Samhain were also a big part of the festival and often involved nuts and apples. In the late 19th century, Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer suggested that it was the "Celtic New Year", and this view has been repeated by some other scholars. In the 9th century AD, the Western Christian church shifted the date of All Saints' Day to 1 November, while 2 November later became All Souls' Day. Over time, Samhain and All Saints'/All Souls' merged to create the modern Halloween. Historians have used the name 'Samhain' to refer to Gaelic 'Halloween' customs up until the 19th
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