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| 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.
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| 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
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