The Secrets of Samhain: The True History Behind Halloween

The Secrets of Samhain: The True History Behind Halloween

Samhain is a pagan religious festival originating from an ancient Celtic spiritual tradition.

Samhain translates to “summer’s end” and is usually celebrated from October 31 to November 1 to welcome the harvest and acknowledge and greet “the dark half of the year.

In Celtic Ireland about 2,000 years ago, Samhain was the division of the year between the lighter half (summer) and the darker half (winter).

It is the spiritual new year for pagans, a time for reflecting on what has been and envisioning what will be and a time to remember our ancestors since during this time the veil between the realms of the living and the realms of the dead is thinnest.

[bearhall]

It makes sense for fall festivals to be about death... the world is dying in the fall. Grass stops growing... trees stop bluming and the leaves lose their color and fall to rot. The land is entering death... then for the winter solstice, we celebrate the longest night of the year, signifying the days getting longer again... the world is not yet reborne, but hope is...
Then in April, we celebrate the spring equinox, and that which was dead is now rising to life once again. It all makes perfect sense to me.

[emilymark]

Brilliant work. Accurate information and well presented. Nicely done.

[mauralee]

Samhain for me is a time to celebrate the ancestors as well as the anniversary of being a cancer survivor. It is my favorite festival on the wheel of the year!

[luridfox]

This is exactly what I was looking for. Very succinct but still presenting lots of information and education

[riceire]

The first samhain (sawin) was at a place called tlachtga at the hill of Tara Co meath in Ireland 🇮🇪

[robertawishon]

I love this video, thank you.I like to think of the old ways to celebrate.To think of paganism and druidism is beyond words sometimes to me.Bless all who help keep the old alive and protect it.😀♥️🌈🍀

[zeph]

Thank you ~ in the southern hemisphere of course everything happens directly opposite, so we pagans down here celebrate Samhain on the 30th April. BB

[thedabbinunicorn]

I would really like to celebrate a more spiritual Samhain this year ...in remberance of my Celtic ancestors..where can I find a video on this 🧡

[charlesda]

If you want to know the true meaning of Halloween come to Ireland 🇮🇪

[wamballa]

That was the best and most interesting explanation of Samheim :-) btw I do feel it's a shame all this stuff has been forgotten. My mum this weekend was talking about May pole dancing when she was a kid in the 50s which doesn't happen now. Seems we have a cultural treasure trove in our past which Christianity has borrowed from, built upon and demonised. Love to learn more

[Backyard]

These Pagan practices go back to the time before the Flood

[anitaobrien]

Everything except your pronunciation of Samhain was great.

[theDrWOO]

May I use your video on my show today? I have alot of respect for your channel

[roen]

The New Year bit is disputed (see Hutton, Ronald "Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, " p. 363). Historian, Nicholas Rogers, writes: "there is no hard evidence that Samhain was specifically devoted to the dead or to ancestor worship....According to the ancient sagas, Samhain was the time when tribal peoples paid tribute to their conquerors and when the sidh[e] [fairy/ies] might reveal the magnificent palaces of the gods of the underworld." The festival was more about the transition of seasons and appeasing the deities so that the people and their livestock might be protected over the harsh winter. Many of the modern customs are later inventions that have no similarity to what was done all those millennia ago. All Saints Day was a day that was commemorated in the 8th Century when Pope Gregory III dedicated an oratory to all the saints in St. Peter's Basilica as a response to the iconoclastic heretics in the East. It later became universalized for the entire Church and so is completely independent of any pagan influence. If any syncretism took place afterward it had to do with local customs where people incorporated Celtic practices into a thoroughly Christian holiday.

[honeybee]

"Sprites" ...that's interesting tho.

[olgaolga]

👍 But why don’t you go on with these wheel of year sabbaths?

[danielle]

Don't forget your salt water and bread on Nov 4th outside your door and a light at your window

[lesleyrussell]

It was as much Scottish as Irish perhaps but even more so. She seems to have forgotten this.

[kickinitwithpoc]

Funny... Travis Scott's satanic ritual (concert) falls on this satanic holiday

[galatura]

Not quite factual, Samhain would occur sometime between the 4th and 7th November on the night of the Night Moon.