Samhain The night of 31 October—Halloween—is "Oíche Shamhna" (Irish), "Oidhche Shamhna" (Scottish Gaelic) and "Oie Houney" (Manx), meaning "Samhain night". The day of 1 November, or the whole festival, may be called "Lá Samhna" (Irish), "Là Samhna" (Scottish Gaelic) and "Laa Houney" (Manx), meaning "Samhain day". These names all come from the Old Irish "Samain" or "Samuin" , the name for the festival held on 1 November in medieval Ireland. This comes from Proto-Indo-European "*semo-" ("summer"). One suggestion is that the name means "summer's end", from "sam" ("summer") and "fuin" ("end"), but this may be a folk etymology. In 1907, Whitley
Mongfind Ireland, whom she is said to have killed with poison in a bid to make her son king. She drank the poisoned drink to convince Crimthann, and died soon after at Samhain. According to "Cormac's Glossary", she was a goddess the pagan Irish worshipped on Samhain. This was also called the "Féile Moingfhinne" i.e. "Festival of Mongfind". Later legend, as documented in Patrick Weston Joyce's "Social History of Ancient Ireland", makes her a banshee. A prominent hill called "Cnoc Samhna" ("Hill of Samhain") or "Ard na Ríoghraidhe" ("Height of the Kingfolk") in County Limerick is associated with a tale linked