November 1. One of the four important holy days, the beginning of the Celtic year and the most important holiday in the Celtic calendar. This holiday is governed by Cernunnos who feeds the serpents of the life-force from the vessel of the Feminine powers. At Samhain, Cernunnos returns to his consort in the Otherworld and the yearly process begins anew. pronounced: sow win emphasis on the first syllable.
See also:
The festival of the dead, swans, mating, marriage {royal}, diving the future and associated with a dozen or so tales of Rhiannon. Samhain is also when regular mating between the Irish God Dagda and Goddess Morrigan took place.
To confuse the matter of WHEN Samhain actually took place, there was the Roman Festival of Pomona {where the bobbing for apples thing comes into Halloween}; All Hallows, a Christian festival also called Hallowmass and celebrated on Nov 1st ; and then All Saints Day {Nov 2nd}. {The difference between All Hallows and All Saints? All Hallows celebrated saints and redeemed sinners restored to heaven "now" and upon the judgement of Jesus. All Saints celebrated all of the dead. The vast majority of the hokey, but fun, ghost and goblin stuff involving Halloween came from All Saints Day, not from Samhain.}
Samhain TRADITIONALY was observed on the night and following day exactly between the Autumn Equinox and Midwinter Solstice. {Note, this is a bit further into November. Not on Halloween, at least not for another few hundred years.}
Samhain also was NEVER the beginning or end of the Celtic calendar. {Midsummer or Midwinter was, however, depending upon which calendar you mean...}
Most ritual observances probably had to do with rebuilding Tara {a magical hill. Destroyed every year. I'll node the story soon} symbolic suffering and displays of courage in the name of the kingdom, all sorts of dancing, partying and probably some, ahem, mating. No, I won't node what I do on Samhain.
In Irish, Samhain is the word for the month of November. Other months named after Celtic festivals are Bealtaine (May), Lúnasa (August) and Nollaig (December).
The festival of Halloween is called Oíche Shamhna in Irish, which means "Samhain's Eve", i.e. the night before Samhain.
Cletus the Foetus: I would pronounce the word more like sow-when (sow as in pig). In Irish, where 'mh' occurs between two vowels, it is generally soft, like a 'w', or a very soft 'v'. It is only pronounced as a hard 'v' when it occurs at the start of a word, and even then some dialects soften it out of existence. Of course, Irish dialects are so varied it's hard to say any of this with certainty.
Noder's Note (Oct 31): I stand humbly corrected. I'm glad I could bring everyone out of the woodwork to clarify this issue. The point is, the word isn't pronounced "Sam-Hane," as so many North American wannabe-pagan poseurs are wont to pronounce it.
My quasi-official correction to my own aforeposted node: "Samhain" is Gaelic in origin, and Gaelic's rules of spelling are sometimes a little difficult to grasp for non-Gaels (like me). The "s" is broad, and sounds like a standard English "s," more or less. The "mh" is also broad, though different dialects treat the broad "mh" differently -- it can range from being a simple "w" to a soft "v" sound. The "n" is slender, but English speakers won't usually be able to tell the difference.
The vowels also vary from dialect to dialect. The emphasis is on the first syllable. My dictionary gave the sound as like that of "cat," but based on what my fellow noders have said, it is probably closer to the vowel at the end of the British English pronunciation of the word "star." The second syllable may contain a schwa, or a short "i" like in English "pin."
In the International Phonetic Alphabet:
/'sa.wιn/
Thanks to kanon42 and dmd for checking my corrections.
around us and within the voices of our ancestors sing their praise of what we've become
before the fire we dance, we chant they sing along, we sing their words our drums beat for their hearts
within the fire they look out we dance along, their strength empowering our spirits entangled
before and within and around we are our ancestors we are our ancestors
cmb/6.3.99
(October 31, in some traditions November 1)
Samhain is a Pagan Sabbat: a holiday celebrated by Wiccans, Witches, and many others whose religions fall under the umbrella of Earth spirituality and Paganism. It is mixed with some Christian mythology, local (to every place it's celebrated) custom, and most notably ancient folklore, and is much more than trick-or-treat.
Samhain lore:
The God "dies" on Samhain. He leaves this realm of existence and returns to the Summerland to be recycled and cleansed in the cauldron of the Goddess. The veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is thinner than usual at this time of year, being that the God is within the Goddess, who is still part of the world of the living. This is a reminder that the two realms are not as separate as they seem to be.
Samhain sentiments:
This is a time for three things: Coming to terms with death, honoring/remembering of those who have passed to the Summerland, and wrapping up/finalizing projects from the year. This is a "dark" time where the darker and more wise parts of the self are brought out into the open and examined. It is a time for looking forward and backward, of seeing time as cyclical, of releasing the energy that has built up over the year. Samhain is the time to remember, to study, to meditate, and to release.
Samhain practices:
Many people use Samhain as a time of honoring dead relatives and friends, but it is also a good time for symbolic endings and coming to terms with those. On Samhain, we look back over the year and think about our own inevitable death and what it means to us. Much of the time the dead are allowed to take part in the celebrations. Some hold memorials for their dead friends and relatives and think about times past (giving thanks for those who died, particularly in the Burning Times). Others prefer to treat the dead as though they are there: rather than holding ceremonies FOR them they hold ceremonies WITH them. Sometimes people take part in scrying and other forms of divination of the future events. Sewing and handicrafts are popular around Samhain, as people are preparing their Yule gifts as well. Some people use this as a time to collect the final information for large projects that are culminating. This is a time to shed weaknesses, so some people like to write their weaknesses on a piece of paper and then burn it in the cauldron to symbolically release themselves from them. One custom is to light a new orange candle at midnight and let it burn until sunrise for good luck. Black candles are used to ward off negative energies. Another custom is to stand in front of a mirror, look into your own eyes, and make a secret wish. Yet another custom, of course, is to carve a pumpkin or turnip and light a candle inside. Other spiritually-related activities to do on Samhain include past-life recall, spirit contact, meditation, astral projection (or "flying"), and banishing magick.
The Samhain season:
Check out other Sabbats:
Yule¤Imbolc¤Ostara¤Beltane¤Litha¤Lughnasadh¤Mabon
Danzig
Scottish Gaelic: Sam + Fhuin = end of summer (sam: summer; fuin: end)
It is important to point out that there is no Irish "god of the dead," and especially no god named "Samhain," as some rather erroneous books/websites will tell you. There is some argument as to whether one can consider Arawn or Gwyn ap Nudd Welsh gods of the dead, or at least psychopomps, but the Irish pantheon has no official god of the dead. (Some, though, hypothesize that Donn or Mil is this god, as Caesar says that the Gauls believed they were decended from Dis, the Roman name for the god of the dead, and sometimes Donn or Mil are named the ancestors of the Irish.)
Samhain was the new year of the Celts. They did believe that the walls between this world and the otherworld grew thin at this time, but then, they also believed it grew thin at Beltane. It was a feast to memorialize the dead, but it was also a harvest festival, the last of the year before the coming of winter; it is no mistake that the Welsh name for this feast--Nos Galen-gaeof--translates as "Night of the Winter Kalends"--the beginning of winter.
Important events:
Hail to the South Elemental Fire I welcome you to our circle this Samhain night I summon and stir you to aid in our ritual Weave your essence throughout this gathering Protect this circle with searing tongues of fire Ever vigilant, burning to ash all that would try to harm us tonight Warm us with the courage to speak freely, knowing we are safe and loved. We are weaving a circle of defending flames! Welcome Elemental Fire!
Hail to the South Elemental Fire I thank you for your presence and protection tonight Take our love and thanks with you wherever firelight shines Come as you will, stay as you wish You are always welcome among us As always, for the good of all with harm towards none, So mote it be Farewell Elemental Fire!
Samhain is an open source security tool in the same vein as tripwire It scans a unix-based system building a database of all existing files, storing information about each scanned file:
Samhain then runs as a daemon, scanning the system periodically and can alert the system administrator to any changes that occur. The daemon can send notifications via email, the syslog or any other method via running external scripts.
Samhain can take a little time to configure to your liking, improving the signal to noise ratio in the logfile took me a couple of days. Because it checks everything, it can generate false alarms on frequently changing items like logfiles, until you add those files into an 'ignore file size changes'
Samhain is very, very customisable. You can set it to report on files based on different attributes such as permission changes, or tell it to treat a file as read only and only ignore access times.
Samhain also scans login times, to match logins to file modifications, and scans for kernel rootkits.
I use this lovely piece of software in conjunction with logcheck to send me emails whenever a change is detected in one of the servers I manage. I cannot recommend it too highly, in my opinion it should be in every security-concious sysadmin's toolkit.
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