Samhain

Night of the ancestors

The end of the harvest year and the night when people remember those who have died. In Gaelic Ireland and Scotland it opened the winter; many modern pagans call it the Celtic New Year.

What's happening in the sky

Samhain is the cross-quarter day between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It marks the end of the harvest and the start of the dark half of the year. Its date comes from the calendar rather than the sky: the astronomical midpoint, when the Sun reaches 15° Scorpio, falls about a week later, around November 7.

What is the Wheel of the Year?

The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of eight festivals marking the movement of the Sun and the turning of the seasons: four “solar” points (two solstices and two equinoxes) and four cross-quarter festivals between them. Together they form a clear map of the natural year.

Your day today

Night ends:02:52(5h 56m ago)

Nautical dawn:03:22(5h 27m ago)

Dawn:03:52(4h 56m ago)

Blue hour ends:04:02(4h 46m ago)

Sunrise:04:18(4h 30m ago)

Sunrise ends:04:21(4h 27m ago)

Golden hour ends:04:55(3h 54m ago)

Solar noon:09:33(in 44m)

Golden hour starts:14:11(in 5h 23m)

Sunset starts:14:44(in 5h 56m)

Sunset:14:47(in 5h 59m)

Blue hour starts:15:03(in 6h 15m)

Dusk:15:14(in 6h 25m)

Nautical dusk:15:44(in 6h 56m)

Night:16:14(in 7h 25m)

Moon right now

Tradition layers

Wicca

Samhain closes the harvest season. In Gaelic Ireland and Scotland it opened the winter with bonfires and feasting; modern Wiccans keep it as a night to honour the dead, when, as the old belief goes, the border with the other world grows thin. Many call it the Celtic New Year.

What it means for you today

A time to honour memory, take stock and let go. Not about fear, but about warm gratitude to those who came before us.

Ancestral memoryThe thin veilThe year's reckoning

Ritual for this event

Related modules

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