How to Celebrate Samhain

On my altar, the top shelf belongs to the women who came before me. Most of the year they get wine, a little bread, and a few words. At Samhain, they get my full attention.

Samhain is the night the veil between the living and the dead grows thin, and for a lot of witches it's the most important night of the year. It's the end of the harvest, the start of the dark half of the year, and the witch's new year. Whether you want a quiet evening with your ancestors or a full night of divination and candlelight, here's where the holiday comes from and how to make it yours.

What Samhain Is

Samhain (pronounced SOW-in) is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. In the old Celtic calendar it was New Year's Eve, which is why so many witches still call it the witch's new year. It was one of the four great fire festivals, and it's one of the nights when the veil between worlds is said to grow thin enough for spirits, the fae, and the dead to cross.

It goes by a lot of names depending on where you are: Oíche Shamhna in Irish, Calan Gaeaf in Welsh, Oie Houney on the Isle of Man, and simply the Third Harvest to many modern Pagans.

Halloween grew out of the same roots. "Hallow" comes from an Old English word meaning holy, and All Hallows' Eve was the vigil before All Saints' Day, the Christian feast for the dead. Halloween can be read as "Holy Night" or "Sacred Night," and for witches, it is.

Over the centuries, Samhain blended with other festivals of the dead and harvest celebrations into the holiday we know today. But while Halloween has become almost entirely secular, Samhain has held on to its spiritual heart: honoring the dead, facing what we fear, and reflecting on the year behind us.

When to Celebrate

There's more than one right answer here.

• October 31: The most common choice, shared with Halloween.
• The nearest full moon: Some witches hold their rites on the full moon closest to October 31, often called the Blood Moon or Hunter's Moon.
• The astronomical cross-quarter: Others check an almanac for the true midpoint between the autumn equinox and winter solstice, when the sun reaches about 15 degrees Scorpio.
• The first frost: Some Celtic Reconstructionists time their observance as close to the first frost as they can.

Astrologically, it makes sense that so many festivals of the dead fall in Scorpio season. Scorpio governs the mysteries of birth, death, and transformation. Samhain also resonates with the waning crescent and dark moon, the deepest point of release in the lunar cycle, which makes it a powerful time for psychic work, letting go, and speaking with the dead. (More on lunar timing in Astrology for Witches.)

Ways to Celebrate Samhain

You don't need to do all of these. Pick one or two that speak to you, and let the rest be ideas for future years.

Honor Your Ancestors

If you do one thing this Samhain, make it this. Set up or refresh an ancestor altar with photos, a glass of fresh water, a candle, and an offering. Mine almost always has wine, and usually bread or nuts. Speak your ancestors' names out loud, or if you don't know them, speak to the ones who made you, known and unknown. New to this? Start with Ancestor Work for Beginners.

A few traditional offerings for the season:

• Warm spiced cider: Drink apple cider warmed with cinnamon in honor of the dead.
• Apples or pomegranates: Bury one in the garden or a large pot as food for passing spirits.
• An extra place at the table: Set a plate for the ancestors at your Samhain meal.

Hold a Dumb Supper

A dumb supper is a meal shared with the dead, and "dumb" here means silent. There are a few ways to do it:

• The traditional way: Serve the meal in reverse order, dessert first, in complete silence, with a place set for a spirit guest.
• The gentle way: Serve dinner normally, with a place set for the dead, and spend the meal sharing stories about them.
• The ritual way: Fold it into your sabbat, eating in reverse order and in silence, then moving straight into divination.

Do Some Divination

Samhain is the season for divination. With the veil thin, readings tend to come through clearly, whether you use tarot, runes, or something else. A few traditional Samhain methods:

• Apple peel divination: Peel an apple in one long strip and toss it over your shoulder. The letter it forms is said to be the initial of your next romantic partner.
• Fire scrying: If you have a fire or a large candle, gaze into the base of the flame and notice what images rise in your mind.
• Tokens in a cake: Bake small charms into a cake. Whoever finds a token gets its fortune for the coming year: a coin for wealth, a ring for romance, a key for opportunity, a horseshoe for luck.
• A year-ahead spread: Pull one card or rune for each month of the coming year to see its energy and tone.

Carve a Turnip Lantern

The original jack-o'-lanterns weren't pumpkins. Pumpkins are native to North America, and in Ireland and Scotland, the old lanterns were carved from turnips and other large roots. They were set on doorsteps and windowsills to guide friendly spirits and ward off harmful ones, and they were used to carry a blessed coal home from the Samhain bonfire to relight the hearth for the dark half of the year. Turnips are harder to hollow than pumpkins, but carving one is a lovely way to connect with the holiday's roots.

Release the Old Year

As the witch's new year, Samhain is the time to let go of what no longer serves you. Write down what you're releasing, or your resolutions for the coming year, and burn the paper in the flame of a black candle. Then spend some quiet time thinking about the single goal you most want to grow in the year ahead.

Light a Candle Chain

In Ireland, women once made a candle for their household, lit it, and carried it to a neighbor with a blessing. The neighbor lit her own candle from that flame and passed it on, until every house was connected, light by light. You can start your own version with a few magickal friends and a bag of tea lights.

Give Back to the Dead

Samhain is also a season of service. Visit an old cemetery and tend a neglected grave: clear the leaves, leave a little water as an offering, and say a quiet prayer that this soul rests well. It's a gentle way to honor the ancestors that time has forgotten. You can also honor living elders by visiting a nursing home or asking an older neighbor how they spent their autumns growing up.

Samhain in the City

If you don't have a yard for a bonfire or a cemetery down the road, you can still celebrate fully. A candle can stand in for the bonfire. A windowsill can hold your lantern. And if you need quiet time for your rites while trick-or-treaters are out, the long-standing custom is simple: turn off your porch light.

Samhain Correspondences

If you're building a working or decorating your altar, these correspondences will help you line everything up.

• Spiritual themes: Ancestry, death and rebirth, endings and beginnings, the faerie realm, other worlds, rest, survival, and wisdom.
• Magickal focus: Protection, healing, release from old bonds, preparation, renewal, and hope.
• Best workings: Divination, ancestor work, banishing, release, and road opening.
• Archetypes: The Crone, the Witch, the Huntsman, and the Wild Hunt.
• Deities: Hekate, the Morrígan, the Cailleach, Persephone, Hel, and many other gods of death and witchcraft across pantheons. (Approach any deity with research and respect first. Deity Work for Beginners covers how.)

Colors

• Black: The dark half of the year, protection, mourning, and night.
• Orange: Transformation, transition, the hearth, and inner warmth.
• Brown: Ancestors, earth, roots, and the faerie folk.
• Grey: Rest, silence, uncrossing, and the veil itself.
• Silver: The moon, the inner self, mirrors, and shadow work.

Foods and Drinks

Apples, pumpkins, roasted or raw nuts, fermented foods like pickled beets, apple cider, and soul cakes.

How Different Traditions Celebrate

Samhain is Celtic in origin, but witches and Pagans of many paths mark this season in their own way.

• Wicca: Samhain is the end of the old year and the start of the new. Rituals honor the Goddess's descent into the land of the dead and those who died in the past year.
• Celtic Reconstructionism: Practitioners call it Oíche Shamhna and often honor the Morrígan. They may cleanse their homes with juniper smoke, build an altar for the dead, and set the first plate of the feast aside for the ancestors.
• Druidry: One of the four fire festivals, when past, present, and future are said to become one time, and the living and dead can meet.
• Traditional witchcraft: One of the three nights of the year when the veil is thinnest. Some traditional witches cast two circles, one for the living and one for the dead, and visit cemeteries, crossroads, or burial mounds.
• Heathenry: Norse Pagans celebrate Winternights around this time, honoring ancestors, giving thanks for the land, and marking summer's end.
• Hellenic Paganism: Samhain is a Celtic holiday, so it falls outside traditional Hellenic practice, though some Hellenic Pagans choose to join their communities in observing it.

The point isn't to pick the "right" version. It's to celebrate in a way that fits your own path and honors where the holiday came from.

Myths Worth Letting Go Of

"Samhain is a Wiccan holiday." Wicca celebrates it, but Samhain is far older than Wicca, and you don't need to be Wiccan to observe it. (I mixed up Wiccan beliefs with witchcraft rules myself early on. You can read about that in How to Spot Witchcraft Misinformation.)

"Halloween comes from the Roman festival of Pomona on October 31." This gets repeated everywhere, but the Roman calendar points to a celebration in late August, with no link to death or ancestors. The October connection seems to have been assumed much later.

"Samhain is about evil spirits." Protection is part of the season, but at its heart Samhain is about love: remembering the people who came before you and keeping them part of your life.

Make It Yours

Samhain can be solemn or joyful, quiet or full of friends, and most witches find it's a little of both. You can honor your ancestors in the evening and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters in the afternoon. Reverence and celebration have always lived side by side at this time of year.

So light a candle, set a place at the table, and say their names. The veil is thin. They're listening.