Samhain Explained: Halloween’s Celtic Origins

Your holy day and festival videos are refreshing since I can actually learn and not just be bombarded with platitudes and the smell of cat pee.

I'm a little sad to see the scary costumes of days past replaced by Star Wars & Spiderman. We decorate our courtyard & dress up to hand out candy to all the kids who come by on Halloween & I have never seen a ghost, zombie, witch or devil in the 17 years we've been doing this. It's all fairy princess (usually Disney) Marvel Super Heroes & Star Wars characters. Ninjas were kind of popular for a couple years probably because it's fairly easy to throw together. Due to the pernicious & ridiculous rumors about candy poisonings & razor blades in apples & now the Fentanyl scare (nobody is handing out expensive recreational drugs for free to kids on Halloween) schools & malls have taken over the tradition of trick or treating with kids getting candy from stores & some churches offering trunk or treats in their parking lots if they haven't banned the holiday altogether as satanic. It used to be a fun time with home made costumes & home made treats & parties with games but alas no longer. 😢

Don’t forget late October is magic mushroom season and they would have been taking them in rituals. Anyone who has taken them will agree they give the world a creepy vibe and to me there is no way that could not be related to Halloween

Samhain means November. Haloween is Oíche Shamhna

The mummers go back to the 10th century. They would go house to house to play dice 🎲 and other games , in complete silence during holiday times. Playing games in silence, gave us the saying "Mums the words" in other words keep quiet/ keep that to yourself 😊

Evil is afraid of its own visage. Hence gargoyles and hiding our faces from the blackness of evil and death.

I specifically sought out this video because I saw where it was removed from some libraries. Now that I've seen the video I do not understand why it was removed😢

Here in Portugal we still have a lot of those festivities guised as christian ceremonies and most people are not even aware of it

On the 31st October I'll be celebrating Jesus as the Light of the World

The irish are from Spain and Portugal celtic tribe lol

All British and Irish come from Europe lol

Samhain is Irish for November.

Church kook! Its just celebrating fall harvest and shorter days.

I will always pronounce it as Sam-Hain, not Saw-Win. Sam-Hain sounds way better.

I like the language tree in the beginning of the video. Best I've seen

What the Americans have done is commercialise Samhain.

There's a bit of a hole in this theory. Pumpkins are indigenous to the Americas and not Europe. They had to be brought over to Europe from the Americas... so there were no pumpkins till well after the 1500's.

Some feedback on your books. I'll probably pick them up, but pocket books for $25 (Canadian on Amazon) is fairly steep. They have a print on demand version that likely would save you on your overhead. And I hope they're full of little facts and not "factoids" as that means something that sounds true but isn't.

Sam is the Old Irish word for sun. Fuinn is an Old Irish word meaning end. Samhuinn in it's older spelling is the sun's end. In it's modern pronounciation, it is Sow-wen.

I enjoyed this video, but the pronunciation of Beltane is NOT "bell-ta-nee" , it is "Bell-tane" with the "a" being long, not the "e". I have never heard it pronounced "Bell-ta-nee" in my 60+ years on this planet until today.

I was concerned you were going to mispronounce Samhain. 😂

Excellent documentary! I've heard that bats were made a Halloween tradition based on ancient bonfires which attracted bugs who were then eaten by the bats.

excellent summary. just saw your post and it is another year past, but here I am watching. well done. will look up your book. Maith thú mo chara.

In Ireland you wouldn't say trick or treat, you'd say "Help the Halloween Party" and would be given fruit etc. not sweets to go back and eat with the group of friends you were going around with and then tell stories of the Sith and Fey like ghost stories.

Thanksyou very much. 🎉❤

What music are you using? I like it.

The perfect informational summary! Thank you!

This was a fascinating and very well researched video. It's a shame that so many of the meanings, traditions and history of our ancient festivals have been lost - these days, hardly anyone seems to know anything! It's reassuring to know that practices like candle lanterns (such a sensible and interesting explanation for their use!) and apple bobbing go so far back. Halloween was dying out during my childhood, at least in the big cities of England, and it took the American enthusiasm for the festival to revive it over here.

In Britian and Ireland the winters are long, wet and cold. So partaking in samhainn and yule festivities is essential for lifting ones spirits and appreciating the seasons. This is all too understated with the importance of mental health in our society today.

Liked and Subscribed! That was great, looking forward (or back) to more!

Soul cakes is a Catholic tradition meant to remember that you must do as Christ said "to feed the poor" because you do not know when you will die. We remember our own death as we pray for All Souls. The Soul Cakes had a cross shape pressed into them representing Communion received at Mass. These cakes are good deeds for our souls to give as offerings to the poor children.

Treat or treat started as children going from house to house begging for sticks for the bonfires (built to keep the spirits away) according to other sources.

It took 24 seconds for this video to lose my interest.

I love that you acknowledged sources you used. And this was a great representation. Most videos on the subject spend less time on the origins and more time on modern Halloween. I'm interesting in the history of the subject of Samhain.

regarding the meaning of the word Samhain. Instead of assembly, I think it translates more correctly as "reunion".
The 4 quarters of the year festivals were times people got together for big meetings and shared news, had celebrations for important deaths, and probably made big announcements or plans.
So it functions as a reuinion of the people, a reuinion between spirits, a reuinion between the winter and summer months.

Check the Scottish and Irish origins of Halloween.

This is a brilliant video. Just one thing, the word oiche in Irish is pronounced like eeha. You wouldn't hear the c in it. Thanks!

People who are fans of studying languages, like to have opinions on the origins of words and languages, they like to know better than anyone else, they have tunnel vision. The narration of this video goes on, way too long, about the word Samhain. Irish people are laid back about the spelling and pronunciation of their language. Different parts of the country use the language in different ways, with different accents, pronunciations, spelling and sometimes even meanings. My village has a slightly different accent and slang to another village, just a mile away. Good luck to AI, trying to mimic Ireland.

Traditionally it happened on the last full moon I'm October. When winter began

soul cake plz, thx

The original apple from an even earlier time were actually Amanita Muscaria mushrooms that most certainly would have invoked the sun deity's return during their psychedelic experience.

🍀🍀🍀

Thank you

Not dominant here in Australia, most of us scorn that ridiculous plastic n sugar waste of money and more damaging crap put into the sea

Common misconceptions.
Samhain came from the Picts, before the celts discovered Scotland.

It is also once called "Walbugisnachten" the Witches Night by the Ancient Germanic folk

Giving candy to kids

You're wrong about the masks.