Samhain
Samhain is held on November 1. Celtic harvest festival and Druid festival of Celtic mythology. This event in the first decade of the month November is annual. Help us
For the Celts, who lived during the Iron Age in what is now Ireland, Scotland, the U.K. and other parts of Northern Europe, Samhain (meaning literally, in modern Irish, “summer's end”) marked the end of summer and kicked off the Celtic new year.
The Mound of the Hostages is 4,500 to 5000 years old, suggesting that Samhain was celebrated long before the first Celts arrived in Ireland about 2,500 years ago.
In addition to being a time to honor family members, friends and pets who have passed away, Samhain is the final harvest holiday and marks the end—and therefore beginning—of a new cycle on the Wheel. Most Wiccans believe in reincarnation and view death as simply another stage of life.
Similar holidays and events, festivals and interesting facts
Allantide on October 31 (Cornwall);
Hop-tu-Naa on October 31 (Isle of Man);
Blessed Dominic Collins on October 31 (Catholic, Ireland, Society of Jesus);
Samhain in the Northern Hemisphere and Beltane in the Southern Hemisphere on November 1 (celebrations start at sunset of October 31. Neopagan Wheel of the Year);