Samhuinn- Celtic New Year

Since Halloween is celebrated here just like at home, I decided to find something a little more cultural to do with myself. I discovered Samhuinn (pronounced sah-ween) and it is the Celtic New Year and the combination of All Saint's Day and Halloween and a Harvest Fest. Historically, it was a time to celebrate the past year, the end of the harvest and to welcome the Winter. Samhuinn is performed here by the Beltane Fire Society. It starts with a parade of all the characters from the Castle, down to Parliament Square on the Royal Mile.
I immediately creeped myself out after taking this... Halloween is SO much scarier in a place with old churches and castles...
I was getting the impression that each of the characters had a season they belonged to... I still can't figure out the Blue People, they were everywhere...

Fall, definitely.Creepy Usher... of Death... I don't know, he's pretty scary though.

Similar Characters to the Blue People... The Red People hang out in Winter and fight with it, but seem more like demons than anything...
Winter, definitely.

Wolves in Winter.

Remember how I'm terrified of wolves? Well this one comes over to us and I can see his head through the mouth and he smiles at me and jumps at Ellen (who came with me) and she screamed and stepped back, except we were on the street, so she fell right over the curb. He felt bad and went away. She was fine, so I think it was the highlight of the whole parade.
After the procession had gone by, everyone joined in on the road and followed them down to Parliament Square for the Fire Fest!

This was a girl in front of me... I was trying to take a picture of her wing for about 45 minutes. Finally!
The other side of Parliament Square.

I know, I know, you've seen about 67 pictures of this church, but this is at night! We stood on the steps of the church to watch the show.

Ellen and I waiting for the show to start- in the freezing cold!
You can watch the video, but I couldn't see anything of what I was taking. Basically the story is the crowning of the Winter King and welcoming him. Fire throwing is key and the torches were blowing smoke and ash onto everything. And oh was there dancing!



This is by far the best Halloween I've had... except maybe the one where I was 3 and discovered trick-or-treating... That one was pretty good too...