Samhain: the veil that opens and the memory that remains

Samhain is generally celebrated on October 31 in the Northern Hemisphere and on April 30 in the Southern Hemisphere. It marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, when nature enters into rest and the days become progressively shorter.

Samhain is a major sabbat.

The name derives from the Old Irish Samain. Although its etymology is still debated by scholars, it is often associated with the “end of summer” or the beginning of the dark season of the year. For many Celtic peoples, it was the most important festival of the calendar, marking the closure of an agricultural cycle and the beginning of a new year. For this reason, it is often called the Celtic New Year.

According to various Celtic traditions preserved over the centuries, it was believed that this was a period in which the symbolic boundary between the living and the ancestors became more permeable, favoring rituals of remembrance and homage. For this reason, Samhain is a time dedicated to memory. Traditionally, altars are assembled with photographs, candles, and objects belonging to the ancestors.

Although today the celebration is often associated only with October 31, many traditions understand Samhain as a broader period, whose rituals begin some days before the main date and extend through the first days of November. For those who observe the cycles of nature attentively, the changes in temperature, winds, scents of the earth, and animal behavior announce this transition even before the calendar does.

Over the centuries, various celebrations came to dialogue with this same period.

Halloween, for example, derives from the English expression All Hallows’ Eve. During the Middle Ages, the Church transferred All Saints’ Day to November 1, bringing it closer to the ancient Celtic festival. Later, All Souls’ Day, celebrated on November 2, further consolidated this sequence of dates dedicated to the memory of the dead.

Not to mention the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) in Mexico.

Although they have different origins, Halloween, All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, the Day of the Dead, and Samhain share the same symbolic axis: the remembrance of those who came before us.

In Brazil, the best-known parallel is precisely All Souls’ Day, marked by visits to cemeteries and tributes to deceased family members.

Among the peoples of the Alto Xingu, however, the memory of ancestors also occupies a central place. The Kuarup, performed by peoples of the Xingu, is a great funerary ritual that brings together songs, dances, body painting, and collective celebrations to honor those who have departed and strengthen the bonds between the living and their ancestors.

In many villages, ancestry also remains alive through the stories told around the campfire. It is through them that knowledge, values, and ways of understanding the world cross generations.

That is precisely why Samhain occupies a special place in my life.

Curiously, I was born precisely in the period when this symbolic celebration occurs. Long before knowing the name Samhain, I already perceived that my year seemed to begin when late October arrived. Curiously, this perception also finds parallels in other ways of organizing time, such as the Solar Revolution in astrology or the personal cycles studied by numerology.

Over the last few years, I have come to realize that this way of organizing time converses much more deeply with me. I also began to observe the phases of the Moon, the cycles of the seasons, and even the rhythms of my own body. Gradually, I understood that there are different ways of organizing time. Some follow civil calendars; others are born from the observation of nature. Neither is necessarily superior to the other. They simply respond to different questions.

While many people experience the New Year amid fireworks, parties, and countdowns, I have already celebrated the arrival of a new cycle at least two months earlier. It does not mean that this is a better way to celebrate.

It is just the way that makes sense to me.

I believe that is precisely why Samhain dialogues so deeply with me. I research memory, heritage, and ancestry. I want to understand how different societies organize their remembrances, preserve their knowledge, and build their identities over time.

While many people will be celebrating Halloween, I will probably be lighting a candle in memory of those who came before me. Not because I believe there is a single correct way to celebrate. But because this small gesture reminds me of something I consider essential: no life begins in itself.

We are made of the stories we inherit. And perhaps the most beautiful way to honor those who came before is to live in a manner that our own stories also deserve to be remembered.