Samhain: When the Boundary to the Otherworld Grows Thin

Samhain (Irish, pronounced roughly "sow-in") marked among the Celts the beginning of the winter half of the year – early November. It was the most important of the four great Celtic festivals and counted as the turn of the year: the end of harvest time and the beginning of the dark half of the year.

The night when the boundary falls

According to folk belief, on Samhain night the boundary between the world of the living and the Otherworld became permeable: the dead and the beings of the Otherworld could cross over. People lit fires, made offerings and protected themselves from wandering spirits. It was a festival full of awe before the dead and the unknown.

From Samhain to Halloween

When Christianity came, the Church placed All Saints' Day (1 November) and All Souls' Day (2 November) exactly on this time. From the eve of All Saints (All Hallows' Eve) came Halloween. Through Irish emigrants the festival reached America and came back from there to Europe as a pumpkin-and-costume festival. But the core – the night of the dead at the start of winter – is ancient and Celtic.

"Wits must he have who wanders wide, but all is easy at home."Hávamál 5, after Henry A. Bellows 1923 (public domain)

Samhain is the dark threshold of the Celtic year – a festival of the ancestors that echoes into our Halloween. Related is the Germanic idea of the Rough Nights. More in the overview Celtic Religion.

Read more with us

Celtic Religion · Belenus · Brigid · Lugh · The Rauhnächte & Mother's Night.

Sources & literature

Sanas Cormaic; medieval Irish narrative literature; Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun; Bernhard Maier, The Religion of the Celts; quote public domain (Bellows 1923).

Visit the Shop More posts