Before the Pumpkin

A beginner's guide to Samhain, the old Irish festival behind Halloween: where it really comes from, and how to keep the night yourself.

Samhain (say it SOW-in) began in medieval Ireland as the start of winter, the night the otherworld came close. Over the centuries it gathered the Church's days of the dead, Scottish bonfires, Irish turnip lanterns, English soul cakes and a whole kitchen of fortune-telling games, and in the last seventy years it has become a night when many people, pagan or not, remember their dead.

Most Samhain books mix all of that together and call it ancient. This one labels everything. Every belief, custom and practice carries a small stamp saying how old the evidence for it really is (ancient, medieval, folk custom or modern), with a little ruler showing where it falls in two thousand years, and a numbered source at the back. Then it shows you, step by step, how to keep the night.

Who it is for

Anyone who wants the spiritual side of Halloween and knows nothing about it yet: pagans and witches starting out, people of Irish and Scottish descent curious about their great-grandparents' Halloween, Christians who keep All Saints and All Souls, and anyone who has lost someone and wants a night to remember them. You do not need to believe anything, buy anything, or have read anything before.

Part One: How old is it, really?

• A two-page timeline from a bronze Gaulish calendar (about AD 150) to trick-or-treat (first in print in 1917)
• What the medieval Irish texts actually say about Samhain, and what they never say
• How All Saints (837) and All Souls (about 998) brought the dead into these days
• Six popular myths you can drop, including "Samhain, Lord of the Dead" and "nine million witches"
• A map of the old Halloween in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man and England
• Two eyewitnesses read closely: Robert Burns's poem "Halloween" (1785) and Daniel Maclise's painting Snap-Apple Night (1833)
• How the turnip lantern became a pumpkin, how Wicca rebuilt Samhain in the 1950s, and why Samhain is not Dia de Muertos

Part Two: Keeping the night

Nine practices, each with where it comes from, what you need, numbered steps and a picture of what you are aiming for:

1. A remembering shelf for the people you miss, with an annotated example and what to say
2. A light for the dead: the window candle and a grave visit
3. The silent supper, with a table plan and a timed running order
4. Carving a turnip (swede or rutabaga) lantern, in five drawn steps
5. Soul cakes (recipe in grams and cups)
6. Barmbrack with a ring in it, with what each charm meant in three Irish parishes in the 1930s
7. The old fortune games: the apple peel, nuts in the fire, the apple at the mirror, ducking, snap-apple and the three bowls
8. A small Samhain fire for burning what you are leaving behind, or a no-garden version
9. Closing the year, a gentle end-of-year reflection

Plus three stories to read aloud by lantern light: Nera and the dead man (a medieval Irish tale set on Samhain night), Stingy Jack, and the Welsh tailless black sow, with its rhyme.

Part Three: Your night

• A countdown from two weeks before to All Souls' Day, with tick boxes. If you only have tonight, the book tells you what to do tonight.
• Three timed plans: an hour on your own; an evening with children; a silent supper and fire with friends
• Pages to write in: the people I am carrying, a letter to someone gone, the year I am closing, a silent supper planner with place cards, and a record to fill in for five Samhains

What you download

• Before the Pumpkin (56 pages, PDF, US Letter, color): the whole book, with bookmarks and a contents page
• Print Kit, US Letter and Print Kit, A4 (8 pages each, PDF): the countdown, a one-page "how old is it?" cheat sheet and all the pages to write in, ready to print as often as you like

Good to know

• Safety is covered plainly: candles, outdoor fire, knives, charms baked into cakes, and where to find support if remembering brings up heavy grief (US, UK and Ireland numbers).
• There are no seances, spirit boards or herbal blends to burn or drink in this book.
• Folklore and history are dated and sourced; where historians disagree, the book says so. The sources page shows which sources were checked directly for this edition.
• In the southern hemisphere many pagans keep Samhain around 30 April to 1 May; the book explains both choices.
• This is a PDF download. No physical book is shipped.