{"id":474,"date":"2010-10-27T00:18:41","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T00:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=474"},"modified":"2016-01-07T19:52:33","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T19:52:33","slug":"samhain-november-1st-and-la-caille-january-1st-two-new-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/samhain-november-1st-and-la-caille-january-1st-two-new-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Samhain (November 1st) and L\u00e1 Caille (January 1st): Two New Years!"},"content":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl<\/strong>\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I suppose one could see this as an opportunity for two ways of celebrating the New Year.\u00a0 The traditional Celtic New Year was November 1st<\/sup>, recognized as Samhain <\/strong>[SOW-in] but not celebrated today as the official New Year.\u00a0 The January 1st<\/sup> version of New Year\u2019s Day is L\u00e1 Caille<\/strong> (lit. day of Calends) \u2013 and there are other terms for it as well, but for those, let\u2019s wait till late December.\u00a0 That\u2019s when we\u2019ll start discussing \u201can Bhliain \u00dar<\/strong>,\u201d \u201cAthbhliain<\/strong>,\u201d and the term \u201cBliain Nua<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samhain<\/strong> was also the beginning of winter, opposite to L\u00e1 Bealtaine<\/strong> (May 1st<\/sup>), which is the first day of summer in the Celtic calendar.<\/p>\n

To discuss Samhain<\/strong> and its eve (O\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>) as the roots of modern Halloween could take a book or more, so the next few blogs will just address a few points related to the topic.\u00a0 I know we covered Samhain<\/strong> around this time last year (n\u00ed nach ionadh<\/strong>!), but, given that last October there were around 1900 people reading this blog on Facebook and now there are over 9000 (!), I figured it wouldn\u2019t hurt to revisit the topic.<\/p>\n

Samhain<\/strong>, in the traditional Celtic calendar, was both the beginning of winter and the beginning of the New Year.\u00a0 As with our December 31st<\/sup>-January 1st<\/sup> combo, it\u2019s the eve (O\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>) which is the focus of celebration, not so much the day itself.<\/p>\n

In Irish, \u201co\u00edche<\/strong>\u201d [EE-hy<\/sup>uh] means \u201cnight\u201d or the portion of an evening that is after dark (changing according to the seasons).\u00a0 For more on \u201cevening\u201d in general, see \u201ctr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>\u201d below.\u00a0 \u201cO\u00edche<\/strong>\u201d is the term used for \u201ceve of\u201d for all the holidays I can think of (O\u00edche Nollag, O\u00edche Chinn Bhliana, srl<\/strong>.).<\/p>\n

Why \u201cShamhna<\/strong>\u201d [HOW-nuh] and not simply \u201cSamhain<\/strong>\u201d after \u201cO\u00edche<\/strong>\u201d?\u00a0 The answer involves grammatical gender, the genitive case, and lenition \u2013 a triple whammy.\u00a0 I could add syncope \u2013 a quadruple whammy?<\/p>\n

\u201cSamhain\u201d<\/strong> is feminine in terms of grammatical gender and changes to \u201cSamhna<\/strong>\u201d [SOW-nuh] in its genitive case (possessive form).\u00a0 So you use the \u201cSamhna<\/strong>\u201d form to say \u201cof Samhain\u201d <\/strong>or \u201cof Halloween, as in L\u00e1<\/strong> Samhna<\/strong> (Day of Samhain) and M\u00ed na Samhna<\/strong> (November, lit. the month of Samhain).<\/p>\n

Since \u201co\u00edche<\/strong>\u201d is a feminine noun, lenition is applied to adjectives that follow it (like \u201co\u00edche mhaith<\/strong>\u201d) and to nouns like \u201cSamhna<\/strong>\u201d that serve to further modify \u201co\u00edche<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 So we get lenition, resulting in \u201cO\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second syllable of \u201cSamhain<\/strong>,\u201d (\u2013ain) is reduced to just \u201c-n\u201d when the \u2013a ending is added for the possessive form.\u00a0\u00a0 Hence syncope (the contraction or lost of a syllable).\u00a0 A simple four-step process!<\/p>\n

So, whatever way you may celebrate Halloween, keep in mind that it was probably the most festive of all the Celtic quarter days.\u00a0 Samhain was both the New Year and the beginning of a season.\u00a0 That has probably contributed to Halloween\u2019s tenacity as a celebration even in the Christian era and to the fact that it has far more visibility in the Irish diaspora in America than the other three Celtic seasonal markers (August 1st<\/sup>, February 1st<\/sup>, and May 1st<\/sup>).\u00a0 Of course, being juxtaposed with a modern Christian holiday, L\u00e1 (f\u00e9ile) na Naomh Uile<\/strong> (November 1), and adjacent to another, L\u00e1 na Marbh <\/strong>(November 2), didn\u2019t hurt! \u00a0Sl\u00e1n go f\u00f3ill —\u00a0R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta a hAon: tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na, <\/strong>evening up until dark and for most senses of \u201cevening\u201d in general, as in p\u00e1ip\u00e9ar tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na <\/strong>(evening paper, if any still exist); \u00e9ada\u00ed tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong> (evening dress), and R\u00e9alta an Tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>, the Evening Star, although hmmm, how dark does it need to be in order to be able to see it? \u00a0R\u00e9alteolaithe ar bith amuigh ansin<\/strong>?\u00a0 Of course, \u201ctr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>\u201d can also mean \u201cafternoon,\u201d just to add to the mix, but that\u2019s coincheap eile<\/strong> for blag eile<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta a D\u00f3:<\/strong> Pronunciation: athbhliain <\/strong>[AH-VLEE-in]; ionadh<\/strong> [EEN-uh] surprise; Samhain<\/strong> [SOW-in, that\u2019s \u201csow\u201d as in \u201ccow\u201d or \u201cnow,\u201d not as in \u201cshow\u201d or \u201cblow\u201d]; tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong> [TRAW-NOO-nuh or TRAW-NOH-nuh]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) I suppose one could see this as an opportunity for two ways of celebrating the New Year.\u00a0 The traditional Celtic New Year was November 1st, recognized as Samhain [SOW-in] but not celebrated today as the official New Year.\u00a0 The January 1st version of New Year\u2019s Day is L\u00e1 Caille (lit. day of Calends)…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[12150,12152,4240,12148,12147,1977,4620,4626,12153,5111,12146,12156,12155,12154,3213,5804,5805,12151,12149,7956,6339,6344,6667,6668,6779],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-all-saints","tag-all-souls","tag-athbhliain","tag-bhliain-ur","tag-bliain-nua","tag-calendar","tag-celtic","tag-celtic-new-year","tag-day-of-the-dead","tag-eve","tag-evening","tag-evening-dress","tag-evening-paper","tag-evening-star","tag-halloween","tag-la-bealtaine","tag-la-caille","tag-la-na-marbh","tag-la-na-naomh-uile","tag-new-years","tag-oiche-chinn-bhliana","tag-oiche-shamhna","tag-samhain","tag-samhna","tag-shamhna"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7523,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/7523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}