SAMHAIN, CASTANYADA, GAU BELTZA, MAGOSTO...

Celebrating this amazing night

Today, The Grandma is going to celebrate this wonderful night, the Castanyada, with Tina Picotes, Joseph de Ca'th Lon and Claire Fontaine. She wants to talk about this October, 31, a wonderful day celebrated in different cultures in different ways but with the same origin: Occitania.

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the darker half of the year. Traditionally, it is celebrated from 31 October to 1 November, as the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.

It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasadh. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Similar festivals are held at the same time of year in other Celtic lands; for example the Brythonic Calan Gaeaf, in Wales, Kalan Gwav, in Cornwall, and Kalan Goañv, in Brittany, both Celtic branches are roughly as old as each other.

More information: Irish Genealogy

In the 9th century AD, the Western Christian church shifted the date of All Saints' Day to 1 November, while 2 November later became All Souls' Day. Over time, Samhain and All Saints/All Souls merged to create the modern Halloween. Historians have used the name Samhain to refer to Gaelic Halloween customs up until the 19th century.

Since the later 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Samhain, or something based on it, as a religious holiday. Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere often celebrate Samhain at the other end of the year, about 1 May.

In Modern Irish as well as Scottish Gaelic the name is Samhain. Older forms of the word include the Scottish Gaelic spellings Samhainn and Samhuinn. In Manx Gaelic the name is Sauin.

The Grandma celebrates the Castanyada

Castanyada in Catalan, the festival is also celebrated across Catalonia on both sides of the French-Catalan border.

It is a popular party in Portugal, where it is called magusto. It has also spread internationally as chestnut party.

The common elements of this celebration are the celebration in the month of November or end of October and the main elements are chestnut and fire. With this feast the chestnut tree recovers the importance that the corn and the potato have snatched from him in the last centuries.

More information: Fisa Rentals

The magosto is a traditional festival in some areas of northern Spain, such as Galicia, Cantabria, Asturias and the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca and Cáceres.

It is a party of Celtic roots, the party that celebrates the end of summer and begins the middle of the dark and cold year. In all the regions where it is celebrated and especially in Galicia, it is deeply related to the cult of the dead, being habitual to leave the fire of the house set and food around the fireplace so that the spirits of the deceased of the family return to their homes to warm up tonight. Numerous traditional rituals are celebrated throughout this feast, both for purification, healing, remembering ancestors, attending mass or visiting the local healer. 

In Euskalherria, this festivity is known as Gau Beltza.

More information: Galician Rustic

I was born on the night of Samhain, 

when the barrier between the worlds is whisper-thin 

and when magic, old magic, sings its heady 

and sweet song to anyone who cares to hear it.

Carolyn MacCullough

FROM OCCITANIA TO THE USA: HONOUR TO THE DEAD

The Grandma's celebrates Castanyada

Castanyada, Magosto or Magüestu, Samhaín and Halloween are popular festivals mainly on All Saints' Day. In Catalonia, Andorra and Occitania, celebrations involve eating roast chestnuts, panellets or baked sweet potato and preserved fruit, candied or glazed fruit, typically with moscatell to drink. 

It seems that the tradition of eating these foods comes from the fact that during All Saints' night, on the eve of All Souls' Day in the Christian tradition, bell ringers would ring bells in commemoration of the dead into the early morning. Friends and relatives would help with this task, and everyone would eat these foods for sustenance.

Other versions of the story state that the Castanyada originates at the end of the 18th century and comes from the old funeral meals, where other foods, such as vegetables and dried fruit were not served. The meal had the symbolic significance of a communion with the souls of the departed: while the chestnuts were roasting, prayers would be said for the person who had just died.

The festival is usually depicted with the figure of a castanyera: an old lady, dressed in peasant's clothing and wearing a headscarf, sitting behind a table, roasting chestnuts for street sale.

More information: La castanyada (Catalan Version)

Tina Picotes celebrates Magosto/Magüestu

The Magosto or Magüestu is the essential Galician, Asturian and Portuguese autumn pagan festival. In addition to chestnuts and local young wine, various foods have been incorporated such as sausages and other products made from the pig slaughter, which occurs precisely at that time. 

Chestnut festival is traditionally celebrated in the same grove, starting early in the afternoon to collect firewood and chestnuts. One or more bonfires are lit with sticks and pine needles. Young people took to the streets. It was customary for the girls to bring the chestnuts, and for the boys to bring the wine. Chestnuts are roasted on the floor, directly in the fire. Children play to dirt their faces with soot and ash. The adults dance and sing, jumping over the remains of the fire.

More information: Festa do Magosto (Galician Version)

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, or the "darker half" of the year. Traditionally, it is celebrated from the very beginning of one Celtic day to its end, or in the modern calendar, from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, this places it about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. 

Joseph de Ca'th Lon celebrates Samhaín

Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Similar festivals are held at the same time of year in other Celtic lands; for example the Brythonic Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall, and Kalan Goañv in Brittany.

Samhain is believed to have Celtic pagan origins, and there is evidence it has been an important date since ancient times. The Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb at the Hill of Tara, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature, and many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain.

More information: Samhaín (Celtic Guide)

Halloween or Hallowe'en, a contraction of All Hallows' Evening, also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide,  the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints, hallows, martyrs, and all the faithful departed.

Claire Fontaine celebrates Halloween

Halloween's activities include trick-or-treating, attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories and watching horror films. 

In many parts of the world, the Christian religious observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular, although elsewhere it is a more commercial and secular celebration. Some Christians historically abstained from meat on All Hallows' Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes and soul cakes.

It was not until mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in North America. Confined to the immigrant communities during the mid-19th century, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and by the first decade of the 20th century it was being celebrated coast-to-coast by people of all social, racial and religious backgrounds.

More information: History of Trick-or-Treating

The fear of death follows from the fear of life.

A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time

Mark Twain