Samhain: History, Symbols and Simple Ways to Celebrate
What is Samhain?
Today, Samhain is seen as a time when the veil between mundane reality and the otherworld thins.
More on the actual history later…
The word ‘Samhain’ comes from Old Irish samain, meaning ‘summers end’.
Many Pagans choose to merge the celebration of secular Halloween with Samhain.
This is a modern form of Pagan syncretism and it’s highly encouraged!
When Is Samhain Celebrated?
Samhain takes place from sunset to sunset:
31st of October to the 1st of November in the Northern Hemisphere.
30th of April to the 1st of May in the Southern Hemisphere.
What Are the Themes of Samhain?
As we’ll discuss in the history section, Samhain has a few different layers to it.
But roughly speaking, the themes of the season are:
Ancestor veneration
Beginning of winter
Death
Harvest
Guising (costumes)
Remembrance
the symbols of samhain
Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day.
Seneca
There are several symbols associated with Samhain.
Modern Halloween has a huge flipping list, but I’ve chosen to not include those here.
Instead, I’ve stuck to the more historically accurate ones.
Apples
Bonfires
Guising (costumes)
Jack-o’-Lanterns
Memento Mori
Memento mori basically equals skulls and shit.
A Brief History of Samhain
The Pagan Origins
History time!
Whooooo!
Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the start of winter.
The earliest use of the word Samhain is attested in Old Irish literature, dating from the 9th century.
Samhain was traditionally celebrated with bonfires and the slaughter of livestock for winter. British Historian Ronald Hutton argues that this festival was very much a celebratory harvest festival.
You’ll often hear modern Pagans and witchy types refer to Samhain as the Celtic new year.
Well… they’re wrong.
At least, from a purely historical perspective.
Hutton explains that this is likely untrue.
This idea actually started with a late 19th century academic named Sir John Rhys.
His assertion that it’s the Celtic new year is largely speculative and almost completely unsupported by historical evidence.
The Medieval Christian Origins
Time to upend the apple cart…
Christianity contributed a pretty hefty amount to the way we conceptualise Halloween and modern Samhain.
The Christian church (shrewdly) allowed the Pagan traditions to blend with the Christian festival of All Souls’ Day.
Now for the kicker…
Ronald Hutton argues that Samhain was a celebratory harvest festival with no preexisting connection to the dead.
Instead, he maintains that the strong association with the dead came in with the Christians, who celebrated All Souls’ Day on the 2nd of November.
It is commonly asserted that Samhain was the pagan festival of the dead. In reality feasts to commemorate the dead, were celebrated between March and May, as part of a spring cleaning to close off grieving and go forth into the new summer.
The medieval Catholic church did gradually institute a mighty festival of the dead at this time of year, designating 1 November as the feast of All Saints, and 2 November as All Souls.
On All Souls’ Day, medieval people would pray for all the poor bastards stuck in purgatory.
The churchy people realised that most people weren’t good or bad enough for heaven or hell, so they were sent somewhere else instead.
Meet purgatory.
Everyone’s favourite betwixt and between place.
Part of this festival involved decorating graves and holding vigils for the dead.
Thus, all the ancestral dead stuff is more of a Christian thing than an olde worlde Pagan thing.
The Early Modern Period Origins
Guising (dressing up in costumes) was also practiced around Samhain, where people would go door to door reciting verses for food.
Th earliest record we have for this appears to be in the 1500s in Scotland.
This type of celebration was a kind of mockery of the darkness and the fear that the dark half of the year brought with it.
Hutton explains that dressing up in costumes was a very short step away from playing pranks. Hence the name ‘Mischief Night’ being used in some areas.
It also kind of explains the whole ‘trick or treat’ thing.
I could spend way longer delving into all of this. But we’ll leave it there because we have a festival to celebrate.
Read on for a few simple ways to celebrate Samhain!
1. Create an ancestor Altar
Setting up an ancestor altar and giving offerings to the dead is something I like to do at Samhain.
Some appropriate ancestor altar items include:
Images of death deities
Images of ancestors
Black candles
Incense
Apples
Memento mori
On or around Samhain night, light your candles and incense. If you would like to, you can make an offering to your ancestors.
If that’s not your thing, contemplate the energy of life, death and the ending of a cycle.
2. Bake Soul Cakes For the Dead
Soul! Soul! Soul-cake!
Please good Missis, a soul-cake!
Apple, pear, plum or cherry,
Any good thing to make us all merry.
One for Peter, two for Paul
Three for Him who made us all.Souling Song Chorus
Soul cakes are a Halloween and All Souls’ Day tradition.
Soul cakes were given to ‘soulers’ who went door to door singing for their relatives in Purgatory.
The tradition emerged in the England during the Middle Ages.
Baking soul cakes is something I’ve done for quite a few years now on Halloween/Samhain.
Sometimes I forget because… life.
I’m also plant based, so I use this recipe.
I just usually add more sugar lol.
Once the kitchen monster (my husband) has been appeased with an offering, the rest are offered to my ancestors.
If this is one step too far down religious trauma lane, then here are some alternative ideas:
Bake a cake from a traditional family recipe.
Try out an ancient Roman honey cake recipe.
Bake your favourite sweet treat as an offering.
3. Hold a Silent Supper
A silent supper involves laying the table for an evening meal, with a set placed for the dead and then eating the meal in silence.
I actually struggled to find any reputable sources for the history of the silent supper.
Literally, couldn’t find anything.
I’m inclined to think the silent supper is a modern invention.
I did find some older sources around the silent supper being related to love divination.
I’m including it here because this is something modern people like to do at Samhain.
In the evening cook a meal.
Set a place for the dead with a full plate of food.
Then eat in silence and lowlighting.
Because low lighting is a mood.
As you eat reflect upon death and what it means to you.
This is a modern form of memento mori, ‘remember you must die’.
The Greco-Roman school of philosophy known as Stoicism encouraged practices that reflected on death and mortality.
Buffy knows what's up.
By contemplating death we can come to accept it as a natural part of the life cycle.
As well as giving us perspective on our life in the here and now.
Don’t let life pass you by.
If nothing we do matters... then all that matters is what we do. ‘Cause that’s all there is. What we do. Now. Today.
Angel season 2, Epiphany.
When you’re finished with your silent supper, compost the food for the dead.
Thank the dead and remember you’ll be joining them one day.
4. Have a Bonfire
Bonfires have a curious effect on the mind.
Just a peek into the flickering flames licking the crackling wood instantly transports you to a more primeval time…
One when humanity hadn’t forgotten itself.
Like the Celts of old, light up a bonfire.
Stare into it, drink something warm and tell ghost stories.
And remember kids…
Fire safety first.
5. Take a Graveyard Stroll
This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.
Tyler Durden, Fight Club
I love walking around graveyards and cemeteries.
FWIW:
Graveyard = attached to a church.
Cemetery = no church.
We have a lovely cemetery a five minute walk around the corner from us. A lot of people like it because it’s filled with waves of unruly wildflowers in the spring.
If the idea of strolling around the land of decomposing bodies creeps you out… I have an easy remedy for you.
Don’t bloody do it lol.
As for the rest of us…
Graveyards are tranquil spaces of remembrance for the dead.
When I walk around cemeteries, I usually try to pick up any stray litter, or restore knocked over vases of flowers to their rightful verticality.
Walk around and contemplate the ending of a life cycle.
What does death mean to you?
Feel free to bring a journal and express this contemplation through writing.
6. Go Pumpkin Picking
Going pumpkin picking, and doing a horrendous job of carving a face into one is more of a modern thing.
And while we all love a jolly orange pumpkin, here in Britain and Ireland we didn’t originally have them.
Back in ye olde days it was more traditional to carve faces into turnips and other more boringly coloured root vegetables.
Carved root vegetables like this are called Jack-O-Lanterns.
The name Jack-O-Lantern originated from the name of haunting lights hovering over bogs. We’re more familiar with them today as will-o’-the-wisps.
Jack-o-Lanterns are said to represent roaming mischievous spirits.
While probably not ancient in origin, it’s still a fun activity!
If you do buy a pumpkin just remember to compost it after Halloween has passed.
Around 1.3 billion pumpkins end up in landfill each year!
Food that rots in landfill emits methane (a potent greenhouse gas) which contributes to climate change.
If you can’t compost your pumpkin for some reason…
Pumpkins are, in fact, edible.
Shocking, I know.
Maybe try some pumpkin inspired recipes?
7. Pull a Tarot Card
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If you’re into using tarot and oracle cards, feel free to use any that feel appropriate for Samhain.
Ask yourself these questions:
What do I need to let go of as the darkness increases?
What can I celebrate?
Journal about any intuitive insights.
8. Journal
I really enjoy journalling as the seasons change. It’s a very simple way to align yourself with the energy of the season.
Grab a journal and answer the following Samhain prompts:
What do you dislike most about the dark half of the year? How can you improve these things?
What do you feel when you think about death?
Think about someone in your life who has passed away, write about some of your happiest memories together.
Imagine you’re lying on your deathbed; what regrets does this version of you have?