The Samhain
Updated: 5 days ago
SAMHAIN
Samhain is a Gaelic festival celebrated between October 31st and November 1st, also known as the Celtic New Year. In modern Irish, *Samhain* is the name for the month of November. The Coligny Calendar—a bronze inscription discovered in France—is the only archaeological source documenting the Celtic concept of time. On this calendar, the only festival clearly indicated is *Trinuxtion Samoni* (Samonios). The Celts divided the year into two parts: winter, known as *geimhredh* (the start of which was marked by the festival of Samonios/Samhain), and summer, known as *samradh* (the start of which was marked by Beltane). The Celts were primarily influenced by lunar and stellar cycles that tracked the agricultural year; this year began with Samhain—at the end of the harvest—when the land was prepared for winter.
Samhain's eve (known in Irish as *Oidhche Shamhna*) is known today as Halloween. Rituals began with the extinguishing of all fires, followed by their relighting from the embers of the sacred Druid fire located at Tlachtga, near the royal Hill of Tara. Within the cyclical nature of time, Samhain occupied a point outside the standard temporal dimension, belonging neither to the old year nor the new; at that moment, the veil separating the living from the land of the dead grew thin, allowing access between the two realms. The Celts believed that, on this occasion, the spirits of the deceased could pass freely through the gateway between the two worlds: the afterlife and earthly reality. Like many Celtic festivals, it was celebrated on multiple levels: materially, it was a time for harvesting and storing food for the long winter months. Spiritually, the festival was a time for contemplation.
On the night of Samhain, Skathach's great shield grew thin, allowing the dead to return to the places they had frequented while alive. The living held joyful celebrations in their honor. For this reason, it was customary to leave food and drink outside homes to appease their souls. In some regions—particularly Scotland—young men would walk the boundaries of farms after sunset, carrying flaming torches to protect families from the fae and the evil forces free to roam the earth that night. For the Druids, Samhain was the time when the future could most easily be foretold.
SOURCES
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain
http://www.irlandando.it/halloween/storia/
