A contemporary Samhain fire ceremony, reflecting the festival’s enduring associations with seasonal change, remembrance and the transition into winter. Photograph: English Heritage (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/halloween-saints-souls/)

The Turning of the Year

As October draws to a close, the landscape begins to change. The days grow shorter, the nights colder and the last signs of the harvest give way to the quieter months of winter. For many contemporary Pagans, this is the season of Samhain, traditionally associated with 31 October and 1 November and the transition from autumn into winter.

The name Samhain comes from an early Irish festival connected with the beginning of winter. Related seasonal customs can also be found in Scotland and the Isle of Man, although traditions developed in different ways from place to place. Across the centuries, Samhain became associated with the dead, the supernatural, communal gatherings and attempts to glimpse what the coming year might hold.

Some of these ideas are to be found in medieval Irish literature, others survive in the folklore and recorded traditions of much later times. Modern Pagan practice tends to bring these various strands together in one observance, combining the old with the new.

Samhain is sometimes described simply as a “Celtic festival”, but that makes it sound more universal than the evidence suggests. Samhain belongs most clearly to the Gaelic traditions of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Wales had its own beginning-of-winter festival, Calan Gaeaf, with its own customs and folklore. These traditions share similarities, but they developed within different cultures and should not be folded into a single celebration.

Samhain in the Early Traditions

In early Irish literature, Samhain is described as one of the main seasonal divisions of the year, along with Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh. The medieval story Tochmarc Emire (The Wooing of Emer) links Samhain to the start of winter and shows how it fits into a seasonal cycle that follows the patterns of agricultural life (Meyer, 1890).

By late autumn, the harvest had been gathered and livestock had to be prepared for the colder months. Communities were entering a part of the year in which food, shelter and careful preparation took on particular importance.

Samhain also became a powerful setting for storytelling. In Echtra Nerai (The Adventures of Nera), a warrior at the royal court of Cruachan accepts a challenge on Samhain night and becomes caught up in extraordinary events involving the Otherworld. His experience includes a journey into a supernatural dwelling and a warning of danger to come (Meyer, 1889).

Stories such as this show that Samhain had become an important imaginative setting for encounters that crossed the boundaries of ordinary human experience.

They should, however, be approached with care. Medieval literary texts do not provide a complete description of how every community observed Samhain before Christianity. Similarly, the popular description of Samhain as the universal “Celtic New Year” goes beyond what the surviving early evidence can comfortably demonstrate. Its association with the beginning of winter is much clearer.

Samhain Across Different Communities

In Scotland, Samhain, or Samhainn in Scottish Gaelic, was accompanied by a wide variety of customs. Some communities lit bonfires, sometimes on prominent hillsides, bringing neighbours together as winter approached. Guising was another familiar tradition, with people visiting homes in disguise and offering songs, jokes or other entertainment in return for food or treats (Rodger, 2023).

Divination was part of Scottish Samhain customs.  People placed in the fire and watched them closely, taking their behaviour as a sign of how a relationship might fare. Kale stalks pulled from the ground were read for signs of the person someone might marry. Fuarag, a mixture of oats and cream, added another element of chance: small objects hidden in the dish carried meanings connected with marriage, prosperity or misfortune (Rodger, 2023).

The Isle of Man knew it as Sauin and had their own traditions of divination and the supernatural. In Wales, it was Calan Gaeaf (the first day of winter), and again, it was a day associated with fires and the supernatural. It has, of course,, Gaelic parallels in Samhain,, but Calan Gaeaf was a distinct Welsh phenomenon.

The Dead, the Otherworld and the Household

Perhaps the most enduring theme associated with Samhain is remembrance of the dead.

Later Irish folklore connected Halloween with the possibility that deceased relatives might return to their former homes. Remembering those who had died existed alongside a more cautious attitude towards supernatural visitors. Protective customs included placing crosses above doors, sprinkling holy water around homes and farms, and avoiding travelling alone at night (National Museum of Ireland, n.d.).

Irish folklore also associated the season with the aos sí, supernatural beings connected with particular places in the landscape. Tales frequently warned against careless encounters with them.

Among the better-known figures was the púca, an unpredictable supernatural being that appears in numerous Irish traditions. One Halloween belief held that fruit left outdoors after the festival had been spoiled by the púca, giving people a memorable reason not to gather it too late in the season (National Museum of Ireland, 2023).

Modern Pagans often describe Samhain as a time when the “veil between worlds” becomes thin. This is a meaningful contemporary spiritual expression, but it should not be presented as a phrase belonging to a single, universal ancient Celtic belief system. Instead, it provides a modern way of expressing an older and broader theme: at certain times of the year, the worlds of the living, the dead and the supernatural were imagined as drawing unusually close together.

From Samhain to Halloween

Halloween’s history reflects the intertwining of seasonal folklore with the Christian religious calendar.

In Western Christianity, people observe All Saints’ Day on 1 November, followed by All Souls’ Day on 2 November. The evening preceding All Saints’ Day became known as All Hallows’ Eve, from which the word Halloween developed. In Ireland and Scotland, Christian practices of remembering the dead existed alongside older seasonal customs, creating celebrations that could include prayer, food, disguises, games and supernatural stories.

In the 19th century, migration brought Irish and Scottish traditions over to North America. In North America, lanterns (made from carved roots, particularly turnips) eventually became linked with pumpkins, which were far easier to carve. Guising was also part of the wider tradition from which modern trick-or-treating is thought to have evolved (National Museum of Ireland, 2023; Rodger, 2023).

Halloween subsequently became an international phenomenon, spreading through migration, popular culture, and commercial entertainment.

Today Halloween and Samhain are in quite different places in people’s lives. Halloween is largely a secular holiday, centred on costumes, decorations, and the like. Samhain, on the other hand, has a specific spiritual and religious significance for many contemporary Pagans. Their histories are intertwined, but they are not the same thing.

Samhain in Contemporary Paganism

For many contemporary Pagans, Samhain is part of the Wheel of the Year, a modern cycle of eight festivals that includes the solstices, equinoxes and other seasonal celebrations. Although this arrangement was not used in ancient Celtic times, it has become an established part of modern Pagan practice. In Wicca and some other traditions, Samhain is also seen as the start of a spiritual new year, offering a chance to reflect on the past and consider what lies ahead.

Honouring ancestors and remembering the dead are central to many present-day Samhain celebrations. A practitioner might create an altar displaying photographs, candles or meaningful objects connected with people who have died. Others may share a commemorative meal, speak the names of loved ones, tell family stories or simply spend time quietly remembering them. This shows how modern Paganism draws on historical and folkloric links to death, memory, and the changing of the seasons to create rites that feel meaningful today.

Samhain can also be a time of personal reflection. With the harvest finished and winter upon us, the focus naturally turns to endings and change. Meditation, divination, and various forms of symbolic release may be part of modern-day observances, while others may simply be out in the open air, taking in the changing landscape.

Samhain is traditionally observed from the evening of 31 October into 1 November, a date supported by medieval and later seasonal traditions. Some contemporary Pagans instead celebrate around 6–7 November, when the Sun reaches 15° Scorpio in the tropical zodiac, close to the midpoint between the autumn equinox and winter solstice. Although some call this alternative astrological Samhain, there is insufficient evidence to establish precisely how the festival was dated in pre-Christian times or whether either method was used.

No single way exists for all Pagans to celebrate Samhain. Traditions vary considerably, but remembrance, seasonal change and renewal remain recurring themes.

A Festival That Continues to Change

Samhain has travelled far from its earliest appearances in Irish literature.

Its place at the beginning of winter remains recognisable, but the traditions surrounding this time of year have continually changed. Medieval stories of encounters with the Otherworld, Scottish bonfires and guising, Manx customs, Irish household traditions, Christian commemorations of the dead and the international development of Halloween all form different chapters in that much larger story.

For contemporary Pagans, Samhain remains a meaningful point in the year to remember the dead, reflect on change, and recognise the arrival of winter.

Perhaps this is why the season has retained such power. Beneath its folklore and ritual are experiences that remain deeply familiar: gathering together as darkness arrives, remembering people who are no longer present, preparing for the season ahead and acknowledging that endings, like beginnings, are part of the turning year.

References and Further Reading

Meyer, K. (ed. and trans.) (1889) ‘The Adventures of Nera’, Revue Celtique, 10, pp. 212–228. Available at: https://archive.org/details/revueceltique10pari

Meyer, K. (ed. and trans.) (1890) ‘The Oldest Version of Tochmarc Emire’, Revue Celtique, 11, pp. 433–457. Available at: https://iso.ucc.ie/Tochmarc-emire/Tochmarc-emire-text.html

National Museum of Ireland (n.d.) ‘Traditions and customs of Halloween / Samhain’. National Folklife Collection. Available at: https://source.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/Folklife-Collections/Folklife-Collections-List-%281%29/Religion-and-Calendar-Customs/Hallowe-en-Samhain

National Museum of Ireland (2023) ‘Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions: how our ancestors inspire our Halloween celebrations today’. Available at: https://source.museum.ie/en-IE/News/2023/Ghost-turnips%2C-pucas%2C-fortune-telling-and-evil-abd

Rodger, L. (2023) ‘Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe’en’. Historic Environment Scotland, 27 October. Available at: https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2023/10/samhainn-and-the-scottish-traditions-of-halloween/