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) the dramatic activity in Ireland." In the first issue of "Samhain", Yeats explained the name change as referring to "the old name for the beginning of winter, because our plays this year are in October, and because our Theatre is coming to an end in its present shape." "Samhain" also published the texts of new plays for a time, but later these were printed in book form as "The Abbey Theatre Series". It supported the poetic drama. The magazine was published in Dublin by Sealy, Bryers & Walker, and in London by T. Fisher Unwin. In 1908 "Samhain" ceased publication.