Samhain by Paul Burrows

SAC President Paul Burrows gives a talk tracing how the Gaelic festival of Samhain evolved into the Halloween we celebrate today.

Samhain is a Gaelic festival on 1st November marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, or the 'darker half' of the year. This hour-long talk by Scottish Arts Club President Paul Burrows explores how pre-Christian beliefs and superstitions, alongside efforts to enforce Christian doctrine, shaped the festival into the modern Halloween. The event page is illustrated with Daniel Maclise's 1833 painting Snap-Apple Night, which depicts divination games played on 31st October in Ireland.