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Celebrating Samhain

 

 

 

Samhain

 

 

     



Samhain

 

The Irish English dictionary published by the Irish Texts Society defines the word as follows:

 

"Samhain, All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian times, signalizing the close of harvest and the initiation of the winter season, lasting till May, during which troops (esp. the Fiann) were quartered. Faeries were imagined as particularly active at this season. From it the half year is reckoned. also called Feile Moingfinne (Snow Goddess).(1) The Scottish Gaelis Dictionary defines it as "Hallowtide. The Feast of All Soula. Sam + Fuin = end of summer."(2) Contrary to the information published by many organizations, there is no archaeological or literary evidence to indicate that Samhain was a deity. The Celtic Gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd for the British, and Arawn for the Welsh. The Irish did not have a "lord of death" as such.

 

The information on Samhain is from Rowan Moonstone's The Origins of Halloween.

 


Sources:

(1) Rev. Patrick Dineen, "An Irish English Dictionary" (Dublin, 1927), p. 937

(2) Malcolm MacLennan, "A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language" (Aberdeen, 1979), p. 279

 

 

 

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