Edinburgh celebrates Halloween a bit differently. Here it’s called Samhuinn. In a procession with a stage show, the changeover between summer and winter is symbolically enacted. We were there.
The goddess is weeping! Today, summer comes to an end, and the king of winter takes power. The goddess is weeping – or, more prosaically put: it’s pouring with rain.
Of all days, today, on Samhuinn – better known to us as “Halloween” – the water is simply pouring down on us. And I’d planned to capture this spectacle in Edinburgh in photos for MyHighlands.de readers. That’s going to be trickier now.
We duck into one of Edinburgh’s famous “closes” along with other onlookers, waiting for the Samhuinn procession to begin. It will set off from the Castle and lead all the way down to the square in front of St Giles’ Cathedral. From 9pm, the fairies, kings and gods will parade past us; we’ve taken up a spot a little way below the starting point.
Even though American Halloween has its roots in Samhuinn, the festival here has nothing to do with the usual dressing up and trick-or-treating. It’s about the battle between the summer and winter kings, about the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead being lifted, and about the Cailleach, the goddess of winter, taking over rule, before she herself is replaced again in spring at Beltane by Brìghde. All of this is acted out by the various groups making up the procession.
More and more people keep arriving – onlookers as well as performers painted from head to toe. And other strange figures, like this one here, twirling a staff and heading up the castle hill, part of the way backwards.
Despite the rain, spectators now line the street, and finally things get underway. Guarded by stewards and flanked by torchbearers, the procession rolls down the Royal Mile. First comes the veiled Cailleach, accompanied by blue attendants.
Then come various spirits and gods.
It’s hard for us to make out what the figures walking along are meant to be. I’m guessing these are fairies.
Others make little sense to me at all – like these bakers here.
Watching the procession and the stage performance afterwards is all free. But it’s considered good manners to throw a little something into the collection buckets.
Things then get properly acrobatic with the “Reds”, the red-clad groups.
But faster than expected, the sombre ending arrives.
Spectators wanting to see the stage performance join the procession. Bit by bit, the crowd pushes on towards St Giles’ Cathedral.
The rain hasn’t let up the whole time – not great for the quality of the photos. Not only do I keep having to wipe the lens, but many spectators have also put up umbrellas. This bothers not just me, but plenty of others standing behind the umbrella-holders too. “Close the umbrellas!” many shout, and after a few minutes, almost everyone has got the message and more or less clears the view.
On the stage, the battle between the powers of summer and winter is now acted out. The acrobatic performances are well worth watching.
The weather does have one upside, though: more and more visitors leave the square early, presumably finding it too cold. We don’t manage to get right to the front either, so our shots only turn out middling at best. But the show isn’t limited to the stage alone. At two corners of the square, fire birds suddenly appear.
Eventually, though, the stage show draws to a close.
And even though it’s now supposed to be winter, the day of the Samhuinn festival turns out to be the only day it rains on our entire 2016 trip.
We really enjoy the Samhuinn festival. The costumes, the performers, the show – all of it is a joy to watch. In spring, at Beltane, there’s the next chance to catch the spectacle.
The Samhuinn festival in late October and Beltane in late April are organised by beltane.org. Anyone wanting to attend will find useful information and background on the site. Beltane is considerably more elaborate, but also charges admission of around £10.