On the Celtic calendar, Nov. 1marked the beginning of the new year and the winter season. The Celts celebrated their new year on Oct. 31 with a festivity known as Samhuinn or Samhain (pronounced ...

Halloween’s Celtic roots are a lot spookier than witches and candy bars A parade goes through Glastonbury, England, to celebrate Samhain.

Halloween was born from the Celts, who populated what is now the United Kingdom, Ireland and northern France more than 2,000 years ago. On the Celtic calendar, Nov. 1marked the beginning of the new ...

The date not only divides the calendar between the winter solstice and the spring equinox — it's also a time of year that figures in the Celtic calendar and the Christian holiday of Candlemas.

In ninth century Irish literature, Samhain is mentioned many times as an integral part of the Celtic culture. It was one of four seasonal turning points in the Celtic calendar, and perhaps the ...

These megalithic ("big stone" in Greek) sites would at times host huge numbers of people, gathered together for brief periods around specific calendar dates. Archaeological records reveal evidence ...