As the sun sinks in the sky, your anticipation grows. With every inch the sun descends, the half-bare trees reaching their gnarled shadows longer, the closer you are to the annual feast of Samhain (pronounced SAH-wen).

It will begin at sundown and last until the next sunset. You’ve spent weeks harvesting and preparing for this festival, and for the next night and day you and everyone you know will be feasting, dancing, cavorting, divining, and communing with the dead.

Finally, the last golden arc of the sun dips below the horizon. You throw a warm animal skin around your shoulders and don a headpiece made from a deer’s skull.  As Maurice Sendak so gleefully put it, let the wild rumpus start.

What is Samhain?

According to the ancient Celtic calendar, which is based on the traditional seasonal calendar observed by pagan cultures around the world, Samhain falls on the midpoint between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. In addition to the two solstices and two equinoxes, there are four “fire festivals” at the midpoint between each. The fire festivals are Imbolc (around February 1), Beltane (around May 1), Lughnasadh (lu-NAH-sah) or Lammas (August 1) and Samhain (November 1st). The exact date of each festival changes, because they’re calculated in conjunction with the phases of the sun, and don’t stick strictly to the Gregorian calendar.

To the celtic Druids, Samhain was the most important of these 4 fire festivals. It’s the “first spoke on the dark side of the modern wheel of the year.” The Celts believed the seasons were divided into two halves: the dark half and the light half. Samhain marked the transition from the light half of spring and summer into the dark half of autumn and winter. 

Transitions, hinges, and thresholds are huge in western witchcraft. It’s no coincidence that the celebration of the hinge of the year into autumn begins at the hinge from day to night. The end of the harvest is a particularly crucial hinge. Grazing animals come down from far-reaching pastures to home. Fat forest animals settle in for hibernation. Harvests are conducted and food prepared for use during the long, cold winter. The hinge from summer’s abundance to winter’s severity was precarious for thousands of years, and the Samhain draws in the last gasps of that abundance.

What Does “Samhain” Mean?

The etymology of the word Samhain is unclear. Some think it comes from the ancient Irish words for “summer” (sam) and “end” (fuin), but that has yet to be absolutely proven by historians. In modern Irish, Samhain means “November” while the Scottish Gaelic spell it Samhuinn. 

According to some modern Celtic witches, Samhain goes from the first harvest moon in October to the first week of November. The traditional end date of November 5 has less to do with ancient ritual magic than good old fashioned religious unrest. Catholic Guy Fawkes led a failed explosives plot against the largely Anglican Parliament on November 5, 1605. This led to the nursery rhyme “Remember, remember, the fifth of November.” It’s also common to light bonfires on this day, as a way of rubbing salt in Guy Fawkes’s wound that he did not successfully light Parliament on fire.

Unrelated but adjacent celebrations aside, for many, Samhain is one singular night only. If you celebrate Halloween, or attend any sort of fall or harvest festival, you’ll recognize some of the hallmarks of the celebrations of Samhain that still happen across the UK, Ireland, and the US. 

Celebrating Samhain

Ancient Celtic Druids didn’t exactly leave behind a lot of long diatribes about their practices, so we don’t have any written primary sources detailing early celebrations. We know for a fact that in the 700s Pope Gregory III moved the yearly celebration of the departed in the Catholic Church from May to November, though his motives were unclear. Perhaps it was a marketing move to draw in more Druids and Celts who wanted to continue celebrating their traditional festivals. Perhaps it was to offer more abundance at the All Saints celebrations. 

Whatever the exact trail Samhain traveled to get here, in the modern world there are a few hallmarks of Samhain and autumn celebrations which remain. Many will be familiar to those who celebrate Halloween or All Saint’s Day. 

Celebrating the Season

Bonfires & Blazes

The lighting of fires, big and small, is a big part of Samhain celebrations and rituals, and takes many forms. One example is the large fires built on Guy Fawkes Day that I mentioned earlier, which were likely originally built on Samhain and then moved a few days later to taunt Guy Fawkes’s failed rebellion. 

Fire served a few different purposes to ancient Celts. First, and materially, fire provided warmth, light, and protection for a night of praying, cavorting, eating, and drinking.  Ancient Irish Celts would light a fire on the sacred site of Tlachtga (CLACK-da) then pass torches from the fire for thirteen miles to the hill of Tara, the seat of ancient Irish kings. The lighting of this fire was a crucial ritual to begin the celebrations of Samhain on the Hill of Tara in Ireland.

Feasting & Sacrificing

Animals were commonly sacrificed on Samhain, and cooking the animals in the bonfires was part of the sacrifice. Sacrifices had a few purposes. One was to offer meat to any passing malevolent spirits to appease them. Another was to bear offerings to gods and goddesses of the harvest and death. Still another might’ve been to feed the great groups who gathered around the fires. Druids in particular were fond of human sacrifice, though the links between the Druidic practice of human sacrifice and Samhain in particular are unclear.

Jack O’ Lanterns

Bonfires are not the only forms of fire, though. In the United States, Jack O’Lanterns carved from pumpkins are a common tribute to much older rituals to ward off evildoers. In Ireland in the 19th and 20th century, it was common to carve scary faces into hollowed-out root vegetables, then place a candle inside. These ghoulish images supposedly scared off mischief – specifically Stingy Jack, a man who’d tricked the devil out of money and became doomed to wander the earth as a spirit for all eternity. Turnips, potatoes, and beets were common carving vegetables. They’re also small and difficult to carve, which is why Irish Americans adapted the practice into carving pumpkins.

Lighting fires for protection didn’t start with turnips. In fact, the turnips started out of efficiency. Before Jack O’Lanterns were common, a member of one’s family would light a torch and circle your home and land, in an attempt to offer protection from the long, dark night. Jack O’ Lanterns are preferable because they’re stationary, and don’t require one person to be away from the family alone in the cold and dark.

But why were they so afraid of evil spirits on this night in particular? Because the veil was thinner, of course.

The Thinning of the Veil

Ancient Celts believed that the year ended at sunset and began again at sunrise. That meant there was a whole nighttime in between where the boundary between the spirit world and the corporeal one was thin and permeable. It was a time to honor and remember those who’d died, ask for their protection, and lean into the unknowable mysteries of nature’s provisions. 

Telling fortunes was a common way to cash in on the spiritual bounty of Samhain. There are many traditional ways to predict the future, such as cracking an egg white into water, reading tarot cards, and peeling an apple then throwing the peel over your left shoulder and seeing how it lands.

Magic Rituals for Samhain

Magic rituals during this time tend to revolve around burying things, similar to the way we bury the dead to return them to earth. The burying must happen at sunset or sunrise, to make use of the hinges of time. 

If you’re looking to send a specific message, pick an angel trumpet flower at sunrise or sunset. Then, bury it the following sunrise or sunset with a piece of paper containing your message to the dead. Angel Trumpet flowers are VERY poisonous. Handle them with caution and bury them where household animals can’t stumble across them and eat them. 

If you’re looking to let go of old things that no longer serve you, Llewellyn’s Witches’ Spell-A-Day Almanac (2004) has the following prescription:

A Ritual to Let Go on Samhain

“Choose a symbol that embodies the aspect of your life that you need to let go of – a cigarette for example can represent an obsolete love affair, out-of-date expectations, or your poor self-image. Hold the symbol in your hands and tell it goodbye. Wrap it up in paper and string, using the appropriate color – red for anger, hurt, or old passions; black for banishing and symbolic death; yellow for healing an old wound; purple for spiritual concerns. Find a quiet location and dig a hole. Bury the symbol, cover with earth, and dust your hands off three times saying, ‘I’ve wrapped it up, it’s dead and buried. Farewell and good riddance!‘”

Halloween Practices and Samhain

Wearing costumes was thought to confuse the malevolent spirits roaming the earth. This is part of why Halloween costumes are traditionally scary. Ghouls, goblins, demons, ghosts, and faeries were all perilously close to the veil during this time. This means dressing as one of these fearsome creatures was a preferred method of confusion and protection.

However, one traditional halloween costume, the witch, comes from an entirely different belief and tradition. 

The Crone (Cailleach)

In Wiccan practices adapted from ancient Irish, Scottish, English, and Welsh beliefs, three women goddesses, the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, symbolize the cycles of life.  As leaves collapse from the trees and wither into dust, on Samhain the Maiden (Mabon) collapses into the Crone (Cailleach – KAI-ach). 

Cailleach is the Irish and Scottish goddess of winter, and her arrival on Samhain signals the transition to winter. Cailleach technically means “old woman” or “hag” in Gaelic, and has the same root as Cailin and Coleen, two names (and slang terms) which mean young woman. Many goddesses in Gaelic mythology have been bestowed the title of Cailleach, so it is interchangeable with the goddess herself. She has many names and purposes, but her inclusion on Samhain is constant.

The Origins of Witches

In Irish mythology Cailleach is traditionally depicted as wearing a veil over one eye. Scottish mythology depicts her as having a third eye on her forehead. In both iterations her appearance denotes that she can see both the spirit world and physical world. She’s often described as holding a blackthorn cane or shillelagh, and stands stooped with white hair. It’s thought that these descriptions of Cailleach form our modern image of witches.

The mythology of Cailleach is so wide and varied that she merits her own episode. She’s referred to by many names in many places, and serves many purposes. Most customs agree that Samhain is the day she makes her appearance to guide the winds of winter for and against those who cross her path in accordance with her displeasure.

When the Romans invaded Britain in the first century AD, they hadn’t yet converted to Christianity. Therefore, they brought their own gods and goddesses to the British Isles. This includes the goddess Trivia (Hecate in Greek), who was the guardian of the underworld. Trivia guarded the threshold between the living and the dead, and guided souls down to meet Pluto. Some Celts incorporated Trivia into their beliefs, as her position between the living and the dead perfectly matched their worship of the Cailleach.

The Celts, both ancient and modern, celebrated the dead even more directly on Samhain.

Dumb Supper

A common celebration that survives to this day is the practice of the “dumb supper.” In this case, “dumb” is not the crude term for intellectual disabilities, but an old word for being unable to speak. 

A Dumb Supper is a way to silently contemplate those you’ve lost and commune with them. A family or group will sit down to supper and set a place at the head of the table that symbolizes someone they want to memorialize. The place should have a full plate. Through the course of the supper no one speaks – but everyone contemplates their relationship with that person. At the end of the supper, the food is placed outside as an offering to the spirits roaming the earth. 

Some modern witches have kept the name “Dumb Supper” but gotten rid of the silence. They instead for a raucous evening of merriment and abundance. The autumn is a great time to enjoy the year’s end bounty. One food in particular, holds great symbolic meaning.

Samhain and Apples

Apples have held symbolism in human history since as long as we’ve told each other stories. And wouldn’t you know it, they’re in season in the fall. Apples are considered the fruit of the “other world.” It’s only appropriate that they’d be a fixture of celebrations held at the threshold to the spirit realm.

When King Arthur was mortally wounded, he didn’t die – he went to Avalon, the Isle of Apples. We know when Adam and Eve were kicked out of Paradise, it was because they ate an apple. When Hades, god of the underworld, kidnapped beautiful Persephone to make her his queen, her undoing was eating an apple (although some translations say that it was a pomegranate). Apples and honey is a traditional food eaten on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year (also typically in the fall). 

Apples are a common fixture of Samhain celebration, and are used in many ways. One way is in fortune telling, where an apple was peeled and then the skin was thrown over one’s shoulder. Apparently, the shape of the apple peel could determine the first initial of a young woman’s future spouse. Bobbing for apples is a very, very old game. It was said that anyone who caught their apple would have good fortune for a year. As a kid, I once bobbed for apples with no front teeth – and got one!

Conclusion

If you’d like to incorporate a little Samhain into your Halloween, you might already be doing it! If you’ve carved a Jack O’Lantern, bobbed for apples, or dressed as a crone, you’re halfway to celebrating Samhain. However you celebrate, and whether or not you choose to celebrate Samhain, Halloween, or All Saints Day, I wish you a warm and cozy winter and an abundant autumn.