Samhain: origins, history and symbolism of the November 1 festival

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What is Samhain?

Samhain is one of the four seasonal festivals of ancient Ireland. It marks the end of the fair season, the return of the herds and the beginning of the dark months. In the modern Wheel of the Year, it is the festival that opens late autumn, between Mabon and Yule. Many practitioners dedicate it to the remembrance of the dead and to the idea of letting go of what is finished.

The Irish name is Samhain, and it is also today the Irish word for November. The English “Halloween” (“eve of All Saints”) is another story, which we untangle below.

What the ancient sources say

The oldest mentions come from Irish literature, copied between the 7th and 12th centuries. The commentaries on the Senchas Már (a collection of law) speak of cows returning from summer pastures at Samain. The tale Tochmarc Emire places Samhain at the head of the four seasonal festivals. In Serglige Con Culainn, the festival of the Ulaid lasts a week, three days before and three days after Samhain. In Togail Bruidne Dá Derga, bonfires are lit. Several stories place supernatural events at Samhain: the doors of the burial mounds (sídhe) open, and the world of spirits draws closer. This should be seen as a literary tradition, written down by monks centuries after the events it describes.

Further afield, the Coligny calendar (Gaul, 2nd century CE) has a month Samonios and a mention of trinox Samoni: it suggests a festival of three nights, but no one knows exactly what was done during it.

What does the word mean?

The etymology is debated. The most widespread explanation links the word to an Indo-European root meaning “summer”: Samhain would mean “end of summer”. But it is surprising that a winter festival carries this name. Other linguists, including Xavier Delamarre, propose an ancient word meaning “gathering, assembly”, which is found in Germanic and Sanskrit words for “together”: Samhain would then be an assembly, perhaps of the living and the dead. Neither line of argument commands consensus.

The “Celtic New Year”: an idea to qualify

It is said everywhere that Samhain was the New Year of the Celts. The idea comes from John Rhys and James Frazer, who deduced it from folklore. The specialist Ronald Hutton finds this evidence thin: the medieval texts do not show a great festival shared by all the Celtic peoples on November 1. To say that Samhain is the “New Year of the witches” is a modern Wiccan practice, which you may enjoy without presenting it as a historical fact.

Popular customs recorded in the 19th–20th centuries

In rural Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, the eve of November 1 was long celebrated with:

• bonfires on the hills, whose ashes were sometimes carried home;
• divination games with apples and hazelnuts (biting an apple hung from a string, roasting two nuts side by side);
• costumes worn by children and young people who went from door to door in exchange for sweets;
• a laid table or an empty chair left for the souls of the departed;
• offerings for the “little people”, the aos sí.

Lanterns carved from turnips (in Ireland and Scotland) became pumpkins when emigrants crossed the Atlantic: the American fruit proved easier to hollow out. The term “jack-o’-lantern” is attested in English from the 1660s, but it then referred to other lights, the will-o’-the-wisps of the marshes.

All Saints, All Souls, Halloween: neighbouring festivals

The Church fixed All Saints’ Day on November 1. This feast of all the saints was celebrated in Ireland and Northumbria around the year 800, then adopted in the Frankish empire in 835. All Souls’ Day, November 2, became established in the 11th century. The historian Hutton thinks the date of November 1 is of Germanic rather than Celtic origin; others see Irish influence. Specialists do not agree.

In France, graves are decorated with chrysanthemums at All Saints. Halloween, with its costumes and pumpkins, has spread in France mainly since the 1990s through American culture: it is the distant descendant of the Irish customs carried overseas, with many commercial elements added.

Samhain in the modern wheel

Among Wiccans, the festival is a time of review and remembrance. It evokes the death of the God and the Goddess as an old woman (the “Crone”), or the idea of a “veil” that is thinner between the living and the dead. These stories are modern: they do not exist in the Irish texts. Black and orange, the pumpkin, the apple, the nut, the raven and shadow are commonly associated with it. As for stones, books often mention black obsidian and garnet, but there is no official list: it is a matter of taste.

Theme	Common symbolic reading
Memory	Photographs, names, family stories
Letting go	Writing down what you leave behind
Darkness	Welcoming the dark season without fear
Harvest	The last moment to bring in the stores

Speaking of death with care

Samhain touches on grief. If you have recently lost someone, this period can be painful: take what does you good, and leave the rest aside. A remembrance ritual is not a séance to communicate with the dead, and “spirit board” games have no place in it. With children, favour memories and stories rather than frightening images. If sadness becomes heavy, speak to a health professional; in France, in case of distress or suicidal thoughts, call 3114 (the national suicide prevention line, free, 24 hours a day), or 112 (the emergency number across the European Union) in an emergency.

To move on to practice, see the simple Samhain ritual at home.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to The Wheel of the Year.