Meanings
- A holiday, falling on the night of 31 October to 1 November, mentioned in Early Irish literature and celebrated by modern neo-pagans as the beginning of winter and the new year, and a time during which the spirits of the dead could return to the earth.
Invite, but never command, friendly spirits, faeries, or elementals to join you as you wish. In some traditions it is common to invite ancestors to join you, especially during the dark days from Samhain to Imbolg when it is believed that the portal between our dimensions is at its thinnest.
1994, Edain McCoy, “Appendix Three: Outline for Ritual Construction”, in A Witch’s Guide to Faery Folk: How to Work with the Elemental World: […], St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publishers, published 2004 (13th printing), →ISBN, page 3541 more example
The root word takes us back to the ancient Celts who held a ceremony called Samhain in order to honor the harvest cycle. Each October 31, the harvest would end, and the Irish would gather to kill livestock. Often, they would throw the animal’s bones onto a roaring bonfire. The people who attended Samhain believed that the dead made their presence known during the festival, and that they must be appeased or else they would cause trouble and hardship for the townspeople.
2012 October 28, David DiSalvo, “Are You or Someone You Know Samhainophobic?”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 17 Oct 2014Synonyms: Halloween, November Eve
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounA holiday, falling on the night of 31 October to 1 November, mentioned in Early Irish literature and celebrated by modern neo-pagans as the beginning of winter and the new year, and a time during which the spirits of the dead could return to the earth.
Origin
- IrishSamhain
- IrishSamhain
- EnglishSamhain
Borrowed from Irish Samhain.
More words from Irish
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Esperanto Saŭeno, Saveno
- Saŭenoholiday
- Savenoholiday
French Samain
- Samainholiday
Greek Σόουιν, Σόγουιν
- Σόουιν (Sóouin)holiday
- Σόγουιν (Sógouin)holiday
Japanese サウィン
- サウィンholiday
Korean 서우인
- 서우인 (Seou'in)holiday
Polish Samhain
- Samhainholiday
Spanish Samonis
- Samonisholiday
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
Samhain. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Samhain
“Samhain.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Samhain. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Samhain,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Samhain.
Source: Samhain on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.