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The Celtic Fire Feasts - Main Introduction
The Celtic Calendar - Main Introduction

Samhain is not the Celtic New Year

"O'Donovan stated in 1847 (Book of Rights 1ii) that the season
with which the Pagan Irish began their year could not be (then) determined."
- From: A Social History of Ancient Ireland by P.W. Joyce, 1903.

In the period from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, the view that Samhain begins the Celtic New Year came to be established. This is a review of the evidence that was provided and the process by which the view came to be established.

Joyce's comment above shows that knowledge of the traditional start of the Celtic year did not survive the ages. It has to be remembered that the Julian and later Gregorian calendars came into use across the Celtic world since their invention following the conquest of Gaul, reaching Britain with the Claudian invasion and Ireland with the advent of Christianity. The traditional "Celtic Year" properly refers to a pre-Roman/Christian endemic Celtic system, or a specific Celtic response to the Julian calendar. This refers to the Celtic calendar known from Gaul and the great festivals known from Ireland.

In 'Samhain is not the Celtic New year', the focus is to look at the misconception that Samhain commences the year. The first purpose is to highlight when and how the concept of Samhain beginning a traditional Celtic year came to be established, and second to show that at best the concept is not supported by the Celtic literary evidence.

Today the idea that Samhain starts the Celtic year is expressed over a widespread literature, from academic texts and Celtic Dictionaries, through to the plethora of New Age and Druidic publications now available. It is difficult to find in these sources any references to the source of this information, but there are suffficient add-on claims that provide the answer.

The 1886 Hibbert Lectures - Sir John Rhys
"I should propose to mend the original"

The 1886 Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Celtic Heathendom presented by Sir John Rhys is the lecture series where the first claim was made for Samhain beginning the Celtic year. Critical reading of this source reveals that the evidence presented by Sir John Rhys was misrepresented or presented inaccurately and that the conclusion he reached was forced.

Page 514 of the 1886 Hibbert Lectures should be very carefully read by anyone asserting that Samhain is the Celtic New Year - for this is the page upon which rests a century of unreferenced statements saying that Samhain is the Celtic new year. He presents an incorrect rendition of Julius Caesar's 'Dis Pater' passage in his Gallic Wars ("in their computation of time they began with night and winter"), and he meddles with Cormac's Glossary ("I should propose to mend the original").

A full exposition of the lecture by Sir John Rhys, is given in 1886 Hibbert Lectures source document.

What is vital to understand is that the entire array of evidence that Sir John Rhys presents in the Hibbert Lectures is based on his interpretation of Caesar. However, the Dis Pater statement by Caesar does not at all say that winter preceded summer. To rebut Sir John Rhys, it is sufficient to correctly quote Caesar, namely: "they [the Celts] go on the principle that the day begins at night"(C. Julius Caesar, Gallic War, VI.18).

Subsequent to these famous lectures, populists such as Charles Squire in the 1910s helped shape the views of the public and academics alike ("Samhain...was the beginning too, of the ancient Celtic Year"), with images of "the gods of darkness, winter, and the Underworld".

1855 - Bulfinch's Mythology
"The Druids observed two festivals in each year."

At the opening years of the twentieth century, we can see that the impact of the 1886 Hibbert Lectures had not yet been made. In A Social History of Ancient Ireland (1903), P.W. Joyce, states "O'Donovan stated in 1847 (Book of Rights 1ii) that the season with which the Pagan Irish began their year could not be (then) determined. Some years later O'Curry asserted that according to the authority of an ancient Irish poem, of which he had a copy, the year began on the 1st February. We must presume that this is correct; but he has not given the stanza in which the statement is made, and I have never seen the poem". This is important to consider, because it highlights that antiquarians were searching for evidence of when the Celts began the year, which was not known in the eighteenth century.

The following poem is published on the website Fada 's Farsaing (Far and Wide)by Liam O Caiside: It certainly fits the description given by Joyce -

"Rathaí firinneacha na bliana:
Rath ó Lá 'le Bríde go Bealtaine,
Rath ó Bhealtaine go Lúnasa
Rath ó Lúnasa go Samhain,
Rath ó Shamhain go Lá 'le Bríde.

The true seasons of the year:
The season from St. Bridget's Day to May Day,
The season from May Day to Lúnasa,
The season from Lúnasa to Samhain,
The season from Samhain to St. Bridget's Day.

Thomas Bulfinch published his encyclopaedic 'The Age Of Fable Or Stories Of Gods And Heroes' in 1855, including a chapter, The Druids - Iona. Just as O'Donovan a few years earlier, no mention of a Celtic New Year at Samhain is mentioned; this is a quality demonstration of the absence of knowledge in the mid-nineteenth century of the Celtic new year. Thirty years passed before Sir John Rhys made his assertion for Samhain. In Bulfinch's Mythology, the two great fire feasts are described:

"The Druids observed two festivals in each year. The former took place in the beginning of May, and was called Beltane or "fire of God." On this occasion a large fire was kindled on some elevated spot, in honour of the sun, whose returning beneficence they thus welcomed after the gloom and desolation of winter. Of this custom a trace remains in the name given to Whitsunday in parts of Scotland to this day. Sir Walter Scott uses the word in the "Boat Song" in the "Lady of the Lake":

"Ours is no sapling, chance sown by the fountain, Blooming at Beltane in winter to fade;" etc.

"The other great festival of the Druids was called "Samh' in," or "fire of peace," and was held on Hallow-eve (first of November), which still retains this designation in the Highlands of Scotland. On this occasion the Druids assembled in solemn conclave, in the most central part of the district, to discharge the judicial functions of their order. All questions, whether public or private, all crimes against person or property, were at this time brought before them for adjudication. With these judicial acts were combined certain superstitious usages, especially the kindling of the sacred fire, from which all the fires in the district, which had been beforehand scrupulously extinguished, might be relighted. This usage of kindling fires on Hallow-eve lingered in the British islands long after the establishment of Christianity."

The Golden Bough - Sir James Frazer
"we may with some probability infer that
they reckoned their year from Hallowe'en rather than Beltane."

In 1922, Sir James Frazer published his abridged version of The Golden Bough (the full version had grown to twelve volumes by this time over the course of about 30 years). This work was famously used in the British Lion horror movie, The Wicker Man in the 1970s. In a comprehensive exposition of European fire festivals, Frazer presents another piece of evidence to provide a spurious conclusion in support of Samhain being the Celtic new year: "In ancient Ireland, a new fire used to be...kindled every year on Hallowe'en...and from this sacred flame all the fires of Ireland were rekindled [which] points strongly to Samhain [being] New Year's Day; since the annual kindling of a new fire takes place naturally at the beginning of the year..." If this is true, then the "Beltane fires...kindled also in Ireland...as a safeguard [to cattle] against the diseases of the year", the Scottish Beltane fires, described as "the most considerable of the Druidic festivals", the Welsh Beltaine fires and the Hebridean Beltaine fires from which "each man would take home fire wherewith to kindle his own" would therefore equally 'take place naturally at the beginning of the year': The winter fires are the lighting of the hearths in preparation for the cold times ahead, and are performed ritually after the dangerous build up of ash and debris had been cleared. Frazer's so-called strong point is moot; he even states, "The two great Celtic festivals of May Day and the first of November...closely resemble each other in the manner of their celebration".

Sir James Frazer acknowledges that he is providing only support to "the view that the Celts dated their year from the first of November", evidently to Sir John Rhys' contention, and he beseeches his audience that "we may with some probability infer that they [the Celts] reckoned their year from Hallowe'en rather than Beltane".

Establishing an Orthodox view - early to mid 20th century
"Samhain marked the end of summer (samos) and probably the beginning of the year."

In 1934, Henri Hubert published The Greatness and Decline of the Celts. In this, he also refers to Samhain as "probably" the Celtic new year ("Samhain (1st November) marked the end of summer (samos) and probably the beginning of the year"), and adds no information to support the idea or a reference to John Rhys. However, after the publication of this cautiously worded work, the acceptance of Samhain as the beginning of the Celtic year appears as orthodox. By editing Henri Hubert's text, we are able to produce the current orthodoxy that will be familiar to the reader from a wide range of publications: To demonstrate this, here is an edited version of Hubert (compare to the full text provided in the source documents) -

"There were four chief feasts. Samhain (1st November) marked...the beginning of the year. Six months later, on the 1st of May, at the beginning of summer (cèt-saman), came Beltane, the feast of the fire (tein) of Bel or Bile...At Samahin the great battle of the gods was fought at Moytura, between the Formorians and the Tuatha Dé Danann... [At the feasts] spirits were let loose and wonders...happened. In Wales the year was divided in the same way [and] in Gaul...in the Coligny calendar we can distinguish...Samonos"

Thomas George Eyre Powell, in his contribution to the series Ancient Peoples and Places, 'The Celts' (1958) provides an authoritative stamp to Samhain being the Celtic new year with the affirmation:

"The greatest festival in Ireland was known as Samain. In terms of the modern calendar it was celebrated on the first of November, but the preceding night was perhaps the most significant period of the festival. Samain marked the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It was considered to stand independently between the two, and its position in relation to the natural seasons shows it clearly to have been the turning-point in a pastoralist rather than an agrarian cycle. It corresponds to the end of the grazing season when under primitive conditions the herds and flocks were brought together, and only those animals required for breeding were spared from slaughter" (p. 144)

Since the 1950s, Samhain as the Celtic new year is asserted positively in academic publications discussing the Celtic fire feasts. With the boom in New Age philosophy, no referencing to the original sources is provided anymore when statements about Samhain being the Celtic new year are made, and consequently the view has become entrenched. Concepts of thin veils between the worlds and cycles of death and rebirth are expanded upon, famous mythological episodes at Samhain of prophesy, death and destruction are quoted and the Samhain feis of Tara are noted, but nothing except a statement of fact as if it needs no explanation is provided regarding this time being the Celtic new year.

Celtic sources
"The Fena divided the year into two parts.
The first half from Bealtaine to Samhain, and the second half from Samhain to Bealtaine."

If we look at literary evidence, we do not find references in to Samhain as the new year at all. In an extract from the Book of Ballymote, provided by Douglas Hyde in his Literary History of Ireland (1899), King Cormac instructs his son Cairbré about 'Saman's Day', and if ever there was an opportunity to mention that Samhain was New Year, which would be significant, we would expect to have found it there, but we do not.

[Cairbré:] "O grandson of Con, O Cormac, what are the duties of a prince at a banqueting-house?"
[Cormac:] "A prince on Saman's (now All Souls) Day should light his lamps, and welcome his guests with clapping of hands, procure comfortable seats, the cupbearers should be respectable and active in the distribution of meat and drink. Let there be moderation of music, short stories, a welcoming countenance, a welcome for the learned, pleasant conversations, and the like, these are the duties of the prince, and the arrangement of the banqueting-house"

Likewise, in a tale featuring Finn on the night of Samhain provided by PW Joyce in his 1903 A Social History of Ancient Ireland, Samhain is a night where demons roam the land, and again no mention of a new year is alluded to.

Another poetic listing of the fire feasts is given in Emer's listing of the seasons in Tochmarc Emer, dating to the eleventh century, which is quite similar to the 'Rathaí firinneacha na bliana', above. In Tochmarc Emer, (Kuno Meyer translation) she and Cú Chulaind, are in poetic conversation,

"No one comes to this plain," said she, "who does not meet Benn Suain, the son of Roscmelc, from summer's end to the beginning of spring, from the beginning of spring to May-day, from May-day to the beginning of winter."

Cú Chulaind explains to Loeg the meaning of that, as follows,

"Bend Suain, son of Rosc Mele, which she said this is the same thing, viz., that I shall fight without harm to myself from Samuin, i.e., the end of summer. For two divisions were formerly on the year, viz., summer from Beltaine (the first of May), and winter from Samuin to Beltaine. Or sainfuin, viz., suain (sounds), for it is then that gentle voices sound, viz., sám-son 'gentle sound'. To Oimolc, i.e., the beginning of spring, viz., different (ime) is its wet (folc), viz the wet of spring, and the wet of winter. Or, oi-melc, viz., oi, in the language of poetry, is a name for sheep, whence oibá (sheep's death) is named, ut dicitur coinbá (dog's death), echbá (horse's death), duineba (men's death), as bath is a name for 'death'. Oi-melc, then, is the time in which the sheep come out and are milked, whence oisc (a ewe), i.e., oisc viz., barren sheep. To Beldine, i.e. Beltine, viz., a favouring fire. For the druids used to make two fires with great incantations, and to drive the cattle between them against the plagues, every year. Or to Beldin, viz., Bel the name of an idol. At that time the young of every neat were placed in the possession of Bel. Beldine, then Beltine. To Brón Trogaill, i.e. Lammas-day, viz., the beginning of autumn; for it is then the earth is afflicted, viz., the earth under fruit. Trogam is a name for 'earth.'"

Note that Cú Chulaind mentions Beltaine before Samhain, where he says "two divisions were formerly on the year, viz., summer from Beltaine (the first of May), and winter from Samuin to Beltaine." This is consistent, or derived from, Cormack's Glossary, referred to by P.W. Joyce in his A Social History of Ancient Ireland (1903):

"Samain, Samuin, or Samhuin [sowin], the first of November, was the first day of Gemred or Winter. The name is compounded of the two words, sam, which was an old word for Samrad or Summer, and fuin, an ancient word for end: that is to say, the end of Summer: for, the old authority [Cormack's Glossary] adds, 'the whole year was [originally] divided into two parts - Summer from Ist May to Ist November, and Winter from Ist November to Ist May.' The term gemred for winter is a derivative from the older and simpler word geim, meaning the same thing. For certain legal purposes connected with grazing and trespass, the ancient Irish had another division of the year into two unequal parts:- the Summer division from the Ist March to the 31st July, five months; and the Winter division from Ist August to the 28th of February, seven months."

For clear and direct references to the structure of the Celtic year, we have at hand 'Tóraigheacht an Ghiolla Dheacair' 'The pursuit of the Giolla Dacker and his horse', a Fennian tale recorded in the 16th century. Here, a summer beginning is explicitly recorded. This myth is recorded in 'Old Celtic Romances' (1907) by P.W.Joyce (which is published on-line).

"This was the manner in which the Fena used to spend their time: They divided the year into two parts. During the first half, namely, from Bealtaine [the first of May] to Samhain [the first of November], they hunted each day with their dogs; and during the second half, namely from Samhain to Bealtaine, they lived in the mansions and the houses of public hospitality of Erin; so that there was not a chief or a great lord or a keeper of a house of hospitality in the whole country that had not nine of the Fena quartered on him during the winter half of the year."

In The Expedition of Dathi, presented by Eugene O'Curry (1796-1862) in his 1855 and 1856 'Lectures on the manuscript materials of ancient Irish history delivered at the Catholic University of Ireland', published in 1861, we find references to Druidic practices in Ireland at Samhain, often quoted as further evidence for Samhain being the Celtic new year ("I wish", said [Dathi] the king [to Doghra, chief Druid], "to know my destiny, and that of my country, from this night till this night twelvemonths"). Dathi was travelling through Ireland at the time and this event needs to be considered in relation to King Dathi's gathering at Tara at Beltaine upon his return at the end of his circuit, ("a conference with all the great chiefs and leaders of the nation") and the importance attached to this Beltaine festival at Tara ("The feast of Tara this year was solemnized on a scale of splendour never before equalled").

Coligny Tablet - the ancient celtic calendar
"Samon equates to Samhradh, from *samo- for 'summer'. Giammon equates to Geimhreadh, from *gaimo- for 'winter'."

Because the established view that Samhain marked the start of the year, a compounding problem - and another error - has arisen in translations of the bronze Celtic calendar inscription from ancient and pre-Roman Gaul. This calendar begins with the month Samon, and to be consistent with Samhain marking the start of the year, Samon has been misinterpreted as being equivalent to Samhain. Moreover, a great deal of attention has been drawn to an annotation in the month of Samon, marking the 'Trinox Samoni', which has consequently been mistranslated to "The three nights of Samhain". As an example, here is a typical exercise is explaining this mistranslation from Tadhg MacCrossan in his book "The Sacred Cauldron" (Llewellyn 1991, pgs. 207-208):

"Samhain is cognate with a Gaulish month name, Samonios, which is Samon, "summer", with the derivational -ios ending. Samhain or Samonios means literally "summery". But why would the end of the summer half of the year start with a month named "summery one"? The answer is found in the etymology, for the PIE root sem-, "summer", means the time of year for se-, "sow" or the sowing. Summer was originally the name for the half of the year that was spent in sowing, and thus the last month was its culmination and ending or fulfilment. Irish glossers would later suggest a compound, "Sam-fuin", "summers end", since the festival marked its ending, but the phonetic correspondence between the Gaulish phrase "trinouxtion samoni" and the Old Irish " trenae samhna" shows that both mean the same "three nights of Samhain".

'Why would the end of the summer half of the year start with a month named "summery one"?': It doesn't. The month in the 'Coligny calendar' that does equate to November is in fact the seventh month, Giammon, which means 'Winter'. Giammon corresponds to the older Irish name for the season of winter, namely Gamain, recorded in Cormac's glossary, a point made by PW Joyce in 1903, and the Gaelic word for winter, Geimhreadh. The name of the first month, Samon, simply means 'Summer'. The Celtic stem samo-, meaning summer, recorded in Cormac's Glossary, and noted by Henri Hubert in 1934, applies to the Gaulish name Samon, which corresponds to the Gaelic word for summer, Samhradh.

Thus the Trinox Samoni is in fact a festival relating to the Celtic summer. Moreover, the original Irish name for the Julian calendar month of May was cetsoman (Cètemain) - derived according to Cormac's Glossary from cét-sam-sín, the first weather-motion of sam or summer, and hence the 'first month of Summer'. Thus here we have the continuation of the Gaulish term 'Samon' as Irish 'cet-Soman', and coinciding with the Celtic feast of Beltaine.

See The Celtic Calendar on this website for further information, including further confirmation of other seasonally-related month names showing that the calendar begins in what is now May, and to find the Celtic calendar attested to in Classical literature by the ancient sources in the first centuries BC and AD, namely Caesar, Diodorus, Pliny the Elder and Plutarch.

A May beginning to the year
"the coming of May is a blessing for me." - Dafydd ap Gwilym

It is hoped that the presentation here of some rather inaccessible (but now more readily available via the external publications on side-bar) writings concerning the Celtic year will be of interest for all, and that a critical eye may be cast upon the strengths of the nineteenth century evidence that has led to the current orthodoxy. Samhain is widely and uncritically reported today as the Celtic new year, "but it doesn't really matter if you come across 100 otherwise reliable authors all saying that Samhain marks the beginning of the year if every one of them got that idea from the same source (or works that got it from that source, etc.). What matters is how reliable that common source is. If that source is flawed, then all those 100 authors have based their conclusions on a flawed source and so their conclusions are flawed". This last quote was provided in 2002 on a discussion of this matter on the then vibrant soc.culture.celtic, and it remains as important today as it did then, and it is quoted with thanks, because it makes the point.

The original source for the contention that Samhain marks the Celtic New Year is Sir John Rhys' 1886 Hibbert Lecture. That source is flawed. Moreover, Celtic literature positively identifies Beltaine as the start of the year. Further, linguistics shows that Gaulish Samon, the first month of the Celtic year, was at the start of summer, and Giammon, the seventh month, was at the start of winter. No matter where you critically explore, and no matter how many independent sources are selected, whenever it comes to positive information regarding the Celtic year, it always indicates that Beltaine, the first feast, opens the year. Samhain, then marks mid-year, and the end of the productive half of the year, and a handy time to meet and set affairs of state. It is a good time for prophesy, first to ensure safety through the coming winter, but even more importantly to plan for and raise expectations for what could be achieved the following summer.

A summer beginning for the year throughout the Celtic world is consistent with the significant events associated with Beltaine. Henri Hubert highlighted the fact that "Beltane commemorated the landing of the first invaders of Ireland, the sons of Partholan; the first fire, that of Uisnech, was lit by their last successors"; likewise, the Tuatha de Danaan arrived in Ireland at Beltaine, beginning life in a new land at the beginning of a new year. How fitting it was that the Druid Amergin invoked the calendar at their arrival, when he declared "Who tells the ages of the moon, if not I? Who shows the place where the sun goes to rest, if not I?" in The Song of Amergin.

The young heroes of Celtic myth such as Pryderi were born on May Day (see Mabon ap Modron for more on the birth of the Celtic hero). Beltaine was also the day on which Finn gained druidic inspiration after eating of the Salmon of Knowledge, and the day Taliesin was discovered. It is in these events and exaltations that the true beginning of the Celtic year is to be found.

"God knew how fitting the tender start of the growth of May would be/
Great is the dignity of bright green May, godson of the Immaculate Lord/
the coming of May is a blessing for me. God and Mary decided wisely and steadfastly to uphold May."

These last words were written of the start of the Celtic summer by Dafydd ap Gwilym in the mid fourteenth century and remain a powerful reminder of the importance of the season to Celts into the medieval period.

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"Samhain is not the Celtic New Year" - First published 2002, updated 2006, supplemented 2007; 'The true seasons' and Tochmarc Emer material added March 2008, Bulfinch's Mythology and TGE Powell quote added April 2009.

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