Changes

by Cormac, O'Donovan, John, ed. and tr; Stokes, Whitley, 1868)</ref>

by Cormac, O'Donovan, John, ed. and tr; Stokes, Whitley, 1868)</ref>

A Celtic lunisolar calendar has been reconstructed from fragments of a second AD calendar found in the French town of Coligny. The first month on the calendar is called ''Samonios''. As ''samon'' is Gaulish for summer, this was presumably a summer month.<ref>Lambert, Pierre-Yves, La langue gauloise, Editions Errance, 2nd edition, Paris, 2003, p.112.</ref> The Celts celebrated a three-day festival that began on the 17th of ''Samonios'', according to this calendar.<ref name="Olmsted">Olmsted, Garrett (2009). ''The Coligny Calendar: the Implications for Gaulish and Irish Festival Dates''.</ref> This festival may correspond to Beltaine, the principle Celtic holiday. Perhaps 17 Samonios corresponded to May 1, the Julian date for Beltaine, or perhaps change of season dates were placed on the first of the month for convenience. The calendar may have been designed to start on the summer solstice (June 21). Various factors could have caused it to move out of alignment, including the swing of the seasons from one year of the cycle to the next and calendar drift.

A Celtic lunisolar calendar has been reconstructed from fragments of a second AD calendar found in the French town of Coligny. The first month on the calendar is called ''Samonios''. As ''samo-'' is Gaulish for summer, this was presumably a summer month.<ref>Lambert, Pierre-Yves, ''La langue gauloise,'' Editions Errance, 2nd edition, Paris, 2003, p. 266. "'''Samo-''', `été'</ref> The Celts celebrated a three-day festival that began on the 17th of ''Samonios'', according to this calendar.<ref name="Olmsted">Olmsted, Garrett (2009). ''The Coligny Calendar: the Implications for Gaulish and Irish Festival Dates''.</ref> This festival may correspond to Beltaine, the principle Celtic holiday. Perhaps 17 Samonios corresponded to May 1, the Julian date for Beltaine, or perhaps change of season dates were placed on the first of the month for convenience. The calendar may have been designed to start on the summer solstice (June 21). Various factors could have caused it to move out of alignment, including the swing of the seasons from one year of the cycle to the next and calendar drift.

Samhain was presumably in the month of ''Giamonios,'' six months following Beltaine. ''Gam'' means November in Old Irish, according to ''Cormac's Glossary.''

Samhain follows Beltaine by exactly six months. So it must have been observed in the month of ''Giamonios,'' the seventh month of Coligny calendar. The name of this month is "transparently" derived from ''giamos'', the Gaulish word for winter.<ref>Lambert, p. 179.</ref>

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