It occurred to me after writing the Samhain post that I never really mentioned one of the somewhat debatable elements about Samhain; the date on which it occurs.

In today’s Neo-Pagan and Neo-Wiccan traditions Samhain is celebrated on October 31st. This has become the common date that is connected to Samhain when it’s discussed and when it’s celebrated. Traditionally the Celts celebrated their holidays from sundown to sundown, today it’s more common to see people celebrate Samhain on the night of the 31st and that’s it. So it might be confusing to some people to hear that other Pagans celebrate Samhain on November 8th (and sometimes even November 7th).

 

To understand the reasons for this difference in date we need a little history lesson with regards to the calendar. There are two abbreviations used with calendar dates that you may occasionally notice, especially in relation to fixed dates such as holidays and festivals when looking back in history. These notations, “OS” for “Old Style” and “NS” for “New Style”, refer to which of the two historical calendar systems the date references; this is especially important when looking at some historical information when there was a period of about 170 years where both calendar systems were being used in different parts of the world. When something is listed as being Old Style the date is referencing the Julian Calendar, the date system that was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. If something is listed as New Style it is referring dates from the Gergorian Calendar, the system we use today which was named for Pope Gregory the XIII who implemented its use.

 

Within the Julian Calendar there is an 11 day difference compared to dates in the Gergorian Calendar. To understand this, we need to go back to the Roman Calendar which the Julian Calendar was based off of. The Roman Calendar was a lunar calendar that had 10 months where each month had either 29 or 30 days. Eventually this was changed to a 12 month calendar but the number of days was only 354 in total once averaged out. However, the orbital period of the Earth is 365.242199 days, so the Roman Calendar, even with 12 months, didn’t equal to a full orbit of the earth which would throw the seasons off a bit. In the end there are 11 days, in a sense, “missing”, from the year. Once 3 years passed you would actually find the calendar being a whole season out of time with the Earth. For a short period a 13th month was added but didn’t last long because it actually caused more confusion than really fixing the already existing confusion.

 

When Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 46 BC he changed the calendar to create a 365 day, 12 month system. Because of the addition of days to the months in order to come up with the 365 time frame the calendar was no longer following a lunar system. Caesar also added a “leap year” date to the month of February every 4 years because even with the changes that he made the calendar was a quarter of a day off from the seasonal changes. This leap year fixed that, or so it seemed at the time.

 

There were some changes made to the calendar when Pope Gregory XIII changed the system to the Gregorian Calendar in the 1500s, mainly there was an issue of 10 days having been accumulated during the use of the Julian Calendar. This was fixed by dropping some leap years during the 1500 and 1600s.

 

So what does ALL of this end up coming down to? It is believed that originally Samhain was celebrated when the sun reached 15 degrees Scorpio. It is believed that during the Old Style calendar this happened between Nov 5 -7. Since the Celts divided the year in two halves, summer and winter, this astrological change and solar movement introduced the colder, winter half of the year. And hence you have this “original date” of Samhain.

 

While it might be a little more common for those of the reconstructionist and traditionalist mindset to observe Samhain on a date that follows the original, Samhain is most commonly celebrated now as a fixed date on October 31st. According to the lunar/solar calendar I use it looks as though the sun will aspect 15 degrees Scorpio on November 8th this year.

Blessed Samhain…again!