Well folks, it's the time of year again that every good Celt looks forward to with bated breath. Yes, it's
Samhain, and as good Celts we all know what that entails, don't we? Well, maybe it's the Cockney in this
Jock, but I really didn't have a clue as to what it meant except that it was the New Year of the old
Celtic calendar. So, in order to write something of a semi-intelligent nature for our editor-in-chief of
this little tabloid, I did what any red-blooded Celt with a computer would do: access the Web!!!! There
is, of course, a wealth of information on this and any subject in the Celtic World, and I was lucky enough
to stumble on just the right stuff.
Firstly, the word itself. "Samhain," pronounced SOW-IN (sow-een) or SOW-EN (sow-en), is the
compound word derived from the Scots Gaelic words "sam," meaning "summer" and "fuin," meaning "end."
So Samhain, or Samain, means literally "end of summer." The Irish-English dictionary defines Samhain
as: "All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian times, signaling the close of harvest and
start of winter." The Scottish Gaelis Dictionary defines it as "Hallowtide. The feast of All Souls." So
as you can see, Halloween is tied to the Samhain, although today it's only a pale shadow of the original
Celtic festival.
Samhain was the end of summer, and this had a great deal of significance for the Celts. It was
celebrated on the first day of November, the month "that heralds the rule of darkness." Like all Celtic
festivals, Samhain was celebrated on three levels: the material, spiritual, and cosmic levels.
On the material level it was of great importance. The Celts were a pastoral society as opposed to an
agrarian society and the end of summer meant a radical change in their life style. Samhain was the time
of the great gathering of the clans/tribes, and also a time of stock-taking and preparation for the
coming winter. It brought all the people and livestock down from the summer pastures in the hills and
glens to their winter quarters. It was a time of re-acquaintance; kith and kin gathered indoors for long
winter nights of story telling and craft making. People would travel long distances to attend their tribal
feasts and the festival would last over a period of nine days. It was also a period of culling the herds;
all stock that wasn't required for breeding in the spring was slaughtered to prepare for the coming
winter.
It was also a festival of fire with a new fire being set on the household hearth which would burn until
the first day of the following Spring. Huge bonfires were lit on the hilltops at sunset in honor of the old
Gods and Goddesses, and to guide the souls of the dead home to their kin. There is still a present day
celebration of one of these ancient fire festivals which takes place every year at Burghead, in Moray,
Scotland. It's known as "the Burning of the Clavie" which, although celebrated on the 11th of January,
has many simi-larities with Samhain. The clavie is a herring barrel filled with tar and packed with staves
(today they use old whiskey barrels). After being lit from a peat fire from the hearth of the Burghead
Provost (Mayor), it is carried clockwise around the town, stopping at prominent citizens' homes to bring
them good luck. From there it's taken to a stone altar at an old fort on Doorie Hill and set down. More
fuel is added and the hill is ablaze with a beacon of fire. I don't think the C.D.F. would go for that little
ritual here in good old California, eh!!
On the spiritual level Samhain was a time of inner contemplation because, for a warrior race, death was
always present though not the tragedy it is in modern times. The important thing was to die with honor,
live in the memory of the clan, and be honored at the great feast, Fleadh nan Mairbh (Feast of the
Dead), which was held on Samhain Eve. This, for the Celts, was the most magical time of the year. They
believed that when people died they went to the land of eternal youth and happiness called Tir nan Og,
and they also believed that the turning points of time, such as day to night and summer to winter, were
magical times. The Eve of Samhain, which was the turning point of the year, was even more so; it was
believed that the veil between the two worlds was at its thinnest and that the living could communicate
with their beloved dead in Tir nan Og. It was also believed that ghosts of people destined to die in the
coming year could be seen walking through graveyards at midnight on Samhain, and because these ghosts
were thought to be malevolent, people would carve jack-o-lanterns out of pumpkins and carry them as
lanterns to scare away the ghosties.
Samhain on the cosmic level came to herald the supremacy of night over day, winter over summer and the
ageless battle between light and dark, growth and decay, and life and death, but never of good and evil.
There were other customs that took place at Samhain such as apple-ducking, which was a marriage
divination (the first to bite an apple was supposed to be the first to get married) and apple-peeling, a
divination of long life (the longer the peel, the longer the life) The foods of Samhain were as follows:
apples, pumpkin pie, hazelnuts, corn, cakes for the dead, cranberry muffins and breads, ale and beer,
cider and herbal teas.
So there you have it folks, a diatribe on Samhain. And now you know what to bring to the Shasta Celtic
Society Samhain Celebration on November 1st at Bridge Bay Resort. This is really just an excuse for a
Halloween party and a chance for us all to kick our heels up and have a blast. So bring any Celtic music
you may wish to hear, and if you are so inclined, come in costume (yeah, kilties are fine). There is also
the possibility of piping, but nothing definite. So come and have a happy Samhain.
