Samhain (pronounced SOW-in) is the old Gaelic festival that marks the end of the harvest and the start of the dark half of the year. It begins at sunset on 31 October and runs into 1 November, and in Ireland and Scotland it was long treated as the turning point of the year, the night when the boundary between the living and the dead was said to be at its thinnest. Most of what we now know as Halloween grew out of it.
Every year in October people ask me what Samhain actually is, underneath the pumpkins and the costumes. The short answer is that it is a threshold. One season closes, the next one has not quite started, and for one night the old stories say the door between the worlds stands open a little. What you do with that is the interesting part.
What is Samhain?
Samhain is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, alongside Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. It marks the moment when the cattle came down from the summer pastures, the last crops were brought in, and the community turned towards winter. The name is Old Irish and is usually linked to the word for summer’s end, although scholars still argue about the exact origin.
Because the Gaelic day began at sunset rather than at midnight, Samhain starts on the evening of 31 October. That is why the eve matters more than the day. In the old Irish stories, a lot happens on Samhain night: kings gather at Tara, the fairy mounds open, and people from the Otherworld walk among the living. Encyclopaedia Britannica sums it up as the festival that marked the beginning of winter, when the souls of the dead were believed to return to their homes.
Why is Samhain called the old new year?
Samhain is often called the Celtic new year because it opened the dark half of the year, and in many old calendars the dark comes first, the way night comes before day. Whether the ancient Celts actually counted the year from Samhain is not certain.
The idea became popular through nineteenth century scholars, and it has some support. The Gaulish Coligny calendar, bronze tablets from the second century found in France, names a month Samonios, and some researchers read it as the first month of the year. The historian Ronald Hutton, in The Stations of the Sun, is more careful: he points out that much of the picture of Samhain as a pagan new year and festival of the dead was put together later, from medieval Irish texts and from folklore collected centuries afterwards.
I find that honesty helpful rather than disappointing. You do not need a perfect ancient pedigree to work with Samhain. What you have is a living seasonal festival with very old roots, and the feeling of a year turning over in the dark, which anyone who has lived through a northern autumn will recognise.
What does it mean that the veil is thin at Samhain?
It means that at this time of year, contact with the dead, the ancestors and the spirit world is said to come more easily than usual. In shamanic terms, the boundary between ordinary and non ordinary reality feels more permeable, so dreams, journeys and small signs tend to carry more weight.
In Irish and Scottish folklore this showed up in very practical ways. Doors were left open or a place was set at the table for the family dead. People stayed close to home after dark, because the aos sí, the fairy folk, were out as well. Lanterns carved from turnips were carried to keep unwelcome visitors away. None of it was abstract. It was what you did on that night so that the household got through it well.
In my own practice I notice the same thing every year. From mid October onwards, people in my circles start dreaming about grandparents they have not thought of in years. If you keep a dream journal, this is a good season to read it more carefully. I wrote more about that in dreams in shamanism.
Old Samhain customs and what they were for
Most of the traditional customs fall into four groups: honouring the dead, protecting the household, reading the coming year, and sharing food. This table gives an overview of the best known ones.
| Custom | Where it comes from | What it was for |
|---|---|---|
| Bonfires on the hills | Ireland and Scotland, recorded from the Middle Ages | Marking the turn of the season and protecting people and cattle for winter |
| A place set for the dead | Irish and Scottish households | Welcoming family members who had died back home for one night |
| Carved turnip lanterns | Ireland and Scotland, later pumpkins in North America | Lighting the way home and keeping unwanted spirits at a distance |
| Guising | Scotland and Ireland | Going door to door in disguise for food, the root of trick or treating |
| Apple and nut divination | Folk custom across Britain and Ireland | Asking about marriage, health and fortune in the year ahead |
| Putting out the hearth fire | Irish tradition linked to Tlachtga and Tara | Letting the old year end and relighting the fire for the new one |
How can you mark Samhain today?
You can mark Samhain with something as simple as a candle, a photo and an evening that you keep quiet on purpose. The point is to stop, remember who came before you, and let the year that is ending actually end.
Here is a gentle way to do it at home, which takes about an hour:
- Clear a small space. A shelf or a corner of the table is enough. If you already keep an altar, use that. If not, setting one up beforehand helps more than people expect.
- Bring the dead to the table. Put out photos, a handwritten letter or something that belonged to someone you have lost. Add a candle and a small offering of food or drink.
- Say their names out loud. One by one, and tell each of them one thing you are grateful for. If you do not know your ancestors, speak to them as “those who came before me”. They will know who you mean.
- Let the year go. Write down what this year has taken or finished for you. Burn the page in a fireproof bowl, or bury it in the garden the next morning.
- Sit in the dark for a while. Blow out every light except the candle. Ten minutes of quiet. This is the part most people skip, and it matters most.
- Eat something and close. Thank the ones you invited, blow out the candle and eat a proper meal. Coming back fully is part of the ritual.
If you want to go further, a shamanic journey on Samhain night with the simple question “what does this coming winter ask of me?” is a lovely practice. Keep it short and keep it grounded. The ritual for new beginnings uses the same three movements of release, pause and commitment, and it works well a few days later, once the dark half of the year has begun.
A note of care: Samhain often brings grief to the surface, especially in a year when you have lost someone. Ritual can hold some of that, but it does not replace grief counselling, therapy or medical support. If the sadness feels too heavy to carry alone, please reach out to a professional as well.
How I spend Samhain in Portugal
I live in Portugal, and here the turn of the season looks a little different from the Irish hills. On 1 November, Dia de Todos os Santos, families go to the cemeteries with chrysanthemums and clean the graves together. In some villages children still knock on doors asking for Pão por Deus, bread for God’s sake, and get sweets, nuts or a small cake. When I first saw it, I recognised guising straight away, just with a different name.
My own evening is simple. I set the table with one extra plate for my grandmothers, light a candle and say their names. Then I drum for twenty minutes, not to go anywhere in particular, just to listen. Most years nothing dramatic happens. Some years an image comes back to me for weeks. What I notice every time is that the next morning feels lighter, as if I had finally finished a conversation that had been waiting.
In the online circles I run, Samhain is the evening when people talk the most and the drum gets the quietest. Several people have told me that saying a name out loud in front of others did more for them than years of thinking about that person on their own. That is one reason we keep a Samhain journey in the Lightkeepers’ Hearth journey circle. Grief and gratitude feel different when someone else hears them.
Frequently asked questions
In the northern hemisphere, Samhain begins at sunset on 31 October and continues on 1 November. Some people mark it on the astronomical midpoint between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, which falls around 7 November. In the southern hemisphere many people celebrate it at the end of April instead.
Not quite. Halloween grew out of Samhain together with the Christian feasts of All Saints and All Souls, and many Halloween customs, such as guising and carved lanterns, have Samhain roots. Samhain itself is a seasonal festival about the turning of the year and honouring the dead, not about fright.
No. You can mark Samhain without belonging to any tradition. Lighting a candle for your dead, sharing a meal and letting the year end are things people of many backgrounds do at this time. What matters is that you do it with respect and attention.
Remembering and honouring your dead is safe and usually comforting. Actively calling on spirits is different, and in shamanic practice you only do that with protection, a clear intention and a way back. If you are new to this, stay with remembrance and gratitude.
Photos or keepsakes of people who have died, a candle, seasonal things like apples, nuts, autumn leaves or a pumpkin, and a small offering of food or drink. Keep it simple and personal. One meaningful object does more than a full table.
