Samhuinn
The Samhuinn Festival serves the seasonally opposite role to Beltane. It was the Celtic New Year, although its practice far precedes the Celtic culture. It marked the end of summer and the time to bring herds in from summer pastures to lowland fields and enclosures for protection. With the signs of approaching winter, it is understandable that the festival should have a strong association with death. The trees are bare and the land barren of the earlier vegetation - nature itself seems to be dying.
Thus it was believed that this was the night of the dead - a time for the spirits of the departed from the previous year to pay one last visit to their relatives before departing for the other-world forever. Also taking advantage of this closeness between the land of the living and the dead were the mischievous and malevolent spirits of the underworld, and measures had to be taken to protect against their pranks. Thus evolved the tradition of modern Hallowe'en to wear masks - originally to disguise oneself against the unwanted attentions of spirits and faeries.
Another Samhuinn tradition was a market fair held in the nearest trading centre. This was a chance to settle business, to trade livestock and produce of the autumn and to revel with friends for one last time before the winter conditions made travel too difficult. Amongst the entertainments were the Goloshan Plays. The main theme of these ancient narratives was the battle between light and dark, summer and winter. The two characters fight to the death, winter overcoming summer as inevitably as the seasons, but the medicine-man steps in to revive the summer figure, thus ensuring the return of spring and light.