Samhain: Honouring the Ancestors of Earth and Spirit

As Samhain approaches, the veil between the world’s thins, and with it comes the invitation to remember, to celebrate, and to give thanks to the ancestors who came before us. Those who have given life to us, so that we may take our place within this great tapestry of being.

Samhain is an ancient Celtic festival that marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, traditionally celebrated from October 31st to November 1st. Although spelled Samhain, the word is pronounced “SOW-in,” with “sow” rhyming with “cow.” The name comes from Old Irish (Samain or Samfuin), meaning “summer’s end,” derived from sam (“summer”) and fuin (“end”). It appears in early Irish literature and reflects the turning of the seasons and the liminal time when the boundary between the living and the spirit world was believed to grow thin.

Samhain is the time of the ancestors, a time of light and warmth, of life, death, and renewal. A time of making offerings of gratitude, honouring who gifted us life through their living.

Plants are interwoven into the fabric of our past and our present, and many of our traditions and old ways are inseparable from the plant kingdom. Many of our celebrations today are still based upon those ancient traditions. 

Long before pumpkins crossed the seas, our ancestors in Ireland, Scotland, and the north of England hollowed turnips and swedes, carving faces to guide the spirits and ward off mischief. Candles flickered inside, tiny beacons of light in the gathering darkness, a reminder that even in the thinning veil between worlds, the living and the departed remain intertwined. This old custom, now often carried out with pumpkins, is a living echo of those ancient nights, a way to honour those who have walked before us and keep their stories alight in our time.

The last apples of the harvest are hung upon the trees as symbols of the sun’s return and the promise of light after darkness and are also offered on the land as ways for the ancestors to receive light and nourishment, honouring their life.

As we return to this time of remembering, perhaps we can widen our view of who our ancestors are beyond our human lineage. 

Remembering and giving thanks to our plant ancestors, our animal ancestors, to all the relations more than human, that were a part of the song of our past, part of the great web of life that sustained those before us and continue to sustain us now.

This Samhain, may we give thanks for the plant ancestors
for the ones who clothed and warmed,
who healed and nourished,
who offered breath, beauty, and home

May our remembrance extend beyond the human story
to all the ancestors that have given life,
to all that continues to hold us in this great gift.

Feeling called to connect more deeply with all our relations on Mother Earth? Join us at one of our upcoming events.