I Can’t Sleep - Samhain | Can’t Sleep? Discover an Ancient Celtic Tradition

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Samhain is an ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. This episode explores the origins of Samhain, how it was traditionally celebrated, and the customs and beliefs associated with this important time of year. Along the way, you’ll hear about bonfires, seasonal traditions, the supernatural, and Samhain’s connections to later Halloween customs. It’s steady and consistent, with no whispering and no sudden changes, just enough to give your mind something to follow as you wind down. Happy sleeping! Read with permission from Samhain, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. — Ad-free episodes: ⁠icantsleep.supportingcast.fm⁠Have a topic in mind? ⁠Request a topic⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By now the house has gone quiet, the street, the dishwasher, everything but you. I Can't Sleep Plus keeps it that way. The whole show with nothing in it but one voice, going gently on about Otters or the Orkin Trail, until you're not listening anymore. It's a private feed you tuck into the app you already use and never think of again. Get an ad-free experience for $5.99. a month and the first week cost nothing. Go to I Can't Sleep. Supportingcast.fm for an ad-free experience today.

You can also find the link in the show notes. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host Benjamin Boster and today's episode is about Salwin. Thank you, Marty, for sponsoring today's. episode. This one is dedicated to his wife, and he wanted to say, happy birthday, lovey. Salwan is a Gaelic festival on November 1st, marking the end of the harvest season in autumn and beginning of winter for the darker half of the year. It is also the Irish and Scottish Gaelic name for November. Celebrations begin on the evening of October 31st.

since the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the Atomno equinox and winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbulk, Beltena, and Lunisa. Historically, it originated in Ireland, and it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. Its Britonic Celtic equivalent is called Kalan Gaev in Wales. Sowan is believed to have Celtic pagan origins,

and some Neolithic passage tombs in Great Britain and Ireland are aligned with the sunrise at the time of Sowan. Sowan is mentioned in the earliest Irish literature from the 9th century and is associated with many important events in Irish mythology. The early literature says Salon was marked by great gatherings and feasts, and was when the ancient burial mounds were open, which were seen as portals to the other world. The festival was not recorded in detail until the early modern era. Special bonfires were lit, which were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers. Like Beltena, Sawin was a liminal or threshold festival

when the boundary between this world and the other world blurred, making contact with the ace she, the spirits or fairies, more likely. Most scholars see them as remnants of pagan deities. At Salwin they are appeased with offerings of food and drink to ensure the people and livestock survive the winter. The souls of dead kin were also thought to revisit their homes, seeking hospitality, and a place was set at the table for them during a meal.

Mumming and guising were part of the festival from at least the early modern era, whereby people went door to door in costume, reciting verses in exchange for food. The costumes may have been a way of imitating and disguising oneself from the ace she. Divination was also a big part of the festival, and often involved nuts and apples. In the 19th century, John Reese and James Fraser suggested it had been the Celtic New Year, but that is disputed. In the 19th century, the Western Church endorsed November 1st,

the date of All Saints' Day, possibly due to the influence of Alquan or Irish missionaries, and the 2nd of November later became All Souls Day. It is believed that Saoan and All Saints' All Souls influenced each other, and the modern Halloween. Most American Halloween traditions were inherited from Irish and Scottish immigrants. Folklorists have used the name Sawan, to refer to Gaelic Halloween costumes until the 19th century. Since the later 20th century, Celtic neo-pagans and Wicons have observed Sowan, or something based on it, as a religious holiday. In modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the name is Sowan,

while the traditional monks' Gaelic name is S-A-U-I-N. It is usually written with the definite article An Chowan, Irish, Andsawan, Scottish Gaelic, and Untawan monks. Older forms of the word include the Scottish Gaelic spellings S-A-M-H-A-N-N and S-A-M-H-U-I-N-N. The Gaelic names for the month of November are derived from Sawan. The Irish name for Sawa Knight is Ihehahona. The name of the superficially similar Galician festival as Samayin, from Sederah kamikamarka, is etymologically unrelated, being derived from the Latin Sambyakum, elderberry.

These names all come from the old. and Middle Irish, Saman or Sawan. The name for the festival held on November 1st in medieval Ireland. Traditionally, it is derived from Proto-Indo-European Simo, Summer. But as John T. Cock points out, it is unclear why a festival marking the beginning of winter would include the word for summer. Linguist Joseph Vandreus contends that it is a festival marking the beginning of winter. is unrelated, saying that the Celtic summer ended in August. More recently, linguists

Xavier Delamar and Ronko Matasovic have proposed that it derives from the Proto-Celtic Sammoni, cognate with Old Norse Saman, Gossack Samana, and Sanskrit Samana, all meaning together. As well as the old Norse, Saman, Gossack Samana, and Sanskrit Samana, all meaning together. as well as the old Irish term bexamon, B-swarm. D'Lamar further suggests it could refer to an assembly of the living and the dead. The word salmon is believed to be related to the month's name Samon on the Gaulish Kalinyi calendar from the second century CE. The 17th day of Samon is marked as Trinox.

Samoni, the three nights of Samon, indicating a possible festival. This festival could represent the early November festival of salmon, or possibly the summer solstice. Six months later is the month which appears to contain the word for winter. An early Irish glossary, Sanus Kormak, gives Gaman as November, the winter months after the festival of Saman. Salman or Sawan was the name of the festival Fiche, marking the beginning of winter in Gaelic Ireland. It is attested in the earliest old Irish literature, which dates from the 9th century onward.

Sawan was one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals. Sawan, roughly November 1st, Imbulk, roughly February 1st, Beltona, roughly May 1st, and Lunasa, roughly August 1st. Of these, Sawin and Beltona, marking the transitions into winter and summer, respectively, are thought to have been the most significant. Sir James George Fraser in his 1890 book, The Golden Bough, a study in magic and religion, theorized that these festivals particularly may first and november first were significant to herding communities practising seasonal trends humans cattle were driven to summer pastures in may and returned to lowlands in november suggesting the festival's pastoral origins some neolithic passage tombs in ireland are aligned with the sunrise around the times of sauan and

imbook. These include the Mound of the Hostages, Duva Nongil, at the hill of Tara, and Cairn El Sleve Nicalia. While Irish mythology was originally a spoken tradition, much of it was eventually written down in the Middle Ages by Christian monks. The tenth century tale, Tomark Emmera, the wooing of Imer, lists Sawan as the first of the four seasonal festivals of the year. The literature says a piece would be declared, and there were great gatherings where they held meetings, feasted, drink alcohol, and held contests. These gatherings are a popular setting for early Irish tales. The tale Ectra Cormac, Cormac's adventure, says that the feast of Tara was held every seventh Salon, hosted by the High King of Ireland, during which

new laws and duties were ordained. Anyone who broke the laws established during this time would be banished. According to Irish mythology, Sawan, like Beltona, was a time when the doorways to the other world opened, allowing supernatural beings in the souls of the dead to come into our world. While Beltona was a summer festival for the living, Sawan was essentially a festival for the dead. The boyhood deeds of Finn says that the she, berry mounds or portals to the other world, were always open at Sawan. Each year the fire-breaser, Ailan, emerges from the other world and burns down the palace of Tara during the Sawin Festival, after aloling everyone to sleep with his music.

One Sawan, the young Finn, Mac Cool, stays awake and slays Aelin, with a magical spear, for which he has made leader of the Fiona. In a similar tale, One Sawan, the other world being Kulduv emerges from the burial mound, on Slevenamon and snatches a roast pig.

Finn kills Kuldoof with a spear throw as he re-enters the mound. Finn's thumb is caught between the door and the post as it shuts, and he puts it in his mouth to ease the pain. As his thumb has been inside the other world, Finn is bestowed with great wisdom. This may refer to gaining knowledge from the ancestors, Several sites in Ireland are especially linked to Sawan. Each Sawan, a host of otherworldly beings, was said to emerge from the cave of Krukon in County Roscommon.

The hill of Ward, or Tlaska, and County Meath, is thought to have been the side of a great Sawan gathering and bonfire. The Iron Age Ringford is said, to have been where the goddess or druid Tlotka gave birth to triplets and where she later died. Sawin was one of the four main festivals of the Gaelic calendar, marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. Sawan customs are mentioned in several medieval texts. In Serglia-con-Kuhn, Kuhlund Sickbed,

it has said that the festival of the Ulaid at Sawan, lasted a week. Sawin itself and the three days before and after. It involved great gatherings where they held meetings, feasted, drank alcohol, and held contests. The Tokul Brudina da Degger notes that bonfires were lit at Sawin, and stones cast into the fires. It is mentioned in Geoffrey Keating's, for a... Basra or Aran, which was written in the early 1600s, but drew on earlier medieval sources, some of which are unknown.

He claims that the fash of Tara was held for a week every third Sawan. When the nobles and olymps of Ireland met to lay down and renew the laws and to feast, He also claims that the Druids lit a sacred bonfire at Tautka and made sacrifices to the gods, sometimes by burning their sacrifices. He adds that all other fires were doused and re-lit from this bonfire. Like Beltena, bonfires were lit on hilltops at Salon, and there were rituals involving them. By the early modern era, they were most of the most,

common in parts of Scottish Highlands on the Isle of Man, in North and Mid Wales, and in parts of Ulster. F. Marion McNeill says that they were formerly need fires, but that this custom died out. Likewise, only certain kinds of wood were traditionally used, but later records show that many kinds of flammable material were burnt. It is suggested that the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic, mimicking the sun, helping the powers of growth, and holding back the decay and darkness of winter. They may also have served to symbolically burn up and destroy all harmful influences.

Accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries suggests that the fires, smoke, and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers. People also took the flames from the bonfire back to their homes. During the 19th century in parts of Scotland, torches of burning fur or turf were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them. In some places, people doused their hearts. hearth fires on Sawanite. Each family then solemnly relit its hearths from the communal bonfire, thus bonding the community. The 17th century writer Jeffrey Keating claimed that this was an ancient tradition instituted by the druids. Dowsing the old fire and bringing in the new way

have been a way of banishing evil, which was part of New Year's festivals in many countries. At household festivals throughout the Gaelic regions and Wales, many rituals were intended to divine the future of those gathered, especially concerning death and marriage. Apples and hazel nuts were often used in these divination rituals and games. In Celtic mythology, apples and apples. were strongly associated with the other world and immortality, while hazelnuts were associated with divine wisdom.

One of the most common games was apple bobbing. Another involved hanging a small wooden rod from the ceiling at head hide with a lit candle on one end and an apple hanging from the other. The rod was spun round, and everyone took turns to try to catch the apple with their teeth. Apples were peeled in one long strip, the peel tossed over the shoulder, and its shape was said to form the first letter of the future's spouse's name.

Sauln was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the other world could more easily be crossed. This meant that the ace, the spirits or fairies could more easily come into our world. Many scholars see the A. Shi as remnants of pagan gods and nature spirits. At Sawan, it was believed that the Aish Shi needed to be propitiated to ensure that the people and their livestock survive the winter.

Offerings of food and drink would be left outside for the A. Shee, and portions of the crops might be left in the ground for them people also took special care not to offend the a she and sought to ward off any one out to cause mischief they stayed near to home or if forced to walk in the darkness turn their clothing inside out or carried iron or salt to keep them at bay in southern ireland it was customary on saw one to we a small cross of sticks and straw called a partial, which was similar to Bridget's cross and God's eye. It was fixed over the doorway to ward off bad luck, sickness, and witchcraft, and would be replaced each Sawan. The dead were also honored at Sawan. The beginning of winter may have been seen as the most fitting time to do so, as it was a time of dying, in nature. The souls of the dead were thought to revisit their homes, seeking hospitality.

Places were set at the dinner table and by the fire to welcome them. The belief that the souls of the dead return home on one night of the year, and must be appeased, seems to have ancient origins, and is found in many cultures throughout the world. James Fraser suggests, It was perhaps a natural thought that the approach of winter should drive the poor, shivering, hungry ghosts from the bare fields and the leafless woods to the shelter of the cottage. However, the souls of thankful kin could return to bestow blessings, just as easily as that of a wrong person could return to wreak revenge.

In some areas, mumming and guising were part of Sawan, it was first recorded in sixteenth century scotland and later in parts of ireland man and wales people went from house to house in costume or disguise usually reciting songs or verse in exchange for food it may have evolved from a tradition whereby people impersonated the a she or the souls of the dead and received offerings on their behalf impersonating these spirits her souls was also believed to protect oneself from them S. V. Pettel suggests the geysers personify the old spirits of the winter, who demanded reward in exchange for good fortune. McNeil suggests that the ancient festival included people and masks or costumes, representing these spirits, and that the modern custom came from this. In Ireland, costumes were sometimes worn by those who went about before nightfall,

collecting for a Sawin feast. Hutton writes, when imitating malignant spirits, it was a very short step from guising or playing pranks. Playing pranks at Sawan is recorded in the Scottish Highlands as far back as 1736, and was also common in Ireland, which led to Sawin being nicknamed

Mischief Night in some parts. Wearing costumes at Halloween spread to England in the 20th century, as did the custom of plain pranks, though there had been mumming at other festivals. At the time of mass transatlantic Irish and Scottish immigration, which popularized Halloween in North America, Halloween in Ireland and Scotland had a strong tradition of guising and pranks. Trick or treating may have come from the custom of going door to door, collecting food for sown feasts, fuel for saoan bonfires, or offerings for the A. Shee. Alternatively, it may have come

from the Al-Hallotide custom of collecting soul cakes. The traditional illumination for geysers or pranksters abroad on the night in some places was provided by turnips or mangle-worsals, hollowed out to act as lanterns, and often carved with grotesque faces. they were also set on window-sills by those who made them the lanterns were variously said to represent the spirits of supernatural beings or were used to ward off evil spirits these were common in parts of ireland and the scottish highlands in the nineteenth century they were also found in somerset in the twentieth century in the twentieth century they spread to other parts of british highlands in the nineteenth century they spread to other parts of british and became generally known as jackalentrons. In the Britonic branch of the Celtic languages, Saulan is known as the Callans of Winter.

The Britonic lands of Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany held festivals on October 31st, similar to the Gaelic one. In Wales, it is Kalan Kiev. In Cornwall, it is Alentide, or Kalankwof, and in Brittany it is Kalangwantv. The monks celebrate Hoptona on October 31st, which is a celebration of the original New Year's Eve. Traditionally, children carve turnips rather than pumpkins and carry them around the neighborhood

singing traditional songs relating to Hoptona. It is suggested that many of the modern secular customs of all Hallows' Eve, Halloween, were influenced by the festival of Sawa. Other scholars argue that Sawan's influence has been exaggerated, and that all hollows also influenced Sahuen itself. Most North American Halloween traditions were brought over by Irish and Scottish immigrants in the 19th century. Then, through American influence, these Halloween traditions spread to many of

other countries by the late 20th century.