Samhain Seeing: Traditional Samhain Divination Customs
by Keziah Zibelmann | Support on Ko-fi
Samhain is one of the four major festivals within the Gaelic calendar, and easily the most widely known of the lot. The festival marks the end of harvest season, the transition into winter, and the beginning of the dark half of the year. Samhain is believed to be a time when the walls between our world and the Otherworld – the realm of spirits of all kinds – are down. During this time, it is easier for the Otherworld folk to walk among us, and easier for people to see and commune with these spirits. For many, this time of year is when the connection to spirits and the realms of spirits feels stronger than otherwise. Because of this Samhain is considered an auspicious time to practice divination.
[Snap-Apple Night by Daniel Maclise (1833); depicting the playing of various divination games on October 31st in Ireland, including bobbing for apples and the throwing of nuts into fire]
Using this liminal point of time to divine is no new concept. There are traditional divination practices associated with Samhain, which we’ll explore together in this piece; including divination games that are perfect for diviners of all skill levels. Such games are also ideal for practicing with family and friends. Divination parties are becoming quite the popular Samhain tradition these days. If you’re interested in throwing one yourself to mark the festival, you might want to try including some of these traditional divinatory customs.
TRADITIONAL DIVINATORY PRACTICES OF SAMHAIN:
Bairín Breac
Bairín Breac – also called Barmbrack, Brack, and Speckled Loaf – is an Irish sweetbread baked at Samhain or Hallowe’en (and some also bake it for New Year), traditionally used to divine what the new year would bring. Baked into this bread, aside from delicious raisins and sultanas or other dried fruits, were various objects. Whichever object one discovered in their piece of bairín breac was believed to foretell an aspect of their future for the year to come. The objects used have varied over time, but have included:
a coin – meaning one would gain monetary fortune or enjoy success
a ring – meaning one would be married or proposed to within the year
a pea – meaning one would not be married or proposed to that year
a bit of cloth – meaning one would become or remain poor and know misfortune
a twig or stick – meaning one would know many quarrels and conflict in the year ahead, or that one would have an unharmonious marriage
Nowadays, it’s not uncommon that only a ring is baked into the bread and the other items left out.
Check out these recipes for bairín breac – here, here, and here.
Soddag Valloo
Soddag Valloo, or “dumb/silent cake”, is a Manx tradition practiced on Hop-tu-Naa night and was historically observed by unmarried women. The cakes were made of flour, eggs, eggshells, salt, meal, and soot, and the dough was shaped into a triangle and then cooked using the embers of the hearth fire. This all was to be carried out in complete silence, which is where the ‘valloo’ in its name comes from (‘valloo’ means silent in Manx).
The eating of the cake was also to be done in silence. The women observing this custom would each eat of the cake and then walk backwards all the way to their beds where they’d settle in for the night. As they slept, they would be granted visions or signs of whom they were to wed.
You can watch a video about this Hop tu Naa tradition here.
Apple & Mirror Divination
This method of divination was used to foretell whom one would marry.
What you'll need:
an apple
a mirror
a knife
What to do:
At midnight on Samhain night, stand in front of a mirror in a room by yourself.
Slice some of the apple into pieces and toss the pieces over your left shoulder.
Eat the rest of the apple whilst slowly walking toward the mirror and looking at your reflection. You shouldn’t have looked away from the mirror at all since the start of this divination game.
Finish off the apple while standing before the mirror. It's said that, while doing this, the face of who you’re meant to marry will appear in the mirror, as if they're standing at your left shoulder.
Apple Peel Divination
There is another common variation of apple divination also known to be practiced on Samhain.
What you'll need:
an apple
a knife
What to do:
Peel the apple with the knife, trying to keep the peel intact all the while. When you're finished, toss the peel over your left shoulder and let it fall on the floor. Whatever letter the peel forms or resembles after falling, that's said to be the first letter of the name of the person you'll marry.
Crossroads Death Divining
This custom is believed to hail from the Highlands of Scotland and foretells who would die within the coming year.
What you'll need:
access to a crossroads
a three-legged stool
What to do:
To do so, one must go at midnight to a crossroads where there are three branches of road. There, sit upon a stool which has three legs. At exactly midnight, it is believed this person would hear the names of whoever would die within their village or town in the coming year.
It is also believed that one could ward off these deaths if they stripped off and cast aside an item of clothing at the naming of the person(s) whose death they wished to prevent.
Pulling of the Kail
This is another traditional folk custom from Scotland and is carried out on Samhain night. This custom involves the thievery of cabbage (kail means cabbages). One would steal into someone else’s garden at night and rob them of a cabbage plant. Keeping their eyes closed, they’d pluck the first kail they came to.
How to read these cabbage stalks is written in ‘Old Scottish Customs’ by E.E. Guthrie —
‘Should the stalks thus secured prove to be of stately growth, straight in stem, and with a goodly supply of earth at their roots, the future husbands (or wives) will be young, good-looking, and rich in proportion.
But if the stalks be stunted, crooked, and hence little or no earth at their roots, the future spouses will be found lacking in good looks and fortune.
According as the heart or stem proves sweet or sour to the taste, so will be the temper of the future partner.’
A Ring of Stones
This Samhain divinatory custom comes from Scotland. Around the ritual bonfire, a ring of stones was set. There would be a stone to represent each person partaking in this act of divination.
The party runs around the bonfire singing, dancing, and cheering (some sources also say that they carried a torch bearing a flame from the bonfire). They return to the stone circle the following morning and examine the stones. If any stone had been moved or turned over it meant that the person that stone represented would die within the year.
Pricking the Egg
There are two egg-pricking divinatory customs historically associated with Samhain. The first method calls for an egg to be pricked with a needle and the egg white to be drained into a clear glass of water. One then reads the shape formed by the egg white in the water to foretell how many children they will have in the future.
The second method was used to predict one’s future romantic partner. One would prick an egg with a pin and drain the egg white into a cup or glass that had been nearly filled with water. The egg-water mixture was taken into the mouth and held there whilst one went out for a walk. It is believed that the first name one heard while holding this mixture in their mouth would be the name of their intended.
There is a similar custom to this that uses salt water instead of egg and water.
Roasting Hazelnuts
Take two hazelnuts and name them – one named for yourself and the other named for the person you wish to be with. The nuts are placed within the hearth-fire. Their behavior whilst being burned is interpreted in this method of divination.
If the nuts burn quietly and remain side-by-side, the love between you and your desired is to be good.
If one nut pops away from the other, the love is not meant to be.
Salted Bannock
This method of divination is believed to bring on a dream of one’s future spouse or romantic partner.
One would bake a very salty bannock (a flat bread made of grain like oats, barley, flour, etc.) and then take three bites of it before bed. You do not drink any water to alleviate the effects of the bannock’s saltiness. You just go straight to bed in total silence. While you sleep, you are sent a dream in which your intended partner offers you a drink of water.
There is another version of this in which one eats a salted herring instead of a bannock.
Bobbing for Apples
Bobbing for apples is an autumn tradition throughout much of the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland. It originated as a divination game commonly practiced at or around Samhain. There are various divination customs surrounding this fun fall game, but I’m familiar with three in particular.
The first method: Everyone would gather ‘round the trough and they would race to be the first to catch an apple in their mouth, which is the gist of bobbing for apples as a game nowadays. However, as a divinatory custom, this was used to predict who amongst the players would be the first to wed.
The second method: One bobber would play at a time. They would name one of the apples for their desired partner and then attempt to catch the apple in their mouth.
If they caught the apple on the first attempt, the love was destined and the relationship will be a happy one.
If it takes two tries to catch the apple, their desired one would be nothing more than a fling or a failed courtship.
If they catch the apple on their third attempt, the partnership is entirely doomed and there is simply no hope.
The third method: This calls for taking the apple you caught, taking a bite out of it, and then stashing the apple underneath your pillow or bed when you go to sleep that night. This is said to bring about a dream in which one would see their soul mate.
Bobbing for apples as a divination game is still practiced in some communities within the Southern United States, but it’s more commonly your run of the mill, no divination included festival or fairground game these days.
If you’re planning on including divination in your Samhain observations this year, happy divining! I hope you find that the year to come will bring you happiness abound!
SOURCES & FURTHER READING:
‘the Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore’ -Monaghan, Patricia
'the Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion' - Frazer, James George; Sir
‘Myth, Legend, and Romance: an Encyclopedia of the Irish Folk Tradition’ -Ó hÓgain, Dáithí
'Old Scottish Customs: Local and General' - Guthrie, E.H.
'Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain' - Hutton, Ronald
