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When was the Celtic festival of Samhain held?
One of the four major Celtic festivals,Samhain was celebrated on 1 November and the night that preceded it,making it in terms of time the equivalent of the modern Halloween.A …pastoral festival,Samhain marked the passing of one pastoral year and the beginning of another year.At the time of Samhain,the livestock were brought in from the fields,some to be slaughtered for food and others to be kept for breeding purposes during the festival.Samhain was also the time when the usual barriers between the mortal world and the otherworld were suspended.At Samhain there were great gatherings,fairs and markets and horse-races.It was thought that spirits from the otherworld could freely visit the mortal world and that mortals could see and penetrate the otherworld.This connection between witches and other supernatural forces remain still today at the same date.Ritual fires were lit but only after all the fires were extinguished and relit from a ceremonial fire lit by the Druids.Samhain was a time of great significance to the Celts,and their legends reflect the strange and important things that happened on the festival.For example,it was the time that the people of Nemedh had to pay their annual tribute to the Fomoril,a tribute that was extremely crippling,consisting as it did of two-thirds of their corn,wine,milk and some say even their children.It was also the date of the second battle of Magh Tuiredh,and on the night before Samhain the Daghda mated with Morrigan as she straddled the River Unius.Samhain was the time of year when Ailen annually burned down Tara,after lulling the guards to sleep with enchanted music,untill he was killed by Fionn Cumhaill. (MORE)
