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The black cats circling counter clockwise, show the otherworldly energy present this world at Samhain. The four central birds circling clockwise, depict spiritual energy passing to the Otherworld. Samhain was the night when the walls between the world of the living and the Otherworld were thin and spirits could freely roam the earth. The Fire Festival of Samhain, like all celtic days, began at sunset and ended at the next. It was celebrated in the kingdom of Meath in ancient Ireland. The celebration included a ritual feast where the nobility of Ireland with every act, with even the placement of every person would impose order upon the unformed chaos of the new year. At sunset, every hearth fire was put out. The druids would light a sacred bonfire and send messengers carrying torches lit from it, to run the length of Ireland and relight each hearth. During the monastic period the monks discouraged the celebration of Samhain and instead replaced it with all hallo's eve and the feast of all souls. An Irish legend says if one sits on a wall of a cemetery near a church, on Samhain night, one will see the souls of those who will die in the coming year walk past.
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