When Should we be Celebrating Samhain?
Searles O'Dubhain
searles@summerlands.com
Sun Oct 24 14:53:01 1999
When Should we be Celebrating Samhain?*p*I think that it depends on whose calendar that one uses. The modern month of Samhna starts after modern Samhain (Oct. 31). The ancient month of Samonios started on the new Moon and the festival was celebrated for the three days of the full Moon that occurred in the middle of that month. If one were to place the bright part of the day after the dark part, then one would certainly place the bright part of the month after the dark part. If we have Mi na Samhna as the month of Samhain, then it makes good sense to place its celebration in the middle of the month. Since the Celts had both a lunar and a solar calendar, I maintain that they determined the time that was optimal for the festivals by the days of the Sun, for the seasons, and that they celebrated the power of that season by fire, at night, when the Moon was at its height. This means that the festival of Samhain would be held on the first full Moon after the beginning of Winter as determined by the Sun. How one determined the beginning of the season would have involved observing the days after the Sun had made it journey through the sky, as determined by astronomical alignments with either stones, trees, hills, brughs or poles. One such marker of the seasons in antiquity was the rising and the setting of the Pleides (called Meanmnach and Grioglachan by the Gael). This means that Samhain would be the first full moon in Scorpio by modern sidereal astrological reckoning. Other signs would have verified the season as well, including but not limited to: the migrations of birds, the habits of animals, the seasonal patterns of the blooming with blossoms and the losing of leaves, the coming of the winds and the rains, etc. *p*The season and time of Samhain is when life pours back into the realms beneath the earth to sleep through the winter awaiting the return of spring. So it is with life of seasons and also with life of lives.  Samhain is also the time when the flows open for life that has flowed into realms of death and dreaming awaiting a rebirth or an awakening.  During the times of such openings we can stretch forth with our own spirits to touch and be touched by those who are buried by earth, time and state of being.  The doors are open. The river runs through the garden and the cave. The place is set for the guest who comes in the night. Look to the skies, to the land and the flows of the sea for the signs that it is the time of beginnings and endings.*p*Searles*p**br*