The Truth About Halloween and the Gaelic Samhain Festival, the Precursor to Halloween?
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 2022-10-30

Please support this channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/historydecoded

Please donate through PayPal using this link: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QFB9ZECHZJDF6 – you can also send money through PayPal straight to chdecoded@gmail.com if you don’t want to use the link.

Please Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/CelticHistory 

Subscribe to Celtic History Decoded: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCS3M_uNHH2iOJkpGhkO2SA?sub_confirmation=1

Chapters:
0:00 Samhain
0:44 The Celtic Otherworld 
1:16 Samhain Costumes 
1:37 Fire Festivals 
2:26 Drunken Mess 
2:41 Creatures and Monsters of Samhain
3:32 Samhain and Halloween
4:03 The Meaning of Halloween 

The Truth About Halloween and the Gaelic Samhain Festival, the Precursor to Halloween?

What’s the origins of Halloween and how does it relate to Samhain? We all know what Halloween is, but some be unsure of exactly what Samhain is? Samhain is an ancient Gaelic, pagan festival that stretches back thousands of years and is most commonly associated with Ireland, although other Celtic peoples celebrated Samhain, or with a similar festival. It welcomes in the harvest and marks the start of the “the dark half of the year.” It is celebrated on the 1st of November, but as ancient Celtic societies considered a new day to start at sunset, celebrations began on our evening of October 31st. Samhain is the Irish word for November and similarly in Scottish Gaelic. 

On Samhain, tradition states that the barriers between the physical and spiritual world are lowered, allowing easier communication between the human realm and the otherworld. Ancient burial mounds were said to be open and serve as portals to the otherworld. With the gap between these worlds shortened, many believed you could communicate with your ancestors. People would often leave offerings outside their doors to fairies or the Sidhs. The reason people dressed up was partly due to this. As it was easier to cross over from the otherworld to the human realm, ancient Celts would often dress up as animals and monsters to stop fairies and other entities kidnapping them.  

Amongst many ancient Celtic groups, Samhain was the most important of four quarterly fire festivals, and it is at the approximate midpoint between the fall equinox and the winter solstice. In ancient times, after the harvest work had been completed, Celtic communities would often join local Druids to light a massive community fire that was sparked using a wheel, a representation of the sun. Poems and spiritual texts were spoken at this time, and cattle were sacrificed. Hearths were also lite in family homes. 

Some early texts describe Samhain as being a mandatory festival in certain societies that lasted 3 days and 3 nights, with failure to participate said to be punishable by death. For many today, Halloween is an excuse to get steamin with your mates dressed up as Micky Mouse. Thousands of years ago, there also seems to be that element. Some sources mention that people would often drink beer or mead to excess for days upon days, like some type of ancient Celtic, Samhain bender.  

Sources:

History, Samhain https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/samhain 

Halloween https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween 

Samhain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain 

Britannica – Samhain https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samhain  

Creative Commons Imagery:

RajhaSlavari123 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neopagan_celebrating_Samhain.jpg Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neopagan_celebrating_Samhain.jpg 

RajhaSlavari123 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neopagans_in_Ireland_celebrating_Samhain.jpg Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en 
Sevenseaocean https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22The_Riders_of_the_Sidhe%22_John_Duncan_1911_McManus_Galleries,_Dundee.jpg Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en 

#halloween #halloween2022 #samhain