Happy Halloween

Today, Halloween is upon us. The ancient Celtic roots are just underfoot at Samhain (summer's end) as we tread across the threshold from the light half of the year to the dark half, a time of fire and ice, hearth and home. Explore some roots and traditions below and enjoy your celebrations. 

Macnas Parade Galway 
Halloween Origins
Derry Halloween Celebrations
Halloween from Ireland to America

Bonfires of Samhain

As the nights grow longer, colder, and dark settles in, it is fitting that we welcome this time of year with light, with heat, with flame - with a Bonfire. It is an ancient Celtic custom, which still persists today in parts of Ireland & Britain, for people to extinguish the fires burning at home in their hearths. Then the community gathers for the lighting of a large Samhain fire. All Hallows Eve is considered to be a liminal night - meaning that the veil between this world and the Otherworld is thin and spirits, goblins, and mischievous faeries are thought to be active. The ritual fire is thought to ward off bad luck and malevolent spirits. Sometime folks cast objects into the flames, representing personal prayers. When returning home, folks would take embers from the bonfire back home to reignite their hearth fires. Where once you might have seen fires near and far across the countryside like constellations, you might now just see one like a beacon in the night. 

                 

Samhain & the Wheel of the Year

In the Celtic Isles, many of the old ways persist, remnants of traditions from centuries ago are still loyally preserved or else they’ve been distilled into common traditions whose roots lie hidden under the moss and leaf litter of time. Peek behind the gauzy curtains of Halloween and we can trace these old ways, see the persistence of age old traditions and uncover the roots of our most common Halloween ways.

Ancient Celtic Wheel of the Year - The Four Festival Days: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, & Lunasa

and the 4 Cross Quarter Days arranged by the suns positions: Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox,
Summer Solstice, & Autumn Equinox 

The ancient Celtic calendar was a wheel which turned little by little through the seasons until it rolled right back around to Halloween or Samhain as it was called. Samhain in Irish is pronounced SOW-EN and it means summer’s end. It marks the end of the Celtic Year and so also the New Year. It is a threshold, when crossed one passes from the summery light half, to the wintry dark half. And entering the cold dark half has a lot to do with why Samhain, Halloween, is associated with dark things. The sun grows cold and the trees shed their final golden leaves, plant wither to grey then they are gone, animals prepare for long winter sleep. Food and warmth are scarce. The harvest has been stored, the wood gathered, and folks, too, prepare for the season of Earth’s sleep. Because Samhain, summer’s end, is traditionally a festival day, there are many folk traditions and rituals that accompany it. We'll explore those next...

Lúnasa

The beginning of August marks the old Irish Gaelic festival day of Lúnasa, halfway between summer solstice & autumn equinox, marking the beginning of harvest time and the turn from summer to winter. (In Irish, the word for August is Lúnasa.) It is a time to honor the sun, for Lúnasa (or Lughnasadh) is named for Lugh, the old Irish god of the Sun. It's a time to gather the first harvests, to light a bonfire in thanks for your blessings, bake a pie with freshly gathered blueberries, for matchmaking and hand-fasting, for pilgrimages to holy wells and sacred trees. Here Lúnasa arrived on a cool front, one I was aching for, a blessed foreshadowing of Autumn and all her finery. Happy Harvest to come. 

You can read more about Lúnasa and Irish customs at:
yourirish.com
Ireland Calling
Irish Central