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
Samhain as All Saints and All Souls. Since then, Samhain has been popularly seen as the Celtic New Year and an ancient festival of the dead. The calendar of the Celtic League, for example, begins and ends at Samhain. In the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages, Samhain is known as the 'calends of winter'. The Brythonic lands of Wales, Cornwall and Brittany held festivals on 31 October similar to the Gaelic one. In Wales it is "Calan Gaeaf", in Cornwall it is Allantide or "Kalan Gwav" and in Brittany it is "Kalan Goañv". The Manx celebrate Hop-tu-Naa on 31 October,