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 century. Since the later 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Samhain, or something based on it, as a religious holiday. Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere often celebrate Samhain at the other end of the year (about 1 May). In Modern Irish as well as Scottish Gaelic the name is . Older forms of the word include the Scottish Gaelic spellings and . In Manx Gaelic the name is . These are also the names of November in each language, shortened from "Mí na Samhna" (Irish), "Mì na Samhna" (Scottish Gaelic) and "Mee Houney" (Manx), meaning "month of Samhain".