When the Veil Thins: The Story of Samhain and Halloween
Samhain, pronounced ‘SOW-in’ (as in ‘sow’ like a female pig and ‘in’ as in “I hope you are interested in learning about Samhain”), is a festival that was predominantly celebrated by the Iron Age Celtic people living in Ireland. The festival often crops up around this time of year, featuring in articles claiming it as the Celtic progenitor of Halloween or in films wishing to cash in on an extra layer of folkloric spookiness. However, the often-popularised claim that this festival is the origin of Halloween is, at the very least, an oversimplification of history. So, if that’s the case, then what is Samhain? And where did Halloween come from?
The reality is that we don’t really know that much about Samhain. There is a severe lack of contemporary sources, with the majority of texts having been written after the Christianisation of Europe. There are no accounts written by Celtic eyewitnesses, with the earliest written source we have originating in an Irish folktale from the 9th century. One reason for the ambiguity surrounding Samhain’s original practices is that the druids, who played a central role in overseeing the festival, did not produce any written accounts of their customs or beliefs. Instead, they relied wholly on oral tradition, passing their knowledge and rituals down through generations by word of mouth. This absence of written records makes it challenging for historians to determine exactly how Samhain was celebrated or what its deeper significance may have been.
The festival is also documented by Christian monks attempting to catalogue pre-Christian beliefs and festivities in Ireland. However, they fleshed out the information they had access to from other pagan festivals that they had knowledge of—such as those of ancient Rome or the Scandinavians, who at this point in time were making themselves a nuisance for Christian monks. Thus, the monks recorded a potential mishmash of festivities. It is also important to note that later Christian texts and tales that feature Samhain might have been written with an agenda—that agenda being to make the non-Christian pagan beliefs seem as pagan as possible.
Although not historical fact, maybe a glimmer of what Samhain meant to Celtic Irish peoples can be deduced from the later folktales. What is suspected is that Samhain was an agrarian festival, and the word itself can be roughly translated as “summer’s end.” According to the folk sagas, Samhain was a time for gathering one’s goods, the migrating of livestock indoors, and preparing for a long, cold winter. It was also thought to be an important time for assemblies, meetings, and other gatherings where feasts and games took place. It was also believed that the sidh—the name given to the fairy folk—along with other supernatural forces, would leave their hiding places in burrows, forests, and hills to wander the land. Another key element of Samhain is the construction of bonfires; these were built to ward off and guard against those wandering forces. In one tale, “The Tochmarc Emire” or “The Wooing of Emer”, Samhain is established as the Celtic New Year. The Celtic calendar was divided by four quarter days, with Samhain taking place on the 31st of October—the supposed Celtic New Year—representing the descent into winter, and directly opposite Beltane on May 1st, representing summer’s awakening. The other festivals were Imbolc and Lughnasadh, taking place on February 1st and August 1st respectively.
With all this in mind, Samhain is beginning to sound a little spooky, but it’s a far cry from the holiday of goblins, ghouls, and sheer bloody horror we celebrate today. So, how did that happen? The association between Halloween and death is a later Christian development. All Saints’ Day was a holiday that was originally celebrated in May and was a day mainly recognised only in Rome. However, during the 9th century, Pope Gregory IV ordered the celebration be moved to November 1st and witnessed by all of Christendom. As we now know, November 1st was the beginning of Samhain, and some argue that Pope Gregory IV knew this and chose that date for All Saints’ in order to further quell pagan beliefs and assimilate the Celtic population under the Church. Others argue that Pope Gregory IV, living in Rome, would have been completely unaware of the significance of the date he had picked.
Later, during the 10th century, All Souls’ Day was added on the 2nd of November, and it wasn’t long before the two days of All Saints’ and All Souls’ were linked and considered a liturgical time of year known as Hallowtide. All Saints’ Day was known as All Hallows’ Day—‘hallows’ meaning something that is holy or venerated—and it’s from this that we get All Hallows’ Eve on the 31st, which then over time became Halloween. All Souls’ Day was dedicated to praying for the souls of the dearly departed who were held in purgatory, weighed down by the minor sins they committed in life. It’s from this day that we get several of the festivities we now associate with Halloween (although maybe at the time they weren’t considered so festive: “Pray harder, Grandma might go to Hell”).
One of these festivities consisted of the baking and distribution of ‘soul cakes’. People who had the means would bake batches of these cakes, which would then be given to those less fortunate (known as ‘soulers’), who would go from door to door asking for them. The cakes would be given in exchange for prayers for the recently deceased. The aim was to bolster the number of prayers your loved one received in purgatory by buying them with cakes. These ‘soulers’ would often sing as they went door to door looking for cakes—an interesting comparison to other winter folk traditions such as carolling. They would also often carry with them a hollowed-out turnip with a candle burning inside, chosen to represent the souls of the dead in purgatory.
During the early modern period, this festival also became closely associated with mummers—costumed and masked peasants who would parade from house to house seeking gifts of food from the houses of the wealthy. They embodied the atmosphere of misrule that would occur during the holiday. The usual societal norms were turned upon its head. Masters would imitate servants, and servants would dress as their masters. It was a time of mischief, feasting, and games, with each region often having its own specific folk traditions. With this in mind, you might be starting to think this festival sounds more like the one you know and love today.
While it is true that certain aspects of Samhain echo the themes found in modern Halloween—most notably the idea of spirits and supernatural beings wandering freely—there is little solid evidence to support the notion that Samhain is the direct ancestor of Halloween. Although some argue that the transformation of Samhain into Halloween occurred through the process of Christian assimilation, our limited understanding of the original Samhain customs means that we cannot confirm this theory with certainty, nor can we definitively dismiss it. What the available evidence does suggest is that Halloween, as celebrated today, is more accurately described as a direct descendant of Hallowtide—a period encompassing All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day—rather than a straightforward continuation of ancient Celtic traditions. The lack of contemporary records on Samhain makes it difficult to trace a direct lineage, pointing instead to the influence of later Christian observances in shaping the holiday we recognise now. Hopefully, by peeling back the closely intertwined layers and separating Samhain from Halloween, we can fully understand both festivals independently.
Written by Angus Cawood
