Samhain Fire Festival

The Samhain Fire Festival takes place on Halloween evening. What is Samhain? It is the pagan holiday that Halloween derives its roots from. It celebrates the end of summer, the harvest, and the arrival of winter. The fire festival consisted of a parade of lots of scary and interesting characters, and then an elaborate performance by all of the characters acting out the symbolic demise of summer, the (graphic) celebration of fertility, and the connections between the living and the dead. The highlight was a battle between two men with large metal spheres (think beach ball size) that were on fire. This seemed unneccessarily dangerous, but was quite a spectacle nevertheless. The whole thing is put on by the Beltane Fire Society. We had a great time despite the freezing cold and the obstructed view (there was a huge crowd).

Pictures courtesy of Brighid.