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News — Scottish traditions

Samhain - Halloween's Scottish Ancestor

Posted by Helen Atherton on

The ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced Sow-wan) has been celebrated in Scotland and Ireland for hundreds of years.   Marking the end of harvest and the beginning of Winter, Samhain is known to be the time of the year when the boundary between this world and the otherworld can be crossed.  Folks celebrated by lighting fires to ward off the dark and dress in costumes to protect themselves from evil. Below is a picture of people in the Hebrides dressing-up for Samhain in the mid-twentieth century (from the National Trust for Scotland)     Samhain traditions alive today When I moved up...

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