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 (magazine) Samhain (magazine) Samhain was a theatrical periodical published irregularly, with an annual in December. The Irish poet W. B. Yeats was a regular and leading contributor of essays outlining his artistic principles. It existed between 1901 and 1908. "Samhain" was established in 1901. Publication began in October 1901, superseding "Beltaine", an occasional theatre review and publication of the Irish Literary Theatre named for the ancient Irish festival Bealtaine. The National Irish Theatre Society published "Samhain". It has been noted that the two periodicals "constitute at once a history and a running critical commentary … of the origin and growth of