Samhain - Celtic New Year's Eve

The Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1. The Festival of Samhain marked the end of the Celtic year and the beginning of the new one and as such can be seen to the equivalent of New Year's Eve. It was also a time when the veil between this world and the Otherworld was thought to be so thin that the dead could return.

Many people lit bonfires to keep the evil spirits at bay. Food was set aside for ancestors.  Often a torch was lit and carried around the boundaries of the home and farm, to protect the property and residents against the spirits throughout the winter.