#22
by Darkchylde
Ok my question is this, my wife is a 5th generation wiccan/pagan witch who was born a witch by her grandmother an her grandmothers true blood ancestors ive heard her speak of halloween as samhaine it a very holy day for her ,any way is it goin to be Halloween or will it be its true name Samhain the Gaelic Harvest festival
Samhain was a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following John Rhys and James Frazer.[2] The date of Samhain was associated with the Catholic All Saints' Day (and later All Souls' Day) from at least the 8th century, and both the secular Gaelic and the Catholic liturgical festival have influenced the secular customs now connected with Halloween.[3]
The medieval Goidelic festival of Samhain marked the end of the harvest, the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half". It was celebrated over the course of several days and had some elements of a Festival of the Dead. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. People and their livestock would often walk between two bonfires as a cleansing ritual, and the bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.[4]
Samhain is celebrated as a religious festival by some neopagans.[5]
Celtic revival
A connection of the medieval feis of Samhain with pre-Christian traditions was drawn by the "notoriously unreliable" Geoffrey Keating (d. 1644), who claimed that the druids of Ireland would assemble on the night of Samhain to kindle a sacred fire. Ronald Hutton notes that while medieval Irish authors do attribute a historical pagan significance to the Beltane festival, they are silent in this respect in regard to Samhain, apparently because no tradition of pagan ritual had survived into the Christian period. Hutton supposes that Keating's account may be due to a confusion of a tradition pertaining to Beltane.[10]
Its description as "Celtic New Year" was popularised in 18th century literature.[dubious – discuss][22] From this usage in the Romanticist Celtic Revival, Samhain is still popularly regarded as the "Celtic New Year" in the contemporary Celtic cultures, both in the Six Celtic Nations and the diaspora. For instance, the contemporary calendars produced by the Celtic League begin and end at Samhain
Evil, You set my soul on fire
Evil, You fill me with desire
Evil, You always get it right
Evil, All day and all night
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE GREEN AWAY FINALLY I AM FREE FROM BEIN A SLAVE TO THE CORROSION OF CORRUPTNESS OF BETA TESTER