It's pronounced Saa-wn
Lawrence Lerner • October 31, 2022

New beginnings after remembering.

Samhain is one of the eight sabbats’ in the Wiccan faith and Celtic traditions. It is a fire holiday. Other Pagan faiths celebrate it as well. It is arguably the most important and holy night in our traditions. It is observed from October 31st eve through November 1st. The Irish Gaelic word for November is Samhain. In Scots Gaelic, it is An t-Samhain.


While popular media has incorrectly conflated it with Halloween and the Christian All Hallows’ Eve, all the holidays share roots in the veneration of ancestors.


Samhain is when we begin the journey into the new year, a time of rest, reflection, and remembrance of those who passed before us. We celebrate, feast, and party for almost the whole month. In many traditions, this is the beginning of our New Year, yet we do not start the year until Imbolc which is the beginning of February. As with all Pagan traditions, there are cycles or spirals. While there is much enjoyment and merriment, there are also somber rituals and celebrations. We return to where we started, which is never the same.


Ancestor veneration in the form of altars, pictures, and a dumb supper is an essential part of the holiday. The ritual begins with traditional ceremonies of casting a circle and calling the four elements. The veil between the worlds is thin, and those who passed before us can more easily communicate and share time with us. Participants share a feast but are “dumb”; we eat in silence and commune with those who have passed. For many, the deceased is of a direct bloodline, both known and unknown relatives. For some, it is a family of choice. The community, the place, and spiritual ancestors have taught us or were the foundation of who we are. In my community, one of the traditions is to honor the military fallen. We recognize that “all gave some; some gave all regardless of political or social associations.” We honor all of the fallen from our local cities and towns.


There are many ways we celebrate, and we do love our ritual wear. As we enter the dark time of the year, I've observed that we wear more elaborate clothing to celebrate the season. For us, and many other world traditions, dark represents the lengthening nighttime. A time for rest and reflection. It never has a sinister expression. It’s a time when we may wear jewelry or clothing given to us by a deceased loved one.


I hope this has provided a window into understanding some Pagan traditions and how we treat the circle of the seasons.


Grá agus beannacht (love and blessings).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Silent


Silent provides the tools for seekers to recognize their path and enables self-reliance for spiritual and magickal growth. 


Seekers gain insight from his work and find their inner calm from his ability to listen and help others reflect.

By Silent April 23, 2026
Restructuring sounds operational. It isn't. At the whiteboard, it's clean: new structure, realigned roles, redeployed capital. Logic holds. The math works. But you're the one who has to tell someone who's been with you for eleven years that there's no longer a place for what they do. You're the one who has to walk into a room and say the version of this company you all built together is ending, and here's what comes next. And then you have to go lead the next thing. That's not a strategy problem. That's a threshold. Leaders who get this wrong don't get it wrong because they lacked the right framework. They get it wrong because they're making permanent decisions from a state of depletion, and there was no honest space in between to process what was actually happening to them — not just to the business. Reinvention extracts something from a leader that the org chart doesn't account for. It asks you to hold grief for what's ending while holding conviction for what's being built. Simultaneously. In public. Most leaders do this alone. They call it "staying focused."  Sometimes it is. Sometimes it's just the only option they can see. Spiritual direction doesn't tell you what to do. It helps you tell the truth about what's real — including what it costs you to do the right thing, and whether the version of yourself making this decision is the one you trust. Not every leadership problem is a strategy problem. Some of them are located inside the person who has to execute the strategy. If you're in a season of hard reset and carrying more than you've named yet — I'm available for a quiet conversation. No pitch.
By Silent April 22, 2026
This is a subtitle for your new post
By Silent April 19, 2026
This is a subtitle for your new post
Show More