Nicholas (2002). "Samhain and the Celtic Origins of Halloween". Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, pp. 11–21. New York: Oxford University Press. . But as John T. Koch points out, it is unclear why a festival marking the beginning of winter would include the word for 'summer'.Koch, Celtic Culture, p. 1558 Linguist Joseph Vendryes contends that it is unrelated, saying that the Celtic summer ended in August. More recently, linguists Xavier Delamarre and Ranko Matasović have proposed that it derives from proto-Celtic *samoni ('reunion, assembly'), cognate with Old Norse saman, Gothic samana and Sanskrit samāna (all meaning 'together'), as well as the Old Irish term bech-samain ('bee swarm'). Delamarre further suggests it could refer to an "assembly of the living and the dead".
The word Samain is believed to be related to the month name SAMON on the Gaulish Coligny calendar from the 2nd century CE.Stüber, Karin. The Historical Morphology of N-Stems in Celtic. National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 1998, p. 111. The 17th day of SAMON is marked as TRINOX SAMONI ("the three nights of Samon"), indicating a possible festival. This festival could represent the early November festival of Samain, or possibly the summer solstice. Six months later is the month GIAMON, which appears to contain the word for "winter".Koch, Celtic Culture, p. 464 An early Irish glossary, Sanas Cormaic, gives Gamain as "November, the winter month after the festival of Samain".
Origins Samhain was one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc (~1 February), Bealtaine (~1 May), and Lughnasa (~1 August). Evidence suggests that Samhain and Bealtaine, marking the transitions into winter and summer respectively, were the most significant. It is theorised that these two festivals had pastoral origins and were important to herding communities practising seasonal transhumance,Hutton, Ronald. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press, 1996. pp. 225, 369Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Forgotten Books, 2008. p. 644Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Forgotten Books, 2008. p. 644 which was once widespread in Ireland (where it was called "booleying"), Britain, and other parts of Europe. Glosses in the Senchas Már, a 7th–8th century Irish collection of laws, say that it is customary to drive cattle out to the summer pasture around May Day () and to drive them back around November Day ().Costello, Transhumance and the Making of Ireland's Uplands, p.30
Some Neolithic passage tombs in Ireland are aligned with the sunrise around the times of Samhain and Imbolc. These include the Mound of the Hostages (Dumha na nGiall) at the Hill of Tara, and Cairn L at Slieve na Calliagh.Brennan, Martin. The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland. Inner Traditions, 1994. pp. 110–11
In Irish mythology
While Irish mythology was originally a spoken tradition, much of it was eventually written down in the Middle Ages by Christian monks. The tenth-century tale Tochmarc Emire ('The Wooing of Emer') lists Samhain as the first of the four seasonal festivals of the year.Hutton, Ronald (1996) Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press , p. 361. The literature says a peace would be declared, and there were great gatherings where they held meetings, feasted, drank alcohol,Monaghan, p. 407 and held contests. These gatherings are a popular setting for early Irish tales. The tale Echtra Cormaic ('Cormac's Adventure') says that the Feast of Tara was held every seventh Samhain, hosted by the High King of Ireland, during which new laws and duties were ordained; anyone who broke the laws established during this time would be banished.
According to Irish mythology, Samhain (like Bealtaine) was a time when the 'doorways' to the Otherworld opened, allowing supernatural beings and the souls of the dead to come into our world; while Bealtaine was a summer festival for the living, Samhain "was essentially a festival for the dead". The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn says that the sídhe (fairy mounds or portals to the Otherworld) "were always open at Samhain". Each year the fire-breather Aillen emerges from the Otherworld and burns down the palace of Tara during the Samhain festival after lulling everyone to sleep with his music. One Samhain, the young Fionn mac Cumhaill, stays awake and slays Aillen with a magical spear, for which he is made leader of the fianna. In a similar tale, one Samhain, the Otherworld being Cúldubh emerges from the burial mound on Slievenamon and snatches a roast pig. Fionn kills Cúldubh with a spear throw as he re-enters the mound. Fionn's thumb is caught between the door and the post as it shuts, and he puts it in his mouth to ease the pain. As his thumb had been inside the Otherworld, Fionn is bestowed with great wisdom. This may refer to gaining knowledge from the ancestors. Acallam na Senórach ('Colloquy of the Elders') tells how three female werewolves emerge from the cave of Cruachan (an Otherworld portal) each Samhain and kill livestock. When Cas Corach plays his harp, they take on human form, and the fianna warrior Caílte then slays them with a spear.
Some tales suggest that offerings or sacrifices were made at Samhain. In the Lebor Gabála Érenn (or 'Book of Invasions'), each Samhain the people of Nemed had to give two-thirds of their children, their corn, and their milk to the monstrous Fomorians. The Fomorians seem to represent the harmful or destructive powers of nature; personifications of chaos, darkness, death, blight, and drought.Smyth, Daragh. A Guide to Irish Mythology. Irish Academic Press, 1996. p. 74 This tribute paid by Nemed's people may represent a "sacrifice offered at the beginning of winter, when the powers of darkness and blight are in the ascendant".MacCulloch (2009), p. 80 According to the later Dindsenchas and the Annals of the Four Masters—which were written by Christian monks—Samhain in ancient Ireland was associated with a god or idol called Crom Cruach. The texts claim that a firstborn child would be sacrificed at the stone idol of Crom Cruach in Magh Slécht. They say that King Tigernmas, and three-fourths of his people, died while worshiping Crom Cruach there one Samhain.Annals of the Four Masters: Part 6 at Corpus of Electronic Texts.