Between Harvest and Winter
"Crops are in, winter is near, and communities turn toward memory—of ancestors, saints, and the unseen."
Every year, as fields are cleared and nights lengthen in the Northern Hemisphere, cultures mark a hinge in the seasonal door. The days around October 31–November 2 are a threshold: crops are in, winter is near, and communities turn toward memory—of ancestors, saints, and the unseen. Though the names differ—Halloween, Samhain, Día de los Muertos, All Saints’ and All Souls’—the themes are remarkably consistent: harvest’s end, remembrance, protection, and hospitality for the departed.
What follows is a grounded guide to the origins, meanings, and practices of this perennial season from Europe to Northern America.
Table of contents
Why this time of year?
Agriculturally, late October/early November is post-harvest in much of the north. Food stores are counted, animals historically culled, and people prepare for leaner months. Anthropologically, such transitions invite ritual: when one cycle closes, communities negotiate continuity—with each other and with their dead. Cosmologically, darker evenings amplify the sense of liminality (a “between” time), a condition many traditions see as spiritually porous.
Etymology & Key Dates
Samhain — Oct 31 into Nov 1: Old Irish for “summer’s end,” the Gaelic seasonal turn.
Halloween — Oct 31: A contraction of All Hallows’ Eve—the vigil before All Saints’ Day. Hallow is an old word for “holy.”
All Saints’ Day — Nov 1 (All Hallows / Toussaint / Ognissanti): Honors all saints—both formally canonized and the countless unknown holy people who lived exemplary lives. It’s about veneration and inspiration: holding up models of a life well-lived.
All Souls’ Day — Nov 2: Commemorates all the faithful departed—loved ones who have died. It’s about intercession and remembrance: praying for the dead and renewing bonds of kinship across generations.
Día de los Muertos — Oct 31 into Nov 2: “Day of the Dead,” a family-centered remembrance and celebration of life.
Celtic Samhain
In Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, Samhain marked the end of the pastoral year. Herds were brought down from summer pastures; bonfires (possibly “bone-fires” after seasonal slaughter) were lit for protection and community bonding. It was a liminal night when the Aos Sí (spirits/fair folk) roamed; people practiced divination, wore disguises to confuse or placate forces beyond the human, and carried turnip lanterns carved with faces. Many features of modern Halloween—costuming, door-to-door visits, divination games—echo these practices.
Roman & Local European Threads
Roman festivals of the dead (e.g., Parentalia/Feralia) and Lemuria (appeasing restless spirits) supplied imagery of household offerings, while late-autumn harvest/fruit rites fed customs like apple bobbing. As empires and conversions layered over older rites, motifs blended rather than vanished.
Christian Reframing
By the early medieval period, Western Christianity placed All Saints’ Day on Nov 1 (its timing likely consolidating existing seasonal observances), followed by All Souls’ Day on Nov 2. Church practices emphasized vigils, processions, cemetery visits, candles, bells, and almsgiving (including soul cakes for those who prayed for the dead). In many places, pre-Christian sensibilities persisted within a Christian frame: the season remained communal, commemorative, and protective.
American Reinvention
In North America, diverse immigrant customs met abundant pumpkins—a New World squash easier to carve than European turnips—creating the now-iconic jack-o’-lantern. Trick-or-treating emerged in 20th-century urban contexts from older European guising (wearing disguises to ward off or imitate spirits), souling (Christian prayers for the dead exchanged for food on All Souls’ Day), mumming (folk plays celebrating death-rebirth cycles) traditions.
Myths, Stories & Symbols
The Liminal Door: Myths across Europe describe the dead or other-than-human beings crossing the threshold this night. Rather than pure dread, the tone is reciprocity: offerings given, guidance received.
Stingy Jack & the Lantern (Ireland): A trickster condemned to wander with an ember in a carved turnip, explaining the jack-o’-lantern.
The Wild Hunt (widespread northern Europe): A spectral procession in winter’s approach—warning, omen, and reminder to keep order in liminal times.
Marigolds & Monarchs (Mesoamerica): Cempasúchil flowers (“flowers of the dead”) and returning butterflies symbolize guidance of souls back to their homes.
Lights (candles, lanterns, bonfires): Illumination, protection, guiding spirits.
Threshold food (bread, fruit, pan de muerto, soul cakes): Hospitality for the dead, charity for the living.
Masks/Costumes: Disguise, transformation, safe misrule.
Colors: Black/orange (night/harvest), purple (mourning/penitence), white (bones/spirits).
Regional Practices
Ireland & Scotland
Samhain fires, guising, divination (e.g., rings baked in barmbrack; apples and mirrors for love fortunes).
Turnip lanterns historically; pumpkins now common.
Community céilidhs, music, and storytelling preserve the older ethos of threshold hospitality and caution.
England, Wales, Isle of Man, Brittany
Souling (singing/praying for the dead for food), mumming (costumed performance), and churchyard candlelight around All Saints/All Souls.
Regional autumn feasts (nuts, apples) and lingering folk beliefs about spirit processions.
In parts of Wales and Brittany, ancestral vigilance remains strong: grave tending and night-long prayer.
Scandinavia & Finland
Allhelgona (Sweden) and Pyhäinpäivä (Finland): Candle-lit cemeteries, quiet remembrance, national days of reflection on the first Saturday of November or adjacent weekend.
Emphasis is subdued, contemplative, and family-centric.
Central & Eastern Europe
Poland (Zaduszki), Czech/Slovak (Dušičky), Hungary (Halottak napja), Lithuania (Vėlinės), Estonia (Hingedepäev): Families clean and decorate graves with glass lanterns and chrysanthemums, attend mass, and gather to share stories of the deceased. Cemeteries become seas of light—public spaces of memory.
Echoes of older Slavic ancestor rites (e.g., Dziady) survive in language, food, and vigil patterns.
Iberia & Western Mediterranean
- Spain: Todos los Santos includes cemetery visits and regional foods: panellets (Catalonia), Huesos de Santo (Marzipan “saints’ bones”), La Castañada chestnut feasts.
Portugal: Magusto—roasting chestnuts around communal fires; children once asked for Pão-por-Deus (“bread for God”), akin to souling.
Italy: Ognissanti (Nov 1) and Giorno dei Morti (Nov 2): gifts or sweets “from the dead” to children in places like Sicily; ossa dei morti cookies; house altars and grave visits.
Mexico: Día de los Muertos
- Rooted in Indigenous (especially Nahua) understandings of cyclical life and colonial-era Catholic calendars, Día de los Muertos (Oct 31-Nov 2) centers on reunion and joy rather than fear.
Ofrendas (altars) with photos, pan de muerto, favorite foods, cempasúchil trails, copal incense, salt, water, and papel picado. Each element serves as welcome, nourishment, and navigation for returning souls.
Calaveras (sugar skulls) and La Catrina satire social pretension, reminding us of mortality’s leveling force.
Cemeteries become living plazas—music, candles, overnight vigils—honoring children on Nov 1 and adults on Nov 2 (local calendars vary).
Guatemala (Highlands)
Giant kite festivals (Barriletes Gigantes in Sumpango/Santiago Sacatepéquez, Nov 1): Vast hand-made kites carry messages to ancestors and symbolically bridge worlds; families picnic among graves, repaint tombs, and fly smaller kites with children.
United States & Canada
Halloween (Oct 31): Costumes, trick-or-treating, haunted houses, community parades. Schools and neighborhoods often pair playful misrule with safety and charity drives.
Growing acknowledgment and celebration of Día de los Muertos, especially in Mexican and Chicanx communities, with respectful public ofrendas and cultural education.
What’s Shared, What’s Distinct
Shared threads
Hospitality to the dead: Food, light, fragrance, and path-markers invite and guide.
Community memory: Family stories, gravestone care, charity for the living.
Protection & play: Fires, costumes, and noise both ward off and welcome—expressing control in uncertainty.
Harvest logic: Food symbolism, sharing surplus, settling moral/communal accounts at year’s turn.
Distinct accents
Tone: From playful mischief (Halloween) to solemn candlelit vigils (All Souls) to festive homecomings (Día de Muertos).
Theology & cosmology: Christian doctrines of intercession vs. Indigenous cyclical continuities vs. folk beliefs in spirit processions or fair folk.
Aesthetics: Turnips/pumpkins and autumn tones in the North Atlantic; marigolds, papel picado, and sugar art in Mesoamerica; glass lantern oceans in Central/Eastern Europe; chestnuts and almond sweets in the Mediterranean.
Ritual Elements & Their Work
Altars & Tables: Arrange tiers (heavens/earth/ancestors) or household horizontals. Include photos, names, favorite foods, candles, flowers, water, salt. The altar is a contract of care—a tangible welcome.
Bonfires & Candles: Transfer communal warmth to the uncertain dark; frame space as safe and seen.
Foodways: Pan de muerto, soul cakes, chestnuts, sweets shaped like bones—edible memory that unites the living in preparation and sharing.
Sound: Bells, songs, prayers, and laughter keep time and company for the night.
A Brief Glossary
Samhain: Gaelic “summer’s end”; seasonal new year in some interpretations.
Allhallowtide: The three-day Christian observance—All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’, All Souls’.
Ofrenda: Día de Muertos home altar welcoming returning loved ones.
Cempasúchil: Marigold; scent and color guide souls.
Soul Cakes: Small breads given in exchange for prayers for the dead.
Guising/Mumming: Costumed visiting and performance; a forerunner to trick-or-treat.
Enduring Meanings
This season persists because it meets perennial human needs:
To locate ourselves between harvest and winter, light and dark.
To maintain relationships across the boundary of death.
To share resources and stories that see a community through.
To play with fear—turning it to laughter, lanterns, and music.
Whether you light a candle on a grave, tie a message to a kite, bake a sweet shaped like a bone, or set a glass of water on a home altar, you are participating in a long human conversation: We remember. We prepare. We welcome. And as the year leans into night, we make a small festival of care so that—together—we can carry the light.