6 Facts About Samhain

You might know the word Samhain as the original Halloween, celebrated by ancient pagans in the British Isles. That's the short version. There are four Celtic festivals called Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain which fall halfway between the equinoxes and the solstices. For another example, Imbolc is when people looked for signs of spring and eventually became Groundhog Day. In that vein, Samhain was a harvest festival that had some spiritual overtones. Over thousands of years, that festival became split between a Christian holiday (All Saints Day) and a devil's holiday (Halloween). But neither of those have much to do with the original Samhain. Read about Samhain and how it changed so much at Mental Floss.