Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh go léir!
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”, with the “sow” as in a female pig. 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.
Unfortunately I’m still struggling a bit with the after-effects of yesterday’s jab so have neither the time nor the energy for a long post today so instead, before I go for another nap, I’ll just share a a replica (from the National Museum) of an authentically carved turnip as was traditional in old times. I think it’s infinitely scarier than any of those namby-pamby pumpkins.
This one is even scarier!
Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh go léir!
In the Dark 
November 1, 2025 at 11:20 am
At school we were told it was pronounced sah-wane, but that was more than 50 years ago. May be different now or we may have been given the wrong information. The Irish language also appears to have changed since I was a lad, as back then there was, for example, no letter v in it. But I have seen it appearing more recently.
November 1, 2025 at 11:30 am
Were you taught Ulster Irish? Pronunciation is quite different between (and even within) Ulster, Munster and Connacht. My knowledge of Irish is at best not great, but when I hear someone talking Ulster Irish I can’t understand anything.
November 1, 2025 at 12:32 pm
Yes it would have been Ulster Irish as we were in Belfast and the schoolteachers organised summer trips to the Donegal Gaeltacht. I have forgotten nearly all of it, but still remembered how to pronounce words which helped at graduation when reading out names.