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=== Samhain ===

=== Samhain ===

That Halloween originated as the day before All Saints' Day might seem a straightforward explanation. But popular history points to another source: The pagan festival of Samhain, observed by the ancient Celts.<ref>For a "popular history" account, see "[https://www.irishpost.com/news/samhain-seven-facts-about-the-spooky-irish-festival-which-became-halloween-105009 Samhain: Seven facts about the spooky Irish festival which became Halloween]", ''Irish Post''.</ref>

That Halloween originated as the day before All Saints' Day might seem a straightforward explanation. But popular history points to another source: The pagan festival of [[Samhain]], observed by the ancient Celts on November 1.<ref>For a "popular history" account, see "[https://www.irishpost.com/news/samhain-seven-facts-about-the-spooky-irish-festival-which-became-halloween-105009 Samhain: Seven facts about the spooky Irish festival which became Halloween]", ''Irish Post''.</ref>

[[File:De Ricci Coligny 1926 detail month14.jpeg|left|130px|thumb|Part of the Coligny calendar. This Celtic calendar was discovered in Coligny France in 1897]]In modern Gaelic, ''Samhain'' refers primarily to the month of November.<ref>Mark, Colin, ''The Gaelic–English Dictionary'' (2003).</ref> For the pre-Christian Celts, Samhain was the most important date of on the calendar. Little is known of the pagan festival. Sources on Samhain conflict on many points, including what time of year the festival was.

[[File:De Ricci Coligny 1926 detail month14.jpeg|left|130px|thumb|Part of the Coligny calendar. This Celtic calendar was discovered in Coligny France in 1897]]The earliest mention of Samhain in surviving literature is found in "The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain," which dates from the tenth or eleventh centuries. It portrays Samhain as a harvest festival held at "summer's end":  

 

The earliest mention of Samhain in surviving literature is "The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain," which dates from the tenth or eleventh centuries. It portrays Samhain as a harvest festival held at "summer's end":  

{{cquote|[The young men of Ulster] used to keep that festival every year; nor was there anything in the world that they would do at that time except sports, and marketings, and splendours, and pomps, and feasting and eating; and it is from that custom of theirs that the Festival of the Samhain has descended, that is now held throughout the whole of Ireland.<ref>Maelmuiri mac Ceileachair, "[http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/ireland/cuchulainnsick.htm The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain]." The translation is from ''Heroic Romances of Ireland.'' Vol I. A. H. Leahy, ed.

{{cquote|[The young men of Ulster] used to keep that festival every year; nor was there anything in the world that they would do at that time except sports, and marketings, and splendours, and pomps, and feasting and eating; and it is from that custom of theirs that the Festival of the Samhain has descended, that is now held throughout the whole of Ireland.<ref>Maelmuiri mac Ceileachair, "[http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/ireland/cuchulainnsick.htm The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain]." The translation is from ''Heroic Romances of Ireland.'' Vol I. A. H. Leahy, ed.

London: David Nutt, 1905. pp. 57-85.<br/>While others partied, Ulster hero Cuchulain was on his sick bed receiving an extended vision of ''Mag Mell'', the Plain of Delight, a Celtic version the [[Elysian Fields | Elysian fields]].</ref>}}

London: David Nutt, 1905. pp. 57-85.</ref>}}

While others partied, Ulster hero Cuchulain was on his sick bed receiving an extended vision of ''Mag Mell'', the Plain of Delight, a Celtic version the [[Elysian Fields | Elysian fields]].

===American Halloween===

===American Halloween===