Samhain November 1st

It comes after Lugnasad and before Imbolc (or Imolg) and marks the beginning of the dark period (for the Gaels, as for the ancients Celts and their Indo-European ancestors, the year was composed of two fundamental seasons: a dark season and a light season).

It is a celebration of transition — the passage from one year to the next — and of opening towards theOther world, that of the gods and the spirits. It is mentioned in many epic tales Irish because, by definition, it is conducive to magical and mythical events.

Its importance among the Celts is incontestable, since it is found in Gaul under the mention Tri nox Samoni (the three nights of Samoni-), during the month of Samonios (approximately the month of November), on the Coligny calendar.

The day of Samain takes place at the beginning of November and the first of this month is considered as the conventional date. The chronological elements provided by the texts, however, allow us to envisage an extensive mythico-ritual complex. Local variations are observed: the "old Samain" took place on the 7th (Old Hallowe'en), the 11th or the November 12. »

Samhain is thought to have originated as a festival where Celtic society gathered for ritual banquets; its sacred nature placed it under the authority of the priestly class of druids and the presidency of the king. According to the tripartite ideology of the Indo-Europeans defined by Georges Dumézil, the three classes of society (priestly, warrior and artisan) are associated with the ceremonies..

This assembly religious and social gradually disappeared with Christianization, but it remains attested until the XII^e century in medieval Irish literature. Indeed, although the mythology Gaelic (Goidelic) originated from oral tradition, but was recorded by medieval Irish monks, who took the opportunity to partially Christianize it. Their writings can nevertheless give us many clues about the nature of the festival of Samhain and how it was celebrated among the Celts of Ireland.

Irish mythology tells us that Samhain is one of the four festivals of the year. The Tochmarc Emire, a story of the X^e century that tells how Cúchulainn courted Emer, presents Samhain as the first of these "four days". Among the Gaels, Samain was associated with the assembly of Tara, which was held for a week around the 1^er current November.

The last time this very old assembly was held was in 560.. However, the motives of Samain, like those of the assembly of Tara, remain difficult to evaluate. According to written sources, it could be to vote on new laws, to render justice, to celebrate the end of the harvests, to celebrate official marriages..

The notion of passage is also found at this moment, between the world of humans and theOther world residence of the gods (the Sidh). There have been stories of heroes, or exceptional men, who go to the Sidh (usually at the invitation of a Bansidh), and spend a few pleasant hours there. The time of the gods not being the same, their stay is, in fact, of several centuries and, when they return home, they cannot live since they have been dead for a long time.

The festival itself actually lasts a full week: three days before the November full moon, the day of the full moon itself, and then three days after. For the Celts, this period is in parentheses in the year: it belongs neither to the one that is ending nor to the one that is about to begin; it is an autonomous duration, outside of time, "an interval of non-time".

It is the transition from the light season to the dark season, which marks a break in daily life: the end of fighting for warriors and the end of agricultural work for farmer-breeders, for example.