Different Ways to Celebrate Samhain || Wiccan vs Celtic

Samhain is by far my favorite Pagan holiday and I think a lot of other Pagans consider it their favorite too.  Ever since I was little I’ve been fascinated by witches, magic, and all things paranormal so growing up I looked forward to Halloween all year long.   When I eventually discovered Paganism I was so excited to see that many of the Halloween traditions I grew up with were actually Pagan in origin and based off of the Celtic Pagan holiday known as Samhain. 

I’ve been personally celebrating Samhain since I was a teenager and I’ve mostly celebrated it as a wiccan.  Though over the past few years, I’ve been slowly shifting away from wicca towards Pagan reconstructionism and I’ve been curious about how the ancient Celtic Pagans actually celebrated this holiday. So today, I’m going to share with you some of the ways the ancient Celts celebrated Samhain and go over how that’s similar and different from the ways that modern wiccans celebrate it.  

Both Wiccans and Celtic Pagans view Samhain as a day to connect with the dead.  Some of the ways Wiccans honor those that have passed on is by placing pictures of their deceased family members or ancestors on their altar.  Also, Some wiccans also participate in a “dumb supper,” the word dumb meaning silent, not stupid.  The “dumb supper” is really just a silent meal where you have a place setting with food for the deceased at your table. 

The Celtic Pagans did something similar though they provided offerings for both the Aos Sí and the deceased.  Aos Sí is an Irish term for the supernatural beings in Irish & Scottish mythology.  These supernatural beings are akin to the Fae that appear in Folklore.  As Samhain was considered a liminal time where these supernatural beings could enter our world, it was really important to the Celtic Pagans that they provide offerings as a way to placate them.  They did this by leaving offerings of food and drink outside their home.  As for the souls of the deceased, they would place a plate for them at their table just as modern wiccans do.  However, it was definitely not a quiet feast. In fact the Celtic Pagans had multiple loud and rambunctious feats for Samhain.  

While most Wiccans tend to celebrate Samhain on October 31st, Celtic Pagans celebrated Samhain for about a week.  They would begin 3 days before Samhain and end 3 days after.  These were big gatherings as this time traditionally marked the end of the season for trade and warfare and it was a time to gather the whole tribe together.  We see evidence of this in early Irish literature as these big Samhain gatherings were often used as the setting for the stories. 

During these big gatherings, there was lots of feasting, drinking, and contests. One of the most popular contests involved horse racing.  In a previous video about Lughnasadh traditions, I mentioned how athletic events & competition were key aspects of the celebration so it’s interesting to see that that’s true for Samhain as well.  To me this emphasis on sport, competition and physical fitness is one of the bigger differences you’ll find between Wiccan and historic Celtic Pagan celebrations.  

Many Wiccans tend to celebrate Samhain either alone or with a small coven, but for the Celtic Pagans this holiday was really about celebrating together as a large community.  Probably the most important feature of a Celtic Pagan Samhain is a community bonfire and while some wiccans may do a bonfire for Samhain, it’s definitely not a common feature I've seen in most modern Wiccan Samhain celebrations.

Bonfires were an essential part of Celtic Pagan Samhain celebrations.  Usually these fires were lit by the Druids and then sacrifices for the Gods were thrown into the fire.  Also, all other fires in the community would be extinguished and then re-lit from this sacred community fire. Sometimes, two bonfires would be lit next to each other and then the people, and potentially also their livestock, would walk between the two fires as part of a cleansing ritual. 

One of the popular Samhain activities for both Wiccans and Celtic Pagans is divination.  Usually wiccans do divination on Samhain with a scrying mirror, tarot cards, or maybe runes.  The Celtic Pagans also did divination, though it mostly centered around the bonfire.  There’s a spooky Celtic tradition where people would gather a stone and place their stone in a ring around a bonfire. Then everyone would run and dance around the bonfire and the next morning they would check the stones. If a stone was missing or moved it was said that that person would die in the upcoming year.  Apples and hazelnuts were also traditionally used for divination games on Samhain though mostly these divination methods were done by girls hoping to learn who their future spouse would be. 

There are many more both Wiccan and Celtic Pagan traditions for Samhain and I definitely encourage you to do some more research so you can decide which traditions would best fit within your own Samhain celebration.  With this post, I’m not trying to say that one system, Wiccan or Celtic Pagan is better than the other.  Though I wanted to share with you these ancient Celtic Pagan traditions because books and information on them is often much harder to find than information on Wiccan celebrations. 

There are tons of books and blog posts out there that provide spells, rituals, and crafts on how to celebrate a Wiccan Samhain.  In fact, I’ve personally made a lot of videos about how to celebrate a Wiccan Samhain already.  The trickier question for me is how can we celebrate a Samhain in a way that’s more attuned to how the Celtic Pagans celebrated it.  It’s kind of a difficult situation because most Celtic Pagan celebrations were about coming together as a community.  The more I’ve learned about historic Pagan traditions the more I’ve realized how important it is to build a strong community not just online but in person as well.  Definitely not this year but maybe in the years to come I really hope to be able to host a traditional Celtic Pagan Samhain celebration.  This would be an event where we could all come together for a weekend, have a big nighttime Samhain bonfire and enjoy feasting, drinking, and spending time together.  

And speaking of building community, one of the new things I’ll be doing is sending out hand written letters to some of my Patrons for each sabbat.  I know it’s kind of old school, but I think it would be really fun to become penpals with some of you guys. 

So, if you’re interested in becoming Penpals with me, you can join my Patreon here.  

Thanks so much for reading this post.  It’s been so wonderful to see our community grow so quickly!