Samhain

The Coligny calendar is a Celtic calendar found in the French town of Coligny in 1897.

Samhain, Old Irish Samain, was a feast observed in ancient Ireland on November 1. This was the first day of winter on the Celtic calendar. Beginning in the eighth century, it was also the date of All Saints' Day. Popular history associates Samhain with Halloween, although Halloween is observed on October 31 and arose separately in 18th century Scotland.

In modern Gaelic, Samhain refers to the month of November. Traditionally, it referred to All Saints Day.

The Celtic year was divided into halves by the holidays Samhain and Beltaine (May 1). These dates were once part of a pagan lunisolar calendar. Even in the earliest surviving accounts, both dates have already transferred to the Christian, or Julian, calendar.

In the Ulster Cycle of medieval legends, Samhain is a harvest festival and the date of various significant events, including Cuchulain's vision of the afterworld.

Etymology

Samhain is derived from Old Irish Samain. According to folklore, Samain is a variation of sam-fuin, meaning summer's end. This derivation is given in the medieval tale "The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain." But it is not accepted by modern scholars.

Celtic scholar Whitley Stokes suggested that the word is derived from Proto-Celtic *samani, meaning "assembly." Ranko Matasović gives the derivation as "assembly on the 1st of November."

The 12th century legend Cormac's Adventure portrays the Feast of Tara (Feis Temro) as a parliamentary body that met for seven days every seven years around the time of Samhain. The last Feast of Tara was held in 560. It crowned Diarmait mac Cerbaill (Dermot), the first Christian high king.

Origins

Garrett Olmsted of Cornell University argues that Samhain was once observed on the winter solstice (December 21) and gradually shifted to November 1 after centuries of calendar drift. It is sometimes suggested, especially by neo-pagans, that the Celts intended to select a date halfway between the equinox and the solstice. By this logic, November 7 is the "real" date of Samhain.

The Welsh observe Calan Gaeaf on November 1. This name refers to the first day of winter. The Britons, ancestors of the Welsh, converted to the Julian calendar several centuries before the Irish did, which was around AD 450. So the Julian dates for Celtic winter and summer may reflect earlier British practice.

Early Welsh literature ascribes no importance to November 1, at least not compared to Calan Haf (May 1). This suggests that Samhain gained prominence in Ireland sometime after Irish culture and language split off from that of the Britons. The linguistic split became noticeable in the sixth century.

The legend of Saint Patrick building an Easter bonfire on the Hill of Slain to challenge the fire festival of Beltaine (May 1) is well known. That there is no equivalent legend concerning Samhain suggests that it was a day of less religious importance.

Regula Coenobialis of St Columban, written in AD 540‐615, is the oldest source to describe November 1 as the first day of winter. November 1 was Christianized as All Saints Day in the eighth century. The earliest mention of Samhain is found in the ninth century text Felire Oengusso. It spells the word as Samain.

Ulster Cycle

The earliest surviving discussion of Samhain is in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. These tales are set in the days when Connor ruled Ulster as king in the first century BC. They were composed in the tenth or eleventh centuries.

"The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain" portrays Samhain as a harvest festival:

“

EVERY year the men of Ulster were accustomed to hold festival together; and the time when they held it was for three days before Samhain, the Summer-End, and for three days after that day, and upon Samhain itself. And the time that is spoken of is that when the men of Ulster were in the Plain of Murthemne, and there they used to keep that festival every year; nor was there an thing in the world that they would do at that time except sports, and marketings, and splendours, and pomps, and feasting and eating; and it is from that custom of theirs that the Festival of the Samhain has descended, that is now held throughout the whole of Ireland.

”

That Ulstermen are portrayed as establishing Samhain supports the view that Samhain existed as a date on the calendar before a festival was established, as has already been argued. In Gaelic, the holiday is given as samfuin rather than as Samain. In the passage above, this word is translated as "Samhain, the Summer-End."

While others partied, Ulster hero Cuchulain was delirious and received an extended vision of Mag Mell, the Plain of Delight, a Celtic version the Elysian fields.

The holiday is also discussed in the "Wooing of Emer," another tale in the Ulster Cycle. As Emer tells Cuchulain: "two divisions were formerly on the year,...summer from Beltaine (the first of May), and winter from Samuin to Beltaine." So Cuchulain lives in a Julian calendar world in which the Celtic calendar "formerly on the year" needs to be explained.

The Celtic calendar

Cormac's Glossary gives Imbol (February 1) as the first day of spring, Beltaine (May 1) the first day of summer, Lugnasad (August 1) the first day of fall, and Samhain (November 1) the first day of winter. This glossary was started by the king-bishop of Munster around AD 900. Some entries were added centuries later.

A Celtic lunisolar calendar has been reconstructed from fragments of a second AD calendar found in the French town of Coligny. The first month on the calendar is called Samonios. As samo- is Gaulish for summer, this was presumably a summer month. The Celts celebrated a three-day festival that began on the 17th of Samonios, according to this calendar. This festival may correspond to Beltaine, the principle Celtic holiday. If so, 17 Samonios corresponds to May 1, the Julian date for Beltaine. The calendar may have been designed to start on the summer solstice (June 21). Various factors could have caused it to move out of alignment, including the swing of the seasons from one year of the cycle to the next and calendar drift. Perhaps change of season dates were placed on the first of the month for convenience.

Samhain follows Beltaine by exactly six months. This suggests that it was observed in Giamonios, the seventh month of the Coligny calendar. The name of this month is transparently derived from giamos, the Gaulish word for winter. Gam is old Irish for November, according to Cormac's Glossary.