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
The Pagan Movement The Pagan Movement The Pagan Movement in Britain and Ireland was formed in 1970 when the American witch Joe Wilson (then based in Britain with the USAF) got together with Tony Kelly and others with the intention of forming a new movement with the aim of “creating a society wherein everyone will be free to worship the Goddesses and Gods of Nature”. This was announced in Joe Wilson’s newsletter "The Waxing Moon", re-launched in a new series as the Movement’s magazine. He wrote in the editorial of the first issue (Samhain 1970) explaining how the initial discussion with many members