The Meaning and History of Samhain

The Pagan holiday of Samhain hails to us from Celtic lands. And like many Pagan holidays is multifaceted, interpreted as “summer’s end.” Samhain is the third in three harvest festivals on the calendar - Lughnasadh being the first and Mabon being the second. Samhain as a harvest festival focuses on zucchini, squash pumpkin, gourd and the like.

Samhain is the Celtic New Year. And as the wheel turns the goal in life is to make it back to Samhain, to the final harvest entering the dark part of the year where we can rest and preparer for spring.

The last aspect of Samhain is that of a memorial time for us to remember and honor our friends and loved ones who have crossed back over to the other side.

Because the Celts marked their days from sunset to sunset the time to observe Samhain is from the evening of October 31st to the evening of November 1st.