In traditional Ireland, Samhain was the harvest festival marking the end of one year and beginning of the next. |
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In Samhain, banks of grass-covered earth in the shape of a sleeping woman wrap around a pool encircled in a ring of birch trees. |
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We have travelled from the heart-breaking bleakness of the season of Samhain through the mid-Winter. |
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The origins of Halloween date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. |
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The harvest has been celebrated, Samhain has passed, and now the nights will become shorter and colder. |
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During the 400 years that they ruled, two Roman festivals were combined with the Celtic celebration of Samhain. |
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Halloween is known as Samhain to pagans and was the Celtic festival of the dead. |
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The custom of decorating with apples, pumpkins, cornstalks, and autumn leaves has its origin in an ancient Druid autumn festival called Samhain. |
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Originally the Celtic fire festival of Samhain, it celebrated the end of the Celtic year. |
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This day was a day to celebrate the harvest, as well as the holiday of Samhain. |
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It was formerly the eve of the Celtic festival of Samhain, a name which comes down to us directly from the Gaelic for the end of summer. |
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The ancient Celts celebrated Samhain on Nov.1 as the day the veil between the world of the living and the dead was at its thinnest. |
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In many parts of the British Isles these balefires are still lighted on Samhain to honor the old ways. |
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The tides are especially high right now, as we get closer to Samhain and the vernal equinox. |
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It was alleged that in the course of this unique evening, known as the Samhain, the ghosts would come out of their tombs. |
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There were plenty more people tonight because of the Samhain festivities. |
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Halloween had its origins in the festival of Samhain among the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. |
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Samhain was the original ancient name for Halloween, a harvest festival marking the end of summer and a transition to the darker days ahead. |
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Popular belief and practice could therefore persist in, for example, the cult of Bridget and the customs associated with festivals such as Lughnasa and Samhain. |
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Moreover the lyrics of Wizard's Crown might be about the pagan fest of Samhain. |
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In the United Kingdom and Ireland are considered over the solstice as the middle of winter, which begins around November 1 to Samhain. |
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Children also went around collecting kindling and wood for the Samhain bonfire. |
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It is said that the night of Samhain, the Sidhe are opening to allow everyone to communicate with the spirits of the great ancestors. |
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September passed and October brought one of my favorite holidays, Samhain, or better known as Halloween, my other favorite holiday was Beltane and that was in May. |
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It was known as Samhain and was one of four great Celtic festivals, which also included Imbolc Beltane and Lughnasadh. |
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It followed the feast of Beltane, celebrating the sun's life-generating powers, while Samhain beckoned to winter and the dark nights ahead. |
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It began as a pagan holiday known as the Samhain festival, a day the dead roamed the Earth and the living made sacrifices in their honor. |
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Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain where people wore costumes and lit bonfires to ward off roaming ghosts. |
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The four seasonal festivals celebrated in the Gaelic calendar, still observed to this day, are Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. |
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During the Samhain festival the souls of those who had died were believed to return to visit their homes, and those who had died during the year were believed to journey to the otherworld. |
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This festival was called Samhain or Celtic New Year. |
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Halloween is the modern name for the ancient Celtic festival Samhain, which was celebrated to mark the end of the harvest and the start of the darker time of the year. |
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Centuries ago, we had a Celtic harvest festival around this time called Samhain, when pagans believed the worlds of the living and the recently dead were particularly close. |
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It was thought that ritual slaughter of animals associated with Samhain was moved to this date, so as to assure enough animals were kept alive for winter. |
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