Samhain Festival

Month : October-November
Place : Ireland
Famous For : Harvest Festival
Attractions : Bonfires, Guising, Divination, Apple Bobbing, Feasting

Samhain is a much awaited harvest festival organized in Ireland on October 31 to November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularized as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following John Rhys and James Frazer. The date of Samhain was associated with the Catholic All Saints' Day (and later All Souls' Day) from at least the 8th century, and both the secular Gaelic and the Catholic liturgical festival have influenced the secular customs now connected with Halloween.

Major Attractions
The medieval Irish festival of Samhain marked the end of the harvest, the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half". It was celebrated over the course of several days and had some elements of a festival of the dead. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. People and their livestock would often walk between two bonfires as a cleansing ritual, and the bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames. The festival is however celebrated as a religious festival by some neopagans. The celebrations of Samhain includes bonfires, guising, divination, apple bobbing, feasting etc. The festival is also famous by the names of Samhuinn (Gàidhlig), Sauin (Gaelg), Oíche Shamhna (Gaeilge), Samaín (Galician) . The Samhain festoval is observed by Gaels (Irish people, Scottish people), Neopagans (Celtic Reconstructionists, Wiccans

Official Website :http://www.chalicecentre.net/samhain.htm