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Oct. 6th, 2007 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivienDay 6, and we have a "Samhain, what the heck was it really?" fact. As you might recall from Day 1, a researcher has not found the word mentioned in British records until the 18th century. It most certainly is not used in reference to Samhain, Lord of the Dead as so many books suggest.
Some interesting information from A Heretical History of Halloween about good old Samhain:
"Samhain (also spelled samain, samuin or samhuinn) is a Gaelic word signifying the end of summer. A suggested etymology is sam 'summer' (as in samrad, the Old Irish word for summer) and fuin 'end'. The term was brought to Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland along with the Irish Scots who settled there.
No form of the word samhain is found in any other Celtic language. Samhain feasts, which took place on and around November first, are only recorded in ancient Irish literature. Early Welsh literature, such as the Mabinogian, makes no reference to any festival occurring on that date. Thus, it is inaccurate to describe Samhain as 'Celtic'. The word, and any festivals associated with it, are specifically Irish in origin."
I take this Halloween post to pimp another holiday-related item - While We Tell of Yuletide Treasures fic challenge sign ups. For those who don't know what Yuletide is, it's a fic challenge dealing in obscure or not wildly popular fandoms. I have participated every year in Yuletide, and I have had some fabulous stories written for me, including a beautiful and sad Neverwhere story and a fabulous Addams Family story about Wednesday and Joel, her beau from the second movie. I've stretched myself to write in fandoms I normally would never write in. Yuletide is always a fun challenge, and I encourage everyone who likes to write to give it a try!
Some interesting information from A Heretical History of Halloween about good old Samhain:
"Samhain (also spelled samain, samuin or samhuinn) is a Gaelic word signifying the end of summer. A suggested etymology is sam 'summer' (as in samrad, the Old Irish word for summer) and fuin 'end'. The term was brought to Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland along with the Irish Scots who settled there.
No form of the word samhain is found in any other Celtic language. Samhain feasts, which took place on and around November first, are only recorded in ancient Irish literature. Early Welsh literature, such as the Mabinogian, makes no reference to any festival occurring on that date. Thus, it is inaccurate to describe Samhain as 'Celtic'. The word, and any festivals associated with it, are specifically Irish in origin."
I take this Halloween post to pimp another holiday-related item - While We Tell of Yuletide Treasures fic challenge sign ups. For those who don't know what Yuletide is, it's a fic challenge dealing in obscure or not wildly popular fandoms. I have participated every year in Yuletide, and I have had some fabulous stories written for me, including a beautiful and sad Neverwhere story and a fabulous Addams Family story about Wednesday and Joel, her beau from the second movie. I've stretched myself to write in fandoms I normally would never write in. Yuletide is always a fun challenge, and I encourage everyone who likes to write to give it a try!
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Date: 2007-10-07 03:11 am (UTC)I don't know how I've been missing your posts--no doubt another casualty of my sleep-deprivation this week. =/ But I've actually been reading Hutton's Triumph of the Moon for the past couple of weeks. It's dense but very good.
I'm going to be paging through his Witches, Druids, and King Arthur next which is a collection of essays.