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SAMHAIN – Calendar Customs

Of all the calendar customs we still preserve in Ireland, Samhain/Halloween must be counted as one of the most authentic. The very powerful connection we Irish have with death and the dead is pretty close to being unique. This becomes more obvious when, for example, an English cousin joins us for an Irish funeral and wake. He cannot comprehend an open coffin in the house and he generally misses the nuances of the apparently casual way neighbours can sit around chatting and sipping tea while the corpse is still present.

Samhain is yet another time we show our old connections and traditions. This is a measured time to muse on death and not wait to meet it as a stranger.

In October we are eminently aware of the changing seasons and the shrinking of days. Nature is retreating, bonfires were once are lit in defiance of the gathering darkness. Indoors, good company, tasty  food and bright lights lift the mood.  Technology, giving us warm clothing and heated houses ensures we no longer have the same concerns as our ancestors.

We have learned how to deal with winter. We are probably still perfecting how to deal with death.

The Calendar Seasons

  • Samhain November 1st and the commencement of the Gaelic Year
  • Imbolc February 1st Birth and new life
  • Bealtaine May 1st Planting, growth and a fresh harvest anticipated
  • Lughnasadh – August 1st Fruition of work and harvesting

Historic Samhain was the festival of the dead, and the beginning of the Celtic new year.

1st November – Samhain/All Souls/Halloween: Samhain is also All Saints’ Day, is the first of the quarter days in the Celtic calendar and the beginning of the Celtic Year. There is a crowded schedule in the early days of the Irish winter. In the past, the Celts lit the first fires of winter on the Hill of Ward/Tlachtga at Samhain. Torchbearers then carried the flame across the land, passing it from one lighted brand to another.

Before perfecting harvest techniques and the storage of grass (hay) over winter, surplus animals were slaughtered at Samhain amid great feasting. Irish people firmly believed that the dead visited on Samhain night. In modern times, there was a tradition of placing a candle in the window to guide spirits home, while leaving out three glasses of freshly collected spring water for them. The belief in the thinning of the veil between living and dead led to the now popular Halloween. Throughout the country, the night is celebrated as ‘Snap-apple Night’, mostly based in the home. In some districts youngsters, mostly boys, would go from house to house in grotesque masks and costumes to frighten away the ghosts.  

Internationally we have the Hindu Diwali and the Mexican Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead that coincide with Samhain.

 

 

 

Seán na Gealaí

Halloween is the direct descendent of Samhain. It was the night when the gap between this world and the spirit world narrowed.  Known as Oiche Shamhna or ‘spirit night’, the souls of the dead were expected to return to the family home. The Church introduced the Feast of All Saints (Nov1) and the Feast of All Souls (Nov 2nd) to counter Samhain. Evil spirits were also thought to be abroad and people avoided travelling alone on this night.

   “Deireann na daoine go mbíonn sidheogaí amuigh oidhche Shamhna”, Schools’ Collection (NFCS 249).

Origins of Samhain

Contender 1- Tulsk, County Roscommon

Oweynagat Cave, Uaimh na gCat, meaning the ‘Cave of the Cats’ in Rath Croaghan. The Book of Leinster names it as dorus iffrin na Hérend – Ireland’s Gateway to Hell. Demons and all kinds of creatures emerge from here on Oiche Shamhna.

 Echtra Nerai (the Adventures of Nera) is first mentioned in the 10th century Cath Maige Mucrama story,  happening at Samhain.

Oweynagat Cave is also said to be the home of the Morrigan. She is portrayed as a goddess of battle and war, with the power to transform into crows or ravens. Her dreaded cry was frequently heard over battlefields.

Echtra Nerai, the Adventures of Nera

An Irish text taken from the Ulster Cycle, dating to the tenth century entitled ‘Nera and the Dead Man’, tells of the warrior Nera who accepts a dare during a dark and stormy Samhain night to tie a withy around the ankle of a hanging dead man. As he does so, the corpse suddenly comes to life and asks Nera to carry him on his back. Nera complies. After some adventures Nera gets the dead man back to his tree. All of this takes place at Samhain at Rath Croaghan/Cruachan, hence its association with Halloween.

Contender 2 – Tlachtga, Meath

The original Tlachtga was a druidess of considerable power and importance, the daughter of Mug Ruith who lived on Valentia Island in Kerry. He is said to have lived through the reign of nineteen kings, with his lifespan stretching back to the time of Christ on earth. Tlachtga and her father could travel the world on the Rath, a fabulous spinning wheel of fire that easily transported them. Mug Ruith sought out knowledge and learning like few before him and it was in this manner that he and Tlachtga travelled to study under Simon Magus (Simon the Sorcerer), who is mentioned in the Bible.

Simon Magus and Mug Ruith sent Tlachtga out into the world to gather as much knowledge as she could find. Upon her return they realized that her knowledge far surpassed their own!
They were outraged and such was their jealousy that they set the three sons of Simon Magus upon Tlachtga, who defiled her. She returned to Ireland where she gave birth to three sons, Dorb (Doirb), Cuma (Cumma) and Muach.

It was on the hill of Ward in county Meath that Tlachtga brought her three sons into the world, and it was there that she died, unable to sustain her life in the face of the utter grief and despair she felt at the indignity she had endured.

In recent years a renewal of the annual gathering on the hill of Ward now attracts hundreds of people at Halloween. A walk from Athboy up towards the Hill itself culminates with a celebration, with elaborate ceremonies and an acknowledgement of the cultural gift to Ireland and the world that Tlachtga represents.

In the ancient kingdom of Mide, Tlachtga was considered an important assembly place alongside Tara, Teiltun and Uisneach. These four ‘corners’ are recorded as having been the location of fortresses constructed by high king Tuathal Techmar at the foundation of Mide in the early decades of the first millennium AD.

‘Much of the (archaeological) evidence points towards a long history of ritual activity. Large quantities of animal bones – a sign of large scale feasting have been found throughout all phases of the site. The lack of evidence of any residential or day to day activity strengthens the idea that it most likely it was set aside purely for ritual or celebratory activity.

There have been finds in all three phases of the site, including scattered Bronze Age human remains and the skeleton of an infant between seven and ten months old… The child burial, next to a ritual deposit of cow bones, dates to AD 450 – around the time of the arrival of Christianity.

“The child was clearly buried with care and having not found any evidence of burials on the site, we’d have to guess that This child belonged to someone significant”.

Harvest knots and Guises

 

 

Homemade masks made by village boys calling to local houses on Oiche Shamhna

Outdoors

Unlike May when the fairies are active, November Eve brings malevolent spirits. It is the night for community bonfires, especially in housing estates in the cities and towns. Collecting the last handful of fruit and nuts.

Indoors

Families would attempt to have a celebratory supper on Oiche Shamhna. Family supper might be colcannon or pandy. They would first secure the house by sprinkling Holy Water and possibly placing a religious object in the thatch near the front door.

Typical Samhain Food included pancakes, stampy (a potato and apple cake, crusted with barley, enhanced with sea spinach and rock samphire & cooked with oil) apple cakes, nuts, blackberry pies.

An bairín breac/the barmbrack or the ‘speckled loaf’, containing oodles of dried autumn fruits is still a favourite treat, with lashings of butter.

Tokens inside the traditional loaf included the ring as a symbol of love and marriage,  a thimble (spinsterhood); a button (bachelorhood); a stick (to be beaten by the spouse); a rag (poverty); a coin (wealth) and a crucifix (the taking of religious orders).

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