Editing Wheel of the Year (section)

===Samhain (All Hallows)===
{{Main|Samhain|Halloween}}
[[File:Candelabra and Grave Dirt (58205188).jpg|upright|thumb|Neopagans honoring the dead as part of a Samhain ritual]]

''Samhain'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɑː|w|ɪ|n}}), or ''Sauin'', is the name of a traditional Gaelic festival held around 1 November. Its Welsh name is {{lang|cy|Calan Gaeaf}}. For Wiccans, it is a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed on, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets, and other loved ones who have died. Aligned with the contemporary observance of [[Halloween]] and [[Day of the Dead]], in some traditions the spirits of the departed are invited to attend the festivities. It is seen as a festival of darkness, which is balanced at the opposite point of the Wheel by the festival of [[Beltane]], which is celebrated as a festival of light and fertility.<ref name="SpiralDance samhain">Starhawk (1979, 1989) ''The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess''. New York, Harper and Row {{ISBN|0-06-250814-8}} pp.193-6 (revised edition)</ref> Many neopagans believe that the veil between this world and the afterlife is at its thinnest point of the year at Samhain, making it easier to communicate with those who have departed.<ref name=DruryModernMagicalRevival />

Some authorities claim the Christian festival of [[All Hallows' Day]] (All Saints' Day, Hallowmas), and All Hallows' Eve, are [[Cultural appropriation|appropriations]] of Samhain by early Christian missionaries to the British Isles.<ref name="Smith2004">{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Bonnie G.|title=Women's History in Global Perspective|access-date=14 December 2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Q8Ix-M8LWcC |year=2004|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-02931-8|page=66|quote=The pre-Christian observance obviously influenced the Christian celebration of All Hallows' Eve, just as the Taoist festival affected the newer Buddhist Ullambana festival. Although the Christian version of All Saints' and All Souls' Days came to emphasise prayers for the dead, visits to graves, and the role of the living assuring the safe passage to heaven of their departed loved ones, older notions never disappeared.}}</ref><ref name="Roberts1987">{{cite book|last=Roberts|first=Brian K.|title=The Making of the English Village: A Study in Historical Geography|access-date=14 December 2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CjbYAAAAMAAJ|year=1987|publisher=Longman Scientific & Technical|isbn=978-0-582-30143-6|quote=Time out of time', when the barriers between this world and the next were down, the dead returned from the grave, and gods and strangers from the underworld walked abroad was a twice- yearly reality, on dates Christianised as All Hallows' Eve and All Hallows' Day.}}</ref>