Remembering the Dead: Halloween and Autumn Traditions

As the evenings draw in and the year turns inward, many of us find our thoughts drifting to the people we’ve lost. For thousands of years, across continents and faiths, people have used this time to remember their loved ones.

Where it began: Oíche Shamhna

Halloween has deep roots in Ireland, which began with Samhain (pronounced “sow-in”), and the night is still known today in Irish as Oíche Shamhna. It was one of four great seasonal festivals of the Gaelic year and signalled the end of the harvest and the start of the dark half of the year. Because the Gaelic day began at sunset, celebrations started on the evening of 31 October and carried into 1 November.

It was a practical time as well as a spiritual one. Cattle were brought down from the summer pastures, animals were chosen for slaughter, and families took stock of what they had to get through the winter.

Samhain was seen as a threshold. Early Irish stories, written around the 9th century, describe the ancient burial mounds standing open at Samhain, and the boundary between this world and the Otherworld growing thin. The spirits, and the souls of the dead, were thought to cross more easily.

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