About this video
Learn together with our seasonal festival expert Christian Zwenig
the backgrounds, traditions, and rituals of this seasonal festival.
Karin Neumeyer from LIVING EARTH will guide you through the show.
On Monday, November 9, 2026, we will have the eleventh new moon
(also called dark moon) after the last winter solstice. The ancient Celts celebrated a very important festival at this time of year, which was called Samhain.
However, it is not exactly known whether the ancestors celebrated the festival of Samhain at full moon or at new moon. The sources provide very different information in this regard.
Samhain was the New Year’s Eve of the Celts.
Our pre-Christian ancestors did not divide the year into four seasons, as is done today.
The year was divided into a year-night and a year-day. Thus, the year began with the start of the year-night, at Samhain. The joyful May festival Beltane, which represents the beginning of the year-day, stands diametrically opposed to Samhain in the seasonal cycle.
With Samhain, the end of the harvest season is reached. This is another important meaning of this seasonal festival.
The harvest season begins with Lugnasad. Mabon marks the middle of the harvest season. Samhain is therefore the third and last of three harvest festivals in the seasonal cycle. From this point on, no herbs, fruits, vegetables, berries, or roots should be harvested anymore. The fruits of Mother Earth belong to the earth and nature spirits from Samhain onwards.
At Samhain, the ancestors and forebears have been honored since ancient times. It is thus a traditional ancestor festival that marks both the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the coming winter.
According to Celtic belief, the gate to the Otherworld opens at Samhain. The veils between this world and the next, the boundaries between the world of the living and the realm of the dead are particularly thin at this time, allowing one to be very close to one’s preceding ancestors. Symbolically, it stands for the farewell to what was, in order to look into the future without burdens.
Look forward to an inspiring show about the current quality of time!
Christian Zwenig:
https://www.prana-touch.at/
Karin Neumeyer:
www.livingearth.one
More about Living Earth at:
www.livingearth.one
