Samhain

Samhain is one of the eight annual holidays, often referred to as 'Sabbats', observed as part of the Wiccan Wheel of the Year. It is considered by most Wiccans to be the most important of the four 'greater Sabbats'. Its date is not universally agreed upon, as many Neopagan movements have no binding structure upon which all agree. It is generally observed on October 31 in the Northern Hemisphere. Samhain is considered by most Wiccans as a celebration of death and of the dead, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets and other loved ones who have died. In some rituals the spirits of the departed are invited to attend the festivities. It is seen as a festival of darkness and death, which is balanced at the opposite point of the wheel by the spring festival of Beltane, which Wiccans celebrate as a festival of life and fertility. In many Wiccan circles, Samhain is also commemorated as the death of the God.

While the Wiccan version of Samhain is not a form of reconstruction, and is largely mixed with other traditions in a form of universalism, it is influenced by the Celtic holiday from which the name was taken.