What is Samhain?

Samhain is celebrated at the evening on the 31st of October and on the 1st of November. It is sometimes seen as the Celtic New Year, the beginning of the winter season and represents the powers in both the old and the new year getting weaker which thins the veil between our world and that of those who have passed.

It is one of the biggest feasts of the wheel of the year (along with Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasadh) and well loved by many Old Way practitioners. Samhain is old Irish for "the end of Summer", marking the end of the harvest season. In Irish legends it is told that the heroes of old come through the fairygates at night. Therefor it is custom to have some extra seats at the table. To welcome those who are usually beyond the veil.

The communing with the ancestors is seen as a tradition predating the Celtic era, although it's earliest mentions is in Irish literature from the 9th century. It used to be marked with great gatherings, feasts and bonfires. Recordings in detail weren't until the early modern era.

Like Bealtaine, Samhain is considered a liminal/treshold festival, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld blurred, making contact with the other side more likely. Modern Halloween traditions (as often seen in the USA) were inherited from Irish and Scottish immigrants. At Siren we try to grasp back to our own European roots.

When:

Saturday 31.10.2026

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