Celtic New Year and final harvest festival. The most powerful night of the year when the veil between worlds is thinnest. A time for honoring ancestors, divination, and preparing for the dark half of the year. Marks the final harvest and the beginning of winter.
When is Samhain?
- Samhain 2027: Sunday, October 31, 2027 (Northern Hemisphere)
- Samhain 2028: Tuesday, October 31, 2028 (Northern Hemisphere)
Samhain is a cross-quarter day, celebrated on the same date each year — often from sunset the evening before. In the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are reversed, so it is celebrated around April 30 - May 1.
History of Samhain
Ancient Celtic festival marking the end of harvest and beginning of winter. The origin of modern Halloween traditions. Traditionally a time when the doors to the Otherworld opened, allowing communion with the ancestors and spirits.
Samhain traditions
- Ancestor veneration
- Divination practices
- Spirit communication
- Final harvest rituals
- Jack-o'-lantern carving
- Bonfire ceremonies
- Silent suppers
- Releasing ceremonies
- Cemetery visits
- Apple divination
- Creating ancestor altars
- Burning messages to ancestors
How to celebrate Samhain today
- Samhain Feast
- Ancestor Altar Creation
- Divination Workshop
- Spirit Communication Circle
- Halloween Party
- Cemetery Visit
- Costume Creation
- Community Fire Gathering
Samhain ritual ideas
- Ancestor Honoring Ritual
- Divination Ceremony
- Spirit Communication Séance
- Year's End Ceremony
- Protection Spell Casting
- Releasing the Old Year
- Silent Supper
- Ancestral Healing Work
- Threshold Blessing
- Otherworld Journey
Gods & goddesses of Samhain
- The Crone — Wisdom and Death. Ancient goddess of wisdom, death, and transformation
- The Morrígan — Death and Fate. Celtic goddess of death, fate, and sovereignty
- Cernunnos — Underworld and Wild Hunt. Lord of the underworld and leader of the Wild Hunt
- Hel — Death and the Underworld. Norse goddess who presides over the realm of the dead
- Hecate — Crossroads and Magic. Greek goddess of magic, crossroads, and the dead