Samhain
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What is Samhain? Samhain (pronounced SAH-win) is an ancient Celtic harvest festival in celebration of the beginning of winter and a new year. (The Celts’ year was considered to start with the winter season on November 1.)Many of the traditions associated with Halloween are thought to have originated with Samhain, and the word Samhain is sometimes used synonymously with Halloween. However, Samhain is often considered a distinct holiday. It is sometimes celebrated as a religious observance in Pagan, Neopagan, and other traditions. Samhain is sometimes also spelled Samain or Samh’in.
Etymology
Origin of Samhain
1885–90; < Irish; Old Irish samain
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This remains a central theme, as organisers of this year's celebrations said the streets of Derry would be taken over by a cast of mythical and mysterious characters bringing Samhain to life.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2025
On Samhain, a festival celebrated by ancient people, the lines between the Otherworld of the dead and the realm of the living were weakened.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2024
Will Forte stars as the oddly cheery true-crime podcaster Gilbert Power in this dark dramedy, set in a small Irish town named Bodkin, where decades ago multiple young people disappeared during a Samhain festival.
From New York Times ● May 1, 2024
My ancestors, of Celtic descent, once practiced Halloween as Samhain, a spiritual day when the veil between the worlds of the living and dead was the thinnest.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2021
Some of the ritual was transferred to saints' days within the range of the pagan festival days, thus the Samhain ritual is found observed on S. Martin's day.
From The Religion of the Ancient Celts by MacCulloch, J. A.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
