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Next: 31 Oct to 1 Nov 2026

Samhain

The Gaelic festival of the turn into winter, when the border with the Otherworld is said to thin and the dead and the fairies move about.

A tile drawn for this day, not a photograph.

About Samhain

Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the start of the dark half of the year in Gaelic Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Medieval Irish texts place many tales of the Otherworld on this night, and later folk custom had households light bonfires, set a place for the dead and stay indoors after dark. Divination was common: nuts, apples and kale stalks were used by young people to learn who they might marry. Whether the festival is a direct survival of a pagan rite is argued among historians, who point to the thin early evidence. Modern Pagans keep Samhain as the final harvest sabbat and often as the ritual new year, with a strong emphasis on ancestors.

Entries tied to it

SamhainThe Gaelic festival and its Otherworld tales.BonfireThe fires lit on the night.

Also part of it, and being written: Wheel of the Year (The modern Pagan calendar in which Samhain is a sabbat.), Allhallowtide (The Christian season of the dead that sits beside it.).

More entries linked to Samhain

🇬🇧 United KingdomCat-sìth A spectral feline from Celtic lore that haunts the Scottish Highlands and guards the dead.Being · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Legendary 🇮🇪 IrelandThe MorríganMórrígan An Irish goddess of war, fate, and sovereignty who appears as a crow or shape-shifter.Figure · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Legendary 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 moreFirst-footciad-chuairt The first visitor on New Year's Day, believed to set the household's fortune for the year aheadTradition · Luck and prosperity Living
About this page

Written by the EveryJaadu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Samhain" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family, and are described as belief and practice. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly digest

Every Monday: seven entries you may not know, what is on the calendar this week, and one rite drawn step by step.