What is Samhain Festival?

“When the songs have stopped being sung, the ancestors are truly dead. When the stories have stopped being told, we all fall asleep. And when we wake up, what are we waking up to?"

Samhain is the first of four traditional cross-quarter celebrations which occur at exact mid-points between the equinoxes and the solstices, marking the arrival of Winter (SAMHAIN), Spring (IMBOLC), Summer (BEALTAINE) and Autumn (LUGHNASA) respectively.

Clonakilty’s Samhain revival project began in in 2015, as a response to the threat of loneliness and anxiety that seemed to hang like a noose around the neck of modern Ireland. The idea that a cultural revival could help ease the problem of social isolation was a driving force behind the project.

As the digital world engulfs us, the revival of tradition and culture gives meaning to an increasingly meaningless world. Samhain offers an antidote to isolation and apathy. This ancient festival of death and rejuvenation offers us a chance to reengage with our ancestry and to contact that wilderness within that John Moriarty called the 'Bush soul'.

It is an opportunity to look beyond the thinning veil; to see the ditches and the bogs and the woods and to feel the ancestors in them; the spirit driven deep into the muck.

The theme of the 2024 Samhain Parade was 'Slí na Fírinne'. Directly translated, this means 'Way of Truth’. In old Irish, instead of saying ‘Fuair sé bás’ (‘He died’), we would instead say; ’Tá sé imithe ar Slí na Fírinne’ which means ‘He is gone on the Way of Truth’. This expression reveals a shared sense among our people, of a world beyond this mortal realm. Samhain is a time to reach into this other world with our prayers and to reflect upon our own preparations for this ultimate Truth.

The theme for this year's Samhain Festival is “The Music Of What Happens”, inspired by the title of a book by Fr John J. O’Riordain, which speaks of Celtic spirituality as a lived experience in modern Ireland.

This is an invitation to all to take a walk through nature, observe the changes that are afoot and allow it to inspire you. With natural materials that you gather (sustainably and thoughtfully!) make yourself a costume, decorate a mask and join us as we walk through the town to celebrate the ancient festival of Samhain and the arrival of winter in Ireland.

Samhain Festival 2025 runs from November 6 - 9.