Changes

===Scottish origins===

===Scottish origins===

====The Celtic calendar====

====The Celtic calendar====

In Scot's Gaelic, All Saints' Day is ''samhuinn'', equivalent to Irish Samhain.<ref>MacBain, Alexander, ''An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language'', Gairm Publications, Glasgow, 1982. "'''samhuinn''', Hallow-tide, Ir. [samhain], E.Ir. [samuin], [samain], [samfhuin]: usually regarded as for [*sam-fuin], "summer-end", from [sam], summer, and [fuin], end, sunset."</ref> Samhain is paired with Beltaine on May 1 so that the Celtic year was split into halves.<ref>MacLeod, Sharon Praice, ''Celtic Myth and Religion'' (2012), p. 14.</ref>

[[File:De Ricci Coligny 1926 detail month14.jpeg|thumb|left|Part of the Coligny calendar. This Celtic calendar was discovered in Coligny France in 1897]]In Scot's Gaelic, All Saints' Day is ''samhuinn'', equivalent to Irish Samhain.<ref>MacBain, Alexander, ''An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language'', Gairm Publications, Glasgow, 1982. "'''samhuinn''', Hallow-tide, Ir. [samhain], E.Ir. [samuin], [samain], [samfhuin]: usually regarded as for [*sam-fuin], "summer-end", from [sam], summer, and [fuin], end, sunset."</ref> Samhain is paired with Beltaine on May 1 so that the Celtic year was split into halves.<ref>MacLeod, Sharon Praice, ''Celtic Myth and Religion'' (2012), p. 14.</ref>

[[File:Halloween skull.jpg|thumb|left]]The Irish adopted the Julian calendar around AD 450. Significant dates may have transferred from the Celtic calendar. A Celtic lunisolar calendar has been reconstructed from fragments of two second century calendars, one found in the French town of Coligny and the other in Villards d'Heria. The first month on this calendar is called ''Samonios''. This month is cognate with Samhain and contained the winter solstice.<ref name="Olmsted">Olmsted, Garrett (1992). ''The Gaulish calendar: a reconstruction from the bronze fragments from Coligny, with an analysis of its function as a highly accurate lunar-solar predictor, as well as an explanation of its terminology and development,'' p. 193.</ref>

 

The Irish adopted the Julian calendar around AD 450. Significant dates may have transferred from the Celtic calendar. A Celtic lunisolar calendar has been reconstructed from fragments of two second century calendars, one found in the French town of Coligny and the other in Villards d'Heria. The first month on this calendar is called ''Samonios''. This month is cognate with Samhain and contained the winter solstice.<ref name="Olmsted">Olmsted, Garrett (1992). ''The Gaulish calendar: a reconstruction from the bronze fragments from Coligny, with an analysis of its function as a highly accurate lunar-solar predictor, as well as an explanation of its terminology and development,'' p. 193.</ref>

With a leap day every five years, the Coligny calendar gives the length of a solar year as 365.20 days. Since the true length is 365.2422 days, the calendar drifts by one day every 23.7 years. If Samhain was once a month that contained the winter solstice (December 21), it had drifted by AD 450 so that it corresponded roughly to November. This suggests that the Celtic calendar was in use for about 1,300 years.<ref name="Olmsted"/>

With a leap day every five years, the Coligny calendar gives the length of a solar year as 365.20 days. Since the true length is 365.2422 days, the calendar drifts by one day every 23.7 years. If Samhain was once a month that contained the winter solstice (December 21), it had drifted by AD 450 so that it corresponded roughly to November. This suggests that the Celtic calendar was in use for about 1,300 years.<ref name="Olmsted"/>