Samhain - Wikipedia. Samhain. Also called. Samhuinn/Samhainn (Scottish Gaelic)Sauin (Manx Gaelic)Observed by. Historically: Gaels. Today: Irish people, Scottish people, Manx people, Celtic neopagans, Wiccans, Unitarian Universalists. Type. Cultural,Pagan (Celtic polytheism, Celtic neopaganism, Wicca)Significance. End of the harvest season, beginning of winter.

Celebrations. Bonfires, guising/mumming, divination, feasting. Date. Sunset 3. 1 October – sunset 1 November(or ~1 May for Neopagans in the S. Hemisphere)Frequency. Annual. Related to. Halloween, Hop- tu- Naa, Calan Gaeaf, Kalan Gwav, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Dziady. Samhain (pronounced SAH- win or SOW- in, Irish pronunciation: . Traditionally, it is celebrated from 3.

October to 1 November, as the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasadh. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Similar festivals are held at the same time of year in other Celtic lands; for example the Brythonic. Calan Gaeaf (in Wales), Kalan Gwav (in Cornwall), and Kalan Goa.

The Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithicpassage tomb at the Hill of Tara, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise. It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures and when livestock were slaughtered for the winter.

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As at Bealtaine, special bonfires were lit. These were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers and there were rituals involving them. This meant the Aos S. Most scholars see the Aos S. At Samhain, it was believed that the Aos S. Offerings of food and drink were left outside for them.

The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place set at the table for them. Mumming and guising were part of the festival, and involved people going door- to- door in costume (or in disguise), often reciting verses in exchange for food.

The costumes may have been a way of imitating, and disguising oneself from, the Aos S. Divination rituals and games were also a big part of the festival and often involved nuts and apples. In the late 1. 9th century, Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer suggested that it was the . Over time, Samhain and All Saints'/All Souls' merged to create the modern Halloween.

These are also the names of November in each language, shortened from M. The night of 3. 1 October (Halloween) is O. November, or the whole festival, may be called L.

Its meaning is glossed as 'summer's end', and the frequent spelling with f suggests analysis by popular etymology as sam ('summer') and fuin ('end'). The Old Irish sam is from Proto- Indo- European (PIE) *semo- ; cognates include Welshhaf, Bretonha.

Vendryes concludes that samain is unrelated to *semo- ('summer'), remarking that the Celtic 'end of summer' was in July, not November, as evidenced by Welsh gorffennaf ('July'). The Gaulish calendar seems to have split the year into two- halves: the first beginning with the month SAMON. Old Irish gem- adaig ('winter's night'). Samonios may represent the beginning of the summer season and Giamonios (the seventh month) the beginning of the winter season. The lunations marking the middle of each half- year may also have been marked by festivals. History. It is attested in some of the earliest Old Irish literature, from the 1.

It was one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals: Samhain (~1 November), Imbolc (~1 February), Bealtaine (~1 May) and Lughnasadh (~1 August). Samhain and Bealtaine, at the witherward side of the year from each other, are thought to have been the most important. Sir James George Frazer wrote in The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion that 1 May and 1 November are of little importance to European crop- growers, but of great importance to herdsmen. It is at the beginning of summer that cattle are driven to the upland summer pastures and the beginning of winter that they are led back.

Samhain (pronounced / . Kael'thas Sunstrider is the final boss within Magisters' Terrace. Although believed to have been defeated in The Eye, Kael'thas has been kept alive by a green crystal.

Thus, Frazer suggests that halving the year at 1 May and 1 November dates from a time when the Celts were mainly a pastoral people, dependent on their herds. These gatherings are a popular setting for early Irish tales. Nevertheless, these tales may shed some light on what Samhain meant and how it was marked in ancient Ireland. Irish mythology tells us that Samhain was one of the four seasonal festivals of the year.

The 1. 0th- century tale Tochmarc Emire ('The Wooing of Emer') lists Samhain as the first of these four . They would gather on the Plain of Muirthemni where there would be meetings, games, and feasting. One Samhain, the young Fionn Mac Cumhaill is able to stay awake and slays Aillen, and is made leader of the fianna.

Some tales may suggest that offerings or sacrifices were made at Samhain. In the Lebor Gab. The Fomorians seem to represent the harmful or destructive powers of nature; personifications of chaos, darkness, death, blight and drought. The texts claim that a first- born child would be sacrificed at the stone idol of Crom Cruach in Magh Sl. They say that King Tigernmas, and three- fourths of his people, died while worshiping Crom Cruach there one Samhain. In the tale Togail Bruidne D. He is warned of his impending doom by three undead horsemen who are messengers of Donn, god of the dead.

He offers a prize to whomever can make it to a gallows and tie a band around a hanged man's ankle. Each challenger is thwarted by demons and runs back to the king's hall in fear. However, Nera succeeds, and the dead man then asks for a drink. Nera carries him on his back and they stop at three houses. They enter the third, where the dead man drinks and spits it on the householders, killing them. Returning, Nera sees a fairy host burning the king's hall and slaughtering those inside.

He follows the host through a portal into the Otherworld. Nera learns that what he saw was only a vision of what will happen the next Samhain unless something is done. He is able to return to the hall and warns the king. The tale Aided Chrimthainn maic Fidaig ('The Killing of Crimthann mac Fidaig') tells how Mongfind kills her brother, king Crimthann of Munster, so that one of her sons might become king.

Mongfind offers Crimthann a poisoned drink at a feast, but he asks her to drink from it first. Having no other choice but to drink the poison, she dies on Samhain eve, after which the festival came to be known as Mongfind's or Mongfhionn's Feast, . The invasion of Ulster that makes up the main action of the T. As cattle- raiding typically was a summer activity, the invasion during this off- season surprised the Ulstermen. In Aislinge . Each Samhain a host of otherworldly beings was said to emerge from Oweynagat (. The only historic reference to religious rites is in the work of the .

However, his source is unknown. Hutton says it may be that no religious rites are mentioned because, centuries after Christianization, the writers were left with no record of what they had been which they could have consulted. Free Download New Found Glory Album Radio Surgery New York there.

He says that the gatherings of royalty and warriors on Samhain may simply have been an ideal setting for such tales, in the same way that many Arthurian tales are set at courtly gatherings at Christmas or Pentecost. Cattle were brought down to the winter pastures after six months in the higher summer pastures. This custom is still observed by many who farm and raise livestock.

It is thought that some of the rituals associated with the slaughter have been transferred to other winter holidays. Martin's Day (1. 1 November) in Ireland, an animal – usually a rooster, goose or sheep – would be slaughtered and some of its blood sprinkled on the threshold of the house. It was offered to Saint Martin, who may have taken the place of a god or gods.

This custom was common in parts of Ireland until the 1. At New Year in the Hebrides, a man dressed in a cowhide would circle the township sunwise.

A bit of the hide would be burnt and everyone would breathe in the smoke. Marian Mc. Neill says that a force- fire (or need- fire) was the traditional way of lighting them, but notes that this method gradually died out.

When the fire was lit, . The others ran through the smoke and jumped over him. When the bonfire burnt down, they scattered the ashes, vying with each other who should scatter them most. The bones of slaughtered cattle were said to have been cast upon bonfires. In the pre- Christian Gaelic world, cattle were the main form of wealth and were the center of agricultural and pastoral life. People also took flames from the bonfire back to their homes.

In parts of Scotland, torches of burning fir or turf were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them. Each family then solemnly re- lit its hearth from the communal bonfire, thus bonding the families of the village together. From this, every bonfire in the land was lit, and from thence every home in the land relit their hearth, which had been doused that night. However, his source is unknown, and Ronald Hutton supposes that Keating had mistaken a Bealtaine custom for a Samhain one. In 1. 8th century Ochtertyre, a ring of stones—one for each person—was laid round the fire, perhaps on a layer of ashes.

Everyone then ran round it with a torch, . In the morning, the stones were examined and if any was mislaid it was said that the person it represented would not live out the year. Saints Row 2 Lan Hamachi there.

A similar custom was observed in north Wales. In Celtic mythology, apples were strongly associated with the Otherworld and immortality, while hazelnuts were associated with divine wisdom. Another involved hanging a small wooden rod from the ceiling at head height, with a lit candle on one end and an apple hanging from the other. The rod was spun round and everyone took turns to try to catch the apple with their teeth. If the nuts jumped away from the heat, it was a bad sign, but if the nuts roasted quietly it foretold a good match.

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