On Samhain
So we have arrived at October 31st, Hallowe’en or, in pagan terms, Samhain. This, a cross-quarter day – roughly halfway between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice – represents the start of winter (“the dark half of the year“) in the Celtic calendar. Technically, Samhain is tomorrow, 1st November, but the Celtic practice of reckoning days from sunset to sunset makes this a moot point.
Samhain is pronounced something like “sowin”. The h after the m denotes lenition of the consonant (which in older forms of Irish would have been denoted by a dot on top of the m) so when followed by a broad vowel the m is pronounced like the English “w”; when followed by a slender vowel or none “mh” is pronounced “v” or in other words like the German “w” (which makes it easier to remember). The phrase Oíche Shamhna (the Eve of Samhain) is used for Hallowe’en; it contains the genitive form of Samhain.
Anyway, as it was foretold, I am not in Barcelona and will continue to be not-in-Barcelona for a few days. Indeed, tomorrow, if all goes to plan, I’ll be in a different part of non-Barcelona. With all that running about I’m a bit busy for a proper blog post so I’ll just take the opportunity to point out that yet another anagram of my name is El Espectro…
Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh go léir!
In the Dark 
November 1, 2023 at 2:14 am
I do wonder about the Warwickshire cricket Sam Hain, I mean his parents must have named him deliberately…?
November 1, 2023 at 10:33 am
Go raibh maith agat, Peter.
Irish was essentially beaten into me at secondary school, so I can’t say I developed a great love of the language. Due to the paramilitary style of teaching — I attended a Catholic all-boys school in Monaghan — I dreaded Irish lessons.
Your posts are giving me a new-found appreciation of the language.