How to Celebrate Halloween as A Witch: The History of Samhain

Trick or Treat or Merry We Meet, All Hallow’s Eve is upon us, and every witch should know that this day is in fact as powerful as the scary stories foretold when we were children. However, the “scary” part really falls into the eye of the beholder category. For us witches, “Halloween” marks the start of the New Year, which is celebrated from sunset to sunset from the 31st to the 1st, and is called by the ancient Celtic name, from which Halloween gets its roots, Samhain. In this post, I am going to provide you with some information on Samhain’s history as well as discuss how the modern witch (both novice and experienced) can incorporate the holiday into their practice and even into their lives.

History:

The ancient festival of Samhain is one of the four Celtic fire festivals that takes place in between the equinoxes and the solstices. Samhain marked the start of a period of darkness (which puts it at the top of my witch holiday rating chart). On this day the harvest work was completed and the community would gather around a large campfire for the festivities. Festivities included: animal sacrifices to the gods (the Tuatha de Dannan), divination, prayer, and lighting torches to bring to the hearth of everyone’s home.

The celts believed that on this day the veil between us and the other world was lowered. The veil that was lowered comes from the stories of the Aos Si or people of the mounds, a descendant race of the gods who were forced to retreat into the mounds after Great War struggles. The tale says that they rose a mist to protect themselves from being seen by mundane humans. Because the human race and the Aos Si had gone to war many stories spread that the Aos Si would come to harm people on these days which led to people dressing in “costumes” as animals to keep them from being discovered. In this way, the veil falling was viewed with a mixture of desire and fear. The double-edged sword meant they had access to the powerful energies of spirits and deities, making it the perfect time to perform divination and prophesy, however, the spirits and fae were also free to roam our realm during this time.

While Samhain’s connection to winter and darkness seems like one obvious explanation for all the connections to death the holiday is associated with, another possible factor to the practices of this day can be found in the stories of the Celtic gods Tuatha de Dannan. It was believed that a great battle between the Tuatha de Dannan and another powerful race the Fomorians took place on this day. (The battle is called the second battle of Maytura, and if you express interest in the comments I can do a blog post on this battle alone.)

How Can We Celebrate Now?

The modern witch knows that the stories of the veil are in fact based more on reality than in myth. So make sure you take advantage of this unique opportunity to step in with the spirits. Practice some deep divination, dive deeper into your deity work, or even reach out to your ancestors.

You can also use this holiday as your own personal New Year and incorporate some of your favorite New Year’s traditions. Make plans for the next year, set some intentions, and even perform some extensively rich manifestation.

Just remember the veil is lowered for everyone, so make sure to use extra protection if you plan to take advantage of the day's chaos and power for some spellwork.