SOW-in
The festival marking the start of the dark half of the year, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld was said to grow thin.
Samhain fell around the first of November, at the midpoint between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, and marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of the Gaelic year's dark half. Cattle were brought in from summer pasture, stores were counted, and communities gathered around bonfires whose flames were carried home to relight household hearths for the winter ahead.
Irish tradition holds that on Samhain the boundary between the human world and the Otherworld grew thin, letting the Aos Sí — the people of the mounds — move freely, and the dead were thought to walk among the living. Several of the great Mythological Cycle tales are set on this night: it is at Samhain, by the river Unius, that the Dagda couples with the Morrígan in Cath Maige Tuired, securing her aid against the Fomorians before the Second Battle of Moytura.
The festival's customs of divination, disguise, and appeasing wandering spirits passed down through the centuries and, carried abroad by Irish emigrants, gave rise to the modern Halloween.
| Cycle | Entries here | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| The Mythological Cycle | 17 | The oldest of the four cycles, telling of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the successive invasions of Ireland. |
| The Fenian Cycle | 6 | Tales of Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors, the Fianna, set generations after the Ulster Cycle in a world of hunting, romance, and roaming adventure. |
| The Ulster Cycle | 12 | The heroic tales of Conchobar mac Nessa's court at Emain Macha, centered on Cú Chulainn and the great cattle raid of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. |
| The Historical Cycle | 1 | Also the Cycle of the Kings — legendary and semi-legendary tales of Ireland's High Kings, treated by medieval scribes as genuine national history. |
Samhain marks the end of the harvest and the start of winter, falling around November 1st, and was considered a liminal time when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld grew thin.
Yes — Samhain is widely regarded as the direct ancestor of Halloween, with customs like bonfires, guising, and leaving out food for wandering spirits carried forward and reshaped over centuries, especially after emigration spread the tradition to North America.
As one of the four great "spirit nights" of the Gaelic calendar, Samhain was believed to open the sídhe mounds and let the Aos Sí move freely among humans, making it a night associated with both danger and divination.