Samaín
Samaín – The Asturian name for Samhain, the Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the onset of the dark months of the year.
Origins of Samaín
One of the four great festivals of the Celtic calendar, Samaín marks the end of harvest and the settling in of winter weather. It was also a time of remembrance of the dead and of reverence to the local gods and spirits.
In the Celtic world, of which Asturias was apart, Samaín was a time of transition. Shepherds brought their cattle down from the high mountain pastures to the relatively temperate ones closer to the sea. Livestock slaughtering season (matanza) traditionally began on this date. People were involved in the last big push of agricultural activity before winter.
Like all Celtic festivals, bonfires and feasts were central to the celebration. Unique to Samaín however was the idea that the souls of dead kin came to visit. For this reason, a place was set at the table in their honor. Additionally, the aos sí (les xanes in Asturian) fairies would be out and about, asking for their part of the feast.
Divination was a popular part of Samaín celebrations, often using nuts and apples as the means of scrying the future.
Asturian Echoes
Pope Gregory IV is responsible for sidelining pagan traditions in favor of All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day. As this became widespread within the Catholic church, it was enforced by monarchs in Catholic kingdoms. Over the next few centuries, the Celtic traditions became completely subsumed into the Liturgical calendar. However, they remain as echoes. Whispers from the past.
In Asturias, much of the old flavor of Samaín persists, knowingly or not, in the traditions around Amagüestu. Memories of the chestnut harvest are celebrated with roasted chestnuts. The ancient tradition of remembering the dead is no longer one of setting a place at the table for them. Instead schoolchildren dress as their great grandparents did. These ancestral costumes stand in for the more common spooky Halloween costumes in America.
Halloween
Halloween, as currently celebrated, is a part of Samhain. The Celtic day began and ended not at sunrise, but at sunset, meaning that when the sun went down on October 31, November 1 (Samhain) began.
The tradition of costuming and trick or treating comes from the aos sí asking for their part of the feast. From at least the early modern period people would dress up as these fairies and go door to door singing or reciting poetry in exchange for food or sweets.
