Pagan festival of Samhain to kick off

IT’S not even December but some people are already celebrating the New Year — the Celtic New Year, that is.

This evening, adults and children alike will join in a procession lead by white witches to a hill in Co Meath, where the Pagan festival of Samhain — that became modern-day Halloween — originated.

They will chant and light a fire as they recreate the ancient Celtic ritual whereby all the fires in Ireland were extinguished on Halloween and then relit from a single fire — on the Hill of Ward near Athboy.