Samhain

Old Irish Samain; Irish Samhain

See it on the Wheel of the Sky

When it comes round

North of the equator: traditionally Sat, 10/31/2026. The Sun reaches 15° Scorpio, the astronomical Samhain, on .

South of the equator, where the seasons are reversed, the Wheel of the Sky keeps Samhain in the same season, half a year later or earlier: traditionally Fri, 04/30/2027, and astronomically when the Sun reaches 15° Taurus, on .

The fire festivals sit halfway between a solstice and an equinox: 15° of a fixed sign. The traditional day comes first; the Sun reaches the halfway point a few days later. Worked out with the same Sun calculation as the calendar and the Wheel of the Sky.

The Gaelic festival at the start of November that began winter, when spirits were believed to cross into the world of the living; the root of Halloween.

In history

In medieval Irish, samain was the first of November and the festival held on it, and in Christian use All Saints’ Day, All Hallows. The Wooing of Emer explains it as “the end of summer,” for “two divisions were formerly on the year, viz., summer from Beltaine (the first of May), and winter from Samuin to Beltaine.” The tales treat it as one of the hinges of the year: in The Second Battle of Mag Tuired the Dagda meets the Morrígan at Samain, washing in a river.

Very little can be said for certain about how it was kept. The ancient Irish left few records of the holiday; brief mentions of Samhain as a calendar holiday appear in tales of the 10th and 12th centuries, and more detailed descriptions date only from the 18th century. It was a time of gathering in for the winter, a bookend to Beltane, and spirits were believed to come into the world of the living at this turn of the seasons, a presence regarded with trepidation. Fires may have been lit, but the evidence for Samhain fires in Ireland is thin, and stronger for Beltane (Britannica).

Samhain falls on All Saints’ Day, and together with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day it shaped Halloween (Britannica): the evening before November 1, All Hallows’ Eve. In 19th- and early 20th-century Ireland, people carved faces into turnips to make lanterns (Smithsonian Magazine).

More about The Morrígan in the Goddess Encyclopedia →

Halloween, ghost stories and classic spooky films in the Spooky Corner →

In modern practice

In modern Paganism, particularly Wicca, Samhain is a major holiday for honoring the dead: altars are set up with photographs of those who have died, and some try to communicate with the spirits of the dead (Britannica). It is the sabbat of October 31. The eight-festival Wheel of the Year itself is modern: Wicca, which emerged in England in the 1950s, typically keeps eight seasonal festivals, called sabbats, based on traditional celebrations drawn from different periods of British and Irish history, and many Wiccans in the Southern Hemisphere move them to fit their own seasons (Britannica, “Wicca”).

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