Ten Celtic Samhain Customs That Could Have Been the Source of Halloween

Halloween, the spookiest holiday on the calendar, has long developed into the sugar-filled spook-fest that we know today. However, its roots can be found in the Celtic celebration of Samhain, which was observed over 2,000 years ago by the pagan Celts who now inhabit modern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and other parts of Europe. With the rise of Christianity in the West throughout more recent centuries, many of the Halloween customs we observe today evolved. Even yet, despite the paucity of the written evidence, it appears that many of these earlier customs have Celts as their ancestors. Here are some Celtic Halloween customs that still seem to exist in the way that we celebrate Halloween today.

The majority of Halloween fun often occurs at night. The majority of our customs take place at night, from trick-or-treating to costume parties. Samhain, a Celtic celebration, placed a strong emphasis on the mysterious meaning of darkness. In the Celtic language of Gaelic, the word Samhain literally translates as "Summer's End," but it also alludes to a spiritual person of the same name. In Celtic mythology, Samhain was regarded as the ruler of winter, a season during which the earth was enveloped in gloom. He would fight the sun-god Bael in a six-month conflict of light vs darkness every year when the summer came to an end.
The light and the dark were the two parts of the Celtic calendar itself. One of four fire festivals, Samhain signified the start of the year's dark half and was one of four that marked significant times of the year. The Celts valued each season of the year for different reasons, but the winter's gloom was particularly trying. Samhain ceremonies in the past embraced that darkness, much like modern customs do now.

Honoring the Fall
Samhain was observed from October 31 to November 1 and represented the midpoint of the fall season, much like it is now. In reality, it occurred at the precise midpoint between the winter solstice and the fall equinox, when the crucial crop was collected.
This point in the year when autumn begins to touch winter was also seen as a time when this world would collide with the next. It was considered the point at which the veil between worlds was at its thinnest and, thus, when the spirits of the dead were most likely to enter the world of the living. This belief, combined with the Celtic themes of darkness and death that accompany this time of year, has resulted in current celebrations being associated with all things spooky.

3.All That Partying
Halloween, along with New Year's Eve, is undoubtedly one of the largest party evenings of the year. People of all ages will likely receive an invitation or two to a Halloween bash. The Celts enjoyed a good party as well, and Samhain was one of their most important celebrations. They may have partied even harder than we did, as early texts indicate that it was a mandated three-day celebration. Some texts even indicate an extreme excess of drinking and gluttonous food, which doesn't seem all that unlike to modern-day festivities.
Standing around an open fire on a chilly Halloween night is a contemporary ritual that is comparable to Celtic Samhain fire customs. In reality, it was an important element of the community celebrations. The hearth fires of family dwellings were let to burn out during the Celts' harvest season. People would celebrate the completion of harvest labour by joining priests in lighting a ceremonial community fire. The fire was started with a wheel that created friction and sparks and was said to mimic the sun. If you want to outdo your neighbors' Halloween decorations next year, a flaming Celtic wheel might be the answer!
4.Some Familiar Scary Faces
Given that Samhain was connected with a schism between realms, it's not unexpected that the holiday was also associated with a few ghosts and creatures from Celtic mythology. Some of them included a Pukah, a shape-shifting beast, and a headless lady that would pursue people out at night. The witches associated with Halloween today may be related to the Crone, an ancient character worshiped during Samhain. She was known as the Earth Mother, and she represented knowledge, change, and the changing of seasons.
However, one of the most terrifying mythical characters is one that still frightens us today: the headless horseman. The horseman, known as the Dullahan to the Celts, was supposed to be the incarnation of the fertility deity Crom Dubh. He was reported to demand blood sacrifice in the form of decapitation and to have a rotten flesh visage. He's not the most handsome deity, but he'd make a wonderful Halloween costume.
5.Dressing Up
Although donning a scary costume to go trick-or-treating has obvious ties with the Medieval custom of “mumming” or “souling,” its practice appears to go back even further. Given that the Celts believed that spirits could cross over during Samhain, they held the suspicion that ghosts and ghouls might try to trick, haunt, or curse them. In order to prevent this, they would often dress up as monsters themselves to fool the evil spirits.Another fear was that faeries might steal your soul during Samhain. As well as disguising themselves as monsters, Celtic pagans would mitigate this eventuality by dressing up as animals. So, wearing a cute bunny costume at Halloween may not be so silly after all!
6.Carving Pumpkins
The distinctive orange glow emitted by a toothy jack-o-lantern may also have Celtic origins. Some historians believe the practice of cutting heads out of root vegetables stems from ancient practices of head veneration. This notion may have gained traction around Samhain, when terrifying faces were cut into vegetables as another way to fend off restless souls. Initially, cutting beets, potatoes, and turnips appeared to be advantageous, as there was always an excess of them after harvest. Another slightly more practical advantage of carving vegetable lanterns was their utilitarian role for the Celts. It was significantly less expensive than utilizing pricey metal ones.
7.Orange and Black
Stroll around any neighborhood during the Halloween season, and there can be little doubt that the holiday has a very specific color theme—orange and black. From banners to napkins and candle holders, homes are awash with the distinctive color pallet. For the Celts, the color black represented the darkness of the winter months that Samhain would usher in. It also held significance as a symbol of death, both in terms of the deceased spirits who would mingle with the living during the festival, as well as the death of nature as winter drew near.The use of the color orange was also twofold for the Celts. On the one hand, it represented the gradual turning of leaves from green to orange as summer came to an end. In addition to this, it reflects the burning embers of the ritual and community fires that were lit during the festival.
8.Trick-or-Treating
The trick-or-treating part of this iconic Halloween activity has ties to Celtic Samhain traditions. The Celtic people may have dressed up as monsters to mislead their enemies since they believed that bad spirits might pass over, but it may have also increased their dread of being misled themselves. One particular worry was the notion that demonic spirits would knock on your door pretending to be a beggar. They would change before your eyes and cast a curse on your soul if you didn't offer them anything. One way to cope with those bothersome faeries and spirits was to appease them by putting out a lavish banquet or food offering. It also wasn't unusual for the pagan civilization to practice
9.Although it's doubtful that the Celts' versions were candied, the practice of dipping your head under water to pull out some apples has been practiced for centuries. The Celts believed that Samhain was the best time of year for fortune telling and prophecy because it thins the veil between the worlds. The most typical objects used to forecast someone's future appear to have been fruits of the harvest, notably apples and nuts. One of the most common customs was apple bobbing, where it was said that the first person to bite into an apple would be the first to wed.
10.Telling Ghost Stories
The Celts took pleasure in frightening their pals with a few horrific tales, just like Halloween revelers do today. One of the most well-liked Samhain tales shared around the festival fire seems to have been "The Second Battle of Mag Tuired." The tale describes a significant fight that occurred around Samhain. It portrays the last conflict between the Fir Bolg, the terrible tormentors of the Celtic pantheon of the Tuatha dé Danann, and the Tuatha dé Danann.
The exploits of a hero by the name of Nera were the focus of yet another Samhain-related Celtic tale. A monarch dared the warrior Nera to lay a willow branch at the foot of a corpse. Nera embarks on a voyage through a weird Other World that borders the living after accepting the mission. He experiences all kinds of extraordinary encounters in this bizarre planet. It's a story that sounds just as thrilling as some of the Halloween stories we hear today!