Veneration of the dead begging for candy). In Cornwall and Wales, the autumn ancestor festivals occur around Nov. 1. In Cornwall the festival is known as "Kalan Gwav", and in Wales as "Calan Gaeaf." The festivals bear some similarities to the better-known Gaelic festival of Samhain, from which modern Halloween is derived. During "Samhain", November 1 in Ireland and Scotland, the dead are thought to return to the world of the living, and offerings of food and light are left for them. On the festival day, ancient people would extinguish the hearth fires in their homes, participate in a community bonfire festival, and then
Samhain in water, and the shapes foretold the number of future children. Children would also chase crows and divine some of these things from the number of birds or the direction they flew. As noted earlier, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld could more easily be crossed. This meant the "aos sí", the 'spirits' or 'fairies', could more easily come into our world. Many scholars see the "aos sí" as remnants of the pagan gods and nature spirits. At Samhain, it was believed that the "aos sí" needed to be propitiated