Halloween and Samhain: Differences Between Fall Holidays

What is the difference between the holiday Halloween and Samhain? The differences are huge, and one has little to do with the other beyond the fact that both fall on the same day most of the time.

Some pagans celebrate one or the other, but some of us celebrate both of them. As a child, I celebrated Halloween like most American children. I dressed up, went out, and gathered candy and other treats. I loved it for the most part but I was disappointed to see it only happened once a year. Halloween was the only time of year that is was okay to be a fairy princess or the freakish ghouls.

When I got older I was shown what I felt was my true path. One path with thoughts was so much like my own and it was paganism. The pagan holiday celebrated on Halloween night is Samhain, it is really more like Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving then it is Halloween. Samhain is a day we pagans remember those loved one who have died during the year, and it is a time of final harvest for us as well.

As you can see the basis for the two holidays on one day are different. I do not believe that celebrating one ignores the other one. I am just as happy mixing the two holidays together. Perhaps that is wrong to some people but I would rather do things a bit more traditional to my family while mixing in parts of the pagan holiday celebrations. It is not hard when you think about it really.

The fresh harvest we all bring to decorate with the form of corn stalks and pumpkins are from Mother Earth, we make pumpkin cookies or cakes, assorted fruit or vegetable breads. Some of us attend parties where we drink apple cider or dunk for apples. All of the foods here are traditional bounty from the earth. They are both Christian and pagan, traditions.

Samhain celebrates the bounty of the earth in the final harvest of the year, which makes it in many ways like Thanksgiving. We also remember loved ones who have passed during the year like Memorial Day in a way, and it is on Halloween night that many Pagans believe that the veil between this world and the other one is more transparent so we get messages from the other side more clearly. Some also believe it is the start of the New Year so it could be as three holidays wrapped into one, if you look at it like that.

The traditional costumes of Halloween were once part of another tradition that some chose to wear to scare others away; this is in no way related to paganism. The ghosts, goblins, ghouls that some people associate with pagan are just plain false. We pagans believe in Gods and Goddesses and there is no evil entity, such as the devil.

Yes, we pagans wear cloaks but they are not the ones that come to mind when people think of witches. Pagans are not itches that conjure up spells with toads, bat wings and other assorted gross things. I do not do any type of spells not do I wear a pointy hat.