Oct 26, 20229 min read

Exploring Samhain

Updated: Mar 16, 2023

The day considered the "holiest" of most witches' hallowed days is about to arrive: Samhain, Halloween, the Witches' New Year. This sabbat needs no introduction.

Below, I will cover

A Brief Summary
History & Background
Celebrating
Resources & Further Reading

Let's begin!

A Brief Summary

Names: Samhain, Halloween, All Hallow's Eve, All Hallows, The Witches' New Year

Date(s): October 31st in the Northern Hemisphere In the Southern Hemisphere, this sabbat lands on April 30th.

Observances: Samhain is the third and final harvest festival of the year as well as a cross-quarter day--meaning it falls approximately halfway between the autumn equinox (Mabon) and the winter solstice (Yule). The dark is overtaking the light as the nights are getting progressively longer than the day. As the harvest season is coming to a close, the nights get longer, and the cold of winter is encroaching, death and near-death are vividly present in the natural world around us. This is one of a few days during the year--and the one most widely acknowledged--when the veil between worlds is thinnest.

History & Background

Samhain is the third and final of the harvest festivals. But let's be real, aside from the annual October trip to the pumpkin patch, the harvest gets very little attention on this sabbat. Most of us are too busy acknowledging the thinning of the veil, the night continuing to overtake the day, and all the rest of the symbolism pointing to the end of the life cycle.

Long before humans had our contemporary agricultural advancements, Samhain was a time to harvest the last of the crops before the cold of winter began spreading its roots and withering the last of the plants and vegetation. Frost will soon be creeping in, temperatures will drop, and daylight hours will continue waning--none of which are conducive to thriving plant life.

While this is a factor that contributes to the symbolism of the end of the life cycle, many Pagan practitioners, myself included, also view this as symbolic for the death of the year. It is the end of the solar cycle, the end of nature's cycle. Death and endings are not feared but honored as another part of the natural process.

As already mentioned, there is also the thinning of the veil between worlds to acknowledge and, in some cases, celebrate. While we tend to primarily acknowledge this as the barrier between the worlds of the living and the dead, that is not the only veil that exists between worlds. (More on this in a bit.)

In my personal celebrations of what can be viewed as three separate occasions all falling on one day (Halloween, Samhain, and the Witches' New Year), I view Halloween as secular while Samhain is spiritual. I also celebrate the Witches' New Year on the same day as both a part of but also separate from my spiritual Samhain and secular Halloween festivities.

Hopefully the way I describe my own acknowledgement of the three overlapping holidays makes sense, but even if it doesn't, I just use it to illustrate the point that however you want to honor these festivities (or if you choose to not acknowledge one or more) is an entirely personal choice and there is no wrong way to go about it. There are also those that include Dia de los Muertos and/or All Saints' Day, which both have their own overlap with the energies that are honored in the celebrations of Halloween and Samhain. Breathe easy knowing that you are free to celebrate whichever days, parts, names, and customs resonate with you.

The full history of all customs and traditions associated with October 31st (or close to it) is long, and while I encourage you to check out the Further Reading section at the bottom of this article for more, I am just going to focus on how we got to the contemporary Pagan celebration of Samhain that we know today.

Samhain was originally an Irish Celtic holiday, and while we don't know exactly how the ancient Pagans celebrated it, we do know that they viewed it as a time of high magick. Bonfires were lit to keep any faeries or fae that had ill intentions at bay, and the thinning of the veil that they acknowledged was the boundary between humans and the fae.

In Irish mythology, the night of Samhain is mentioned many, many times and much of it was in relation to magick--kings were given magickal gifts, magickal gifts were stolen from kings, love spells were cast, heroes either died or triumphed by magick, and supernatural beings roamed the earth.

In his work The Golden Bough, English anthropologist Sir James George Frazer mentioned "the souls of the departed hovering unseen" over ancient Celtic celebrations. However, as far as anyone can tell, Frazer didn't actually base this sentiment on historical record. It's assumed that he inferred this because of Samhain's close timing to the Catholic All Saints' Day on November 1st and All Souls' Day on November 2nd, but those celebrations originally took place in the spring and weren't moved to the fall until the 8th century which was about 100 years after Ireland had been converted to Christianity and ceased (most) Pagan celebrations.

On a more mundane note, we know that the ancient Celts also often held assemblies at this time, feasted, and created new laws. With the final harvest done for the year, they had more time on their hands for these types of activities.

Before we move on from the Celtic roots of Samhain, I want to touch on their role in the Witches' New Year. It is commonly believed that the Celts divided the year into two halves--the dark half and the light half. The equinoxes are a time when day and night are of about equal length. After the autumn equinox, which was just celebrated, the days started getting shorter and the nights longer. The opposite occurs following the spring equinox. To the ancients who viewed the year as two parts divided into dark and light, this is the start of the dark half of the year. It is also theorized that the name Samhain roughly translates into "summer's end". (On that note, despite what various memes floating around the internet will tell you, there is not and never has been a deity named Samhain.)

Bonus fact: This is also why what we consider to be the start of summer and start of winter are often called Midsummer and Midwinter. Because to the ancient Celts is was the middle of those two seasons.

But why start the year with the dark half? Well, symbolically, this makes a lot of sense. Before a seed sprouts, it sits in the darkness of soil. Before we are born, we exist in the darkness of our mother's womb. Additionally, as a time of death and letting things go, the next natural step in the cycle is rebirth.

Keep in mind that although the celebration of the Witches' New Year at Samhain is common, that is not universally acknowledged. Some celebrate it at the start of the globally accepted New Year on January 1st, some at Ostara, some at Yule, some don't celebrate or pay it much attention at all. Do whatever and use whichever date feels right to you.

Back to Samhain!

Wrapping up the history of the ancient Celts in relation to this sabbat, their celebrations had very little to do with death aside from the acknowledgement of the year coming to an end. Their customs were much more tied to magick and the fae.

However, the origins of Mexico's Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) go back as far as 3,000 years ago, predating the arrival of Christianity in North America, and is celebrated from October 31st to November 2nd. The Aztecs and other Nahua people viewed and honored the cyclical view of life, believing that death is an integral part of that cycle. Originally, rituals were held in August to honor the dead and provide them with food and water to aid them through the trials and journey that was believed to last for several years after passing before the soul reached Mictlān.

This has, of course, altered over the course of time and through influence from other religions and colonialism. Nowadays, it is believed that the veil between the living and the dead all but disappears at this time and families in Mexico set up ofrendas in their homes and visit the graves of their loved ones to decorate, play music, dance, celebrate, generally visit with their departed, and leave them offerings of food and drink. This is a massive oversimplification of both Dia de los Muertos and its evolution, and I encourage you to do further research on this holiday outside of a Samhain-related context.

Now, I'm not writing a book here (sadly), otherwise I would keep going. These are only a few cultures that honor the dead, ancestors, and/or the final harvest during this time of year. Many others--such as China, Korea, Sweden, India, Thailand, Cambodia, and Brazil to name a few--have similar celebrations during autumn with origins that date back thousands of years. Again, I highly encourage you to do further research on your own.

As always, we can't talk about the history of the sabbats without discussing the Christian crossovers. All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day are Catholic holidays celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, respectively. In medieval Spain, people would observe All Souls' Day very similarly to how Dia de los Muertos is celebrated now: by bringing pan de ánimas, or spirit bread, and wine to the graves of their lost loved ones and decorate the site with flowers and candles. In many places in both Europe and the Philippines, this observance has not changed much. Depending on the region, people may hold reunions at grave sites, feast, recite special prayers, burn incense, and clean or repair grave markers and tombs.

There is a lot of crossover between celebrations--Pagan, Christian, and cultural--of the time around October 31st. Something I like to bring up with every sabbat and when mentioning its historical relations to Christianity, we often have a "chicken or the egg" scenario. Did ancient Pagans celebrate this sabbat in their own way and Christians adopted those customs? Or are neo-Pagans currently pulling from past Christian influence? Honestly, we don't always know. Much of the documentation simply, sadly, does not go back far enough, is riddled with gaps, or was taken down by unreliable narrators.

While some Pagans prefer to keep all Christian-related things out of their practice, many of us are okay dealing with the overlap that exists, but that is an entirely personal choice. Things became so intermingled, so slowly over time that not only is there no definitive line and no exact answer from historians, but there is a lot of meaning that resonates with Pagans no matter the true origin. In my practice, I simply take God out of it and I work with what's leftover.

Finally, while I won't be going into the origins of each individual custom for this holiday here, I would be remiss to leave out the fact that many of the customs that we now associate with Halloween were originally divination techniques which became popular in England during the 17th century. For instance, it was said that one could bob for apples to discover their true love.

As always, I am only providing a brief overview of the history of this sabbat. To learn more, check out the resources listed at the bottom of this article and I encourage you to do further research yourself.

Celebrating

Here is a jumping-off point for forming your celebrations. Please keep in mind that these lists are here to help but they are not definitive! You should absolutely put your own spin on how to decorate and celebrate based on how this sabbat works into your life and spirituality.

Decorations

Colors: Black, orange, red, gold, silver, and purple.
Flora: Fall leaves, corn, pumpkins, gourds, root vegetables, pomegranates, apples, and nuts.
Other: An altar for the deceased, particularly your own ancestors. Include photographs, items they owned, symbols for family or the dead, and offerings. Also, feel free to incorporate your Halloween decorations into your Samhain decorations as the symbolism of both holidays has a lot of crossover.

Activities

Carve a jack o' lantern - Better yet, go old school and carve a turnip.
Host a dumb supper
Drink mulled wine, mead, and/or apple cider
Light a candle in your window - This is said to help guide the recently deceased to the spirit world.
Make a besom
Bake soul cakes or an apple or pumpkin pie - Or all three, I'm not judging.
Light a bonfire
Do shadow work - This is a good time to face your fears, so explore what you are afraid of and why it makes you afraid.
Do something that scares you - Yes, I do mean visit a haunted house, go ghost hunting, take a (safe) nighttime hike, get lost in a corn maze, etc. But in general, this is a good time to abandon fear and do something that tests you and challenges your boundaries, whatever that might be for you.
Set intentions for the year - It is the Witches' New Year, after all.

Rituals, Spellwork, & Magick

Make Offerings: On an ancestor altar, on the grave of a loved one, as a general offering left at a cemetery, or to the spirits in your home (if you have any).
Astral Travel: The veils are thin between all worlds, making this a great time for smooth sailing.
Divination: Same reasoning as above.
Spirit Communication
Cleansing: As it's the Witches' New Year, start it off with a clean slate by cleansing yourself, your space, and your tools.
Intentions: Death (could be literal [lol j/k?...], but what I really mean is anything you want to be rid of or let go), banishing, grief acceptance, intuition, overcoming fear