What is the Celtic New Year?

Why setting intentions for the year to come is more beneficial now than on NYE. And how we can honour natures transition through our dreamtime. And an upcoming online Samhain Ceremony.

Samhain is nowadays used to describe an idea called the Celtic New Year.

First we have to understand that a “year” as in 12 Gregorian calendar months is a relatively new concept. The Gregorian Calendar is a system for determining the date that was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in the year 1582 AD. Which has not been used by the Celts. What we call the Celtic culture actually started around 800 BC, at least 2000 years BEFORE the Gregorian calendar was invented.

We can only speculate how the Celts would have calculated their years, if they had an idea called “year” at all. If so, maybe it would have consisted of 13 lunar months, moon cycles. Or they acknowledged two years, as in one light half and one dark half of the natural cycle. If this was the case, then a so called Celtic New Year would indeed make sense, but not as in a new years start as we comprehend today. It would have been one of two New Year festivities, with Beltane being the celebration of the light/summer half of the cycle beginning.

Samhain is celebrated between autumn equinox and winter solstice, two major events in the northern hemisphere - so why pick the middle and not one or the other?

Really it is after the summer solstice, when the days get shorter, and the dark half of the year already starts. And it is with the winter solstice that the sun returns and days grow longer again. And it is the autumn equinox which marks the longer nights over shorter days, and the spring equinox vice versa.

Yet the veils are considered thinnest in the darkest hours, the time of Samhain, translated as summer´s end. This time around Samhain teaches us to recognise and let go of the living and to understand death as a natural cycle. Probably also because this is not usually easy for us, there are ceremonies to make the transition to this phase easier.

Nowadays we don´t need to fear the winter anymore, as we have food readily available to us in supermarkets all year round. But it often still sits in our bones, the dreadful winter, season of survival. Hence why ceremonies were and are held around this time, offerings given to the ancestors and kindred spirits, to please them and ask for support, as well as to communicate with lost ones and receive guidance. This often happened on the first black moon in November which this year falls onto the 13th of November.

So what is the Celtic New Year then?

It is a THRESHOLD TIME.

A liminal time of transition.

The darkest part of the natural cycle (in the Northern Hemisphere) framed by the last harvest and the winter solstice.

I like to think of it as a clock (which of course is also a modern way of thinking, but it helps to make it graspable for our contemporary mind).

Lets say winter solstice is 12AM, the middle of the night, after which the hours are considered early morning. Summer solstice is 12PM, the height of day, after which the hours are considered afternoon. Autumn Equinox is 6PM (early evening but still daytime), and Samhain would be 9PM. Evening, dusk, sun already set, nighttime rolling in but with a residue of fading light. Liminal.

At some point we decided that the day would start with a certain time, like the year would start with a certain month. Really though, these are all mental concepts, a construction to give points of reference. In order for us all to schedule our work days and pay fines if we missed the deadline for our tax pay. But the natural world is much more subtle and gradient. And changing.

Nature gives you estimates.

Estimated nine months of pregnancy, roughly the same for most. But with a birth window of - in general - 36 to 44 weeks. Liminal.

So here we are, in the estimated Samhain Sunset Season of the year. The Gregorian year starts just after midnight (on my imaginery year-clock), let´s say 1ish AM, which for me feels totally off. I be snoozing then.

I am actually coming to terms with not needing a start of the year. It´s here, always. My years don´t end, they transition. They circle. My day doesn´t start because of a certain time or ends because the clock strikes twelve.

But I like the notion of seeing the dark as beginning of creation.

Of lying a foundation in the invisible, conceiving and gestating in the dark until light reveals what has already begun and brings it to fruition.

It only makes sense. What we see sprouting in springtime has been seeded in autumn. Therefore it started long before it became visible.

I believe there to be a correlation with our relationship to the unconscious.

During the day we are consciously awake and during the night our unconscious sends us messages through our dreams.

If we are not in touch with our psyche, our soul mind, and our subconcious and only pay attention to the tip of the iceberg - our conscious, we will think the day starts in the morning upon waking and ends when falling asleep.

However I believe - as so many traditions teach - that the day is a result of our dreams. And that we have unlearned or forgotten in our western culture to communicate with our subconscious and co-create with our dreams.

In matrifocal societies, it is a given that every new beginning is born in the dark and the unknown. The day begins with the night, the new year with darkness and every new life first germinates in the dark. New ideas and inspirations also need quiet phases in life in order to mature and expand.

And so I believe that by entering nighttime/sleeptime with an intentional reflection and conscious effort to communicate with my unconscious in the dreamtime, I am starting my day when the day ends. The night becomes the beginning of day.

In that sense I like the idea of the New Year starting around Samhain but not with a big bang party. That´s like banging pots and pans juts in the moment you drift into liminal dream space. It is not the time for electronic noise and bright lights. It is the time for turning inward, finding moments of stillness, rest, trust. It is the time for a gentle transition, one that honours the body in adjusting to the temperature change, the mind to quiet its thoughts and make space for deeper patterns to reveal themselves.

It´s evident to me that this calls for a different kind of New Year celebration.

A ceremony instead of a party.

A preparation ritual in a liminal time.

A gathering of community yet without pressure to socialise. To feel safe and connected whilst being invited to look within.

I am holding a SAMHAIN CEREMONY (online) to honour this transition, to open the threshold and experience liminality with Morgan le Fey as our guide to Avalon, to which we undertake an inner vision journey together and celebrate the seasonal shift - within and without!

November 10th, 4pm UK time, approx. 1.5h, £10 (replay will be available to everyone who registers).

THE WORLDS OF AVALON: From Mythology to Modern Magic start on November 10th.

The portal is open and you are welcome to step in.