Netflix’s new mystery series Bodkin co-stars Will Forte, Robyn Cara and Siobhan Cullen as investigative podcasters who travel to Bodkin, a small Irish town known for its Samhain festival. Samhain (pronounced Sow-win) is described as “the Irish night of the dead” on the show, akin to the Day of the Dead or All Saints Day, occurring on November 1. On the show, three local residents, a man, woman, and boy, went missing after attending the Samhain festival in Bodkin, and while the boy eventually returned home, the man and woman were never seen or heard from again, and the town ceased its annual Samhain celebrations for 25 years.
The three investigators arrive into town to attend the first festival the town is holding in decades with a plan to probe into the disappearances, but the locals are keen to keep whatever details and secrets they know under wraps. The show, which was shot on location in Ireland around West Cork, Wicklow, and Dublin, is steeped in Irish lore, but is still a work of fiction that’s not based on a true story, though it does draw from real Irish traditions.
Is Samhain A Real Irish Holiday?
Samhain is a real Gaelic festival that’s held on November 1 to mark the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. It is believed to have originated from Celtic pagan traditions and to also be the basis for many of our moderns American Halloween rituals. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Samhain marks the day when “the world of the gods was believed to be made visible to humankind,” and humans believed that the day allowed for contact with the Otherworld where spirits dwelled, and offerings and sacrifices were often made for them.
In its earliest days, Samhain, which translates to the Irish name for November, featured stories of mythical creatures known as Sluagh and Faery Hosts who would kidnap revelers and steal their souls. Bonfires were often held as well for villagers to light a torch and bring a part of the communal fire home to light their hearths.
Is Samhain The Inspiration For Halloween?
Many traditions we now associate with modern-day Halloween are directly influenced by the pagan traditions of Samhain and other Irish folklore, thanks to the large Irish migration to America in the 1800s. (Medieval Christians tried to get in on this by co-opting many of these practices into All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls’ Day on November 2, but many of their practices were derived from the pagans.)
Trick-or-treating is thought to have originated by the Celts nearly 2,000 years ago, when villagers would dress in costume to drive out spirits, while children would often visit the homes of wealthy neighbors asking for food and other treats, a practice called “souling.” While pumpkin carving is not a direct result of Samhain, there’s an Irish tale behind that too: Vegetables like turnips and, later, pumpkins, were carved into jack-o-lanterns, the result of an Irish myth about a man named Stingy Jack who was sentenced to a life in purgatory, as neither the Devil nor God wanted him in the afterlife. Destined to carry a small lamp around for eternity, he became known as Jack O’ The Lantern.
On Bodkin, the Samhain festival appears to be a modernized version of the ancient traditions like bonfires and masquerades, but as in Midsommar and The Wicker Man, there’s a sinister edge to these pagan festivals thanks to the ancient lore they evolved from.
Bodkin is now available to stream on Netflix.
