A Samhain Gift

Boo!

From “The Sick-bed of Cuchulain”

Every year the men of Ulster were accustomed to hold festival together; and the time when they held it was for three days before Samhain, the Summer-End, and for three days after that day, and upon Samhain itself. And the time that is spoken of is that when the men of Ulster were in the Plain of Murthemne, and there they used to keep that festival every year; nor was there an thing in the world that they would do at that time except sports, and marketings, and splendours, and pomps, and feasting and eating; and it is from that custom of theirs that the Festival of the Samhain has descended, that is now held throughout the whole of Ireland.

(Translated by A.H. Leahy in his Heroic Romances of Ireland)

Those of us who come to Samhain through Halloween understand that this day is different from other days, but the medieval literature of Ireland gives us an expansive sense of what this liminality may have meant in the distant past.

In many stories, Samhain is depicted as a time for people to gather together at ritual centers and forge community in ways that could only be done under cover of universal peace. There would be games and trading and law-making and story-sharing. And if many tales begin at Samhain, it may be because this is a time when great heroes are gathered together to eat and drink and tell of their mighty deeds.

That said, it’s not difficult to imagine that the eve of winter would have been an uncanny time. Feasting and boasting may well have been a way of pushing back against the cold and dark. And liminal time is, by its nature, strange. When we step outside of our everyday lives, we don’t always know what we’ll find.

In his introduction to Early Irish Myths and Sagas, Jeffrey Gantz writes: “Proinsias Mac Cana has called Samuin ‘a partial return to primordial chaos… the appropriate setting for myths which symbolise the dissolution of established order as a prelude to its recreation in a new period of time’, and there can be no doubt that Samuin was the most important day of re-creation and rebirth in Ireland.”

One common belief about Samhain is that it’s “the Celtic New Year.” This idea was first put forth by the philologist Sir John Rhys and later popularized by Sir James Frazer. Rhys made this claim because he saw the theme of new beginnings in some Irish and Welsh folklore around Halloween. He did not require further proof, nor did Frazer. Contemporary scholars tend to be reluctant to make this claim, while some—such as British historian Ronald Hutton—actively refute it.

So, it’s possible that the “primordial chaos” Proinsias Mac Cana sees in Samhain has more to do with our own Halloween than any ancient practice or belief, but it is also the case that stories like “The Destruction of Dá Derga’s Hostel” present Samhain as an important time of transition, a time when epochal change takes place.

While the change we invite at Samhain might not be as dramatic as Queen Mebd’s decision to steal a prized bull—see “The Cattle Raid of Cooley” to learn how that turned out—we may wish to use this moment to set intentions for the winter or lighten ourselves of burdens we do not want to carry into the dark months ahead.

What you’ve just read is an excerpt from A Postmodern Witch’s Guide to Samhain, which I published around this time last year. It’s available in both print and digital editions in my shop, but subscribers will find a link to a free copy of the latter below. It contains a spell for letting go, suggestions for hosting a silent supper, and some thoughts on the connections between the fair folk and the dead.

But first! A little bonus content:

Last year, author and public witch Amanda Yates Garcia invited me to chat with her about Samhain on her podcast, Between the Worlds. You can listen to that conversation here.

If you’re interested in the print sources I consulted while writing A Postmodern Witch’s Guide to Samhain, I just added them to my bookshop.

And… Please enjoy my Postmodern Witch playlist, which is really hitting the spot for me right now. If you have songs to suggest, please leave a comment!

And here’s a turnip jack-o’-lantern that’s a million times creepier than any pumpkin I’ve ever seen.

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