Changes

===Scottish origins===

===Scottish origins===

====The Celtic calendar====

====The Celtic calendar====

In Gaelic, the traditional language of Scotland and Ireland, ''Samhain'' refers primarily to the month of November. It can also refer to All Saints' Day. But the holiday is usually referred to by other names.<ref>Mark, Colin, ''The Gaelic–English Dictionary'' (2003)<br/>All Saints' Day is called ''Fèill nan Naomh Uile''in Scotland and ''Lá na Naomh Uile'' in Ireland.</ref>

''Sanas Cormaic'', an Irish glossary written around 900, gives ''Imbol'' (February 1) as the first day of spring, ''Beltaine'' (May 1) the first day of summer, ''Lugnasad'' (August 1) the first day of fall, and ''Samhain'' (November 1) the first day of winter.<ref name="Olmsted">Olmsted, Garrett (2009). ''The Coligny Calendar: the Implications for Gaulish and Irish Festival Dates''.</ref> In modern Gaelic, ''Samhain'' refers primarily to the month of November.<ref>Mark, Colin, ''The Gaelic–English Dictionary'' (2003)<br/>All Saints' Day is called ''Fèill nan Naomh Uile'' in Scotland and ''Lá na Naomh Uile'' in Ireland.</ref>  

[[File:De Ricci Coligny 1926 detail month14.jpeg|left|100px|Part of the Coligny calendar. This Celtic calendar was discovered in Coligny France in 1897]]The Irish adopted the Julian calendar around AD 450. Significant dates may have transferred from the Celtic calendar at this time. 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 (2009). ''The Coligny Calendar: the Implications for Gaulish and Irish Festival Dates,'' p. 193.</ref>

[[File:De Ricci Coligny 1926 detail month14.jpeg|left|100px|Part of the Coligny calendar. This Celtic calendar was discovered in Coligny France in 1897]]The Irish adopted the Julian calendar around AD 450. Significant dates may have transferred from the Celtic calendar at this time.

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 drifted by one day every 23.7 years. If Samhain contained the winter solstice (December 21) at time the calendar was created, the amount of drift can be used to measure the age of the Celtic calendar. For Samhain to correspond to November, the Celtic calendar would have to have been 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 drifted by one day every 23.7 years.<ref name="Olmsted"/><ref>The amount of drift can be used to estimate the age of the calendar. For Samhain to move from the December-January period to November suggests that the calendar was in use for about 1,300 years. Pliny writes that Celtic months started on sixth day of the lunar cycle. This suggests that the calendar had already accumulated a thousand years worth of drift in his time, according to Olmsted.</ref>

====Bonfires====

====Bonfires====