LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Samhain: Dead
built 170 days ago
Samhain is the third and final harvest, the harvest of meat. The Old King is dead, and the Crone Goddess mourns him greatly during the next six weeks. The sun is at its lowest point on the horizon as measured by the ancient standing stones of Britain and Ireland, the reason the Celts chose this sabbat rather than Yule as their new year. To the ancient Celts, this holiday divided the year into two seasons, Winter and Summer. Samhain is the day on which the Celtic New Year and winter begin together, so it is a time for both beginnings and endings.
Source:
Samhain is one of the eight annual festivals, often referred to as 'Sabbats', observed as part of the Wiccan Wheel of the Year. It is considered by most Wiccans to be the most important of the four 'greater Sabbats'. It is generally observed on October 31st in the Northern Hemisphere, starting at sundown. Samhain is considered by most Wiccans as a celebration of death and of the dead, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets and other loved ones who have died. In some rituals the spirits of the departed are invited to attend the festivities. It is seen as a festival of darkness and death, which is balanced at the opposite point of the wheel by the spring festival of Beltane, which Wiccans celebrate as a festival of life and fertility.[14]
Source:
[H]ow did Samhain become All Saints Day? As with many of the old festivals, Christianity stepped in to do whatever it could to eliminate pagan rituals. In this case, it was Pope Boniface who took the festival of the dead and made it the festival of all saints and martyrs. Originally it took place on May 13th, but a century later, Pope Gregory III shifted it to November. In Ireland, All Saints Day was instituted in 998 AD by Abbot Odilo of Cluny and by the 13th century, although many of the old Samhain rituals persisted as folk customs, November 1st had become firmly established as a Christian festival.
Source:
Samhain is neither a Celtic god of the dead, or the major Sun god. The Celts may have had a deity by that name. However, he was an obscure character, and unrelated to death. In Gaelic, "sam" means summer; "fuin" means "end." So, "Samhain" means "end of the warm season." Another Celtic deity that is sometimes mentioned in Christian literature is the sun God "Muck-Olla". He didn't exist either in Celtic times. He seems to be a non-Druidic "boogey-man" from Yorkshire, England.
Source:
Samhain has been celebrated in Britain for centuries and has its origin in Pagan Celtic traditions. It was the time of year when the veils between this world and the Otherworld were believed to be at their thinnest: when the spirits of the dead could most readily mingle with the living once again. Later, when the festival was adopted by Christians, they celebrated it as All Hallows' Eve, followed by All Saints Day, though it still retained elements of remembering and honouring the dead.
Source:
Samhain is observed by various Neopagans in various ways. As forms of Neopaganism can differ widely in both their origins and practices, these representations can vary considerably despite the shared name. Some Neopagans have elaborate rituals to honor the dead, and the deities who are associated with the dead in their particular culture or tradition. Some celebrate in a manner as close as possible to how the Ancient Celts and Living Celtic cultures have maintained the traditions, while others observe the holiday with rituals culled from numerous other unrelated sources, Celtic culture being only one of the sources used.[11][12][5]
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Dead