Samhain (band) of Danzig. Both Samhain and its successor, Danzig, use the same horned skull image originally drawn by artist Michael Golden for the cover of the 1984 comic book "The Saga of Crystar" No. 8, published by Marvel Comics. The font often used in the name logo of Samhain, and later Danzig, is taken from the film "The Giant Gila Monster". Danzig took the name of the band from the ancient Celtic New Year: Samhain, the origin of the modern Halloween. The band's name is typically pronounced "sam-hane", though when the word occurs in song lyrics, Danzig himself pronounces it "sah-win",
Samhain Stokes suggested an etymology from Proto-Celtic "*samani" ("assembly"), and Joseph Vendryes suggested that it is unrelated to "*semo-" ("summer"), because the Celtic summer ended in August. The Gaulish month name "(pertaining to) Summer" on the Coligny calendar is likely related to the word "Samhain". A festival of some kind may have been held during the 'three nights of "Samonios"' (Gaulish "trinux[tion] samo[nii]"). The Gaulish calendar seems to have split the year into two-halves: the first beginning with the month and the second beginning with the month , which is related to the word for winter, PIE "*g'hei-men-" (Latin "hiems", Latvian