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|name= Samhain
|actor= [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0573134/ Don McManus]
|dates= [[Exorcise]]d centuries agoin 1408<ref name="four07">[[4.07 It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester]]</ref><br>Exorcised in 2008 by [[Sam Winchester]].<ref name="four07" />
|location= [[Hell]]
|occupation= [[Demon|Upper-class Demon]]
==History==
Samhain is a special type of [[demon]]. When he reigned on Earth on Halloween night, people kept their children in that night, wore masks to hide from him, carved pumpkins to worship him, and left sweets at their doors to appease him. In this way, Samhain was the origin of modern-day Halloween. He is known to have had two [[witch]] siblings in his service who would later be known by the aliases [[Don Harding]] and [[Tracy Davis]]; one of these witches, Tracy, he took for a lover. In 1408, Samhain was [[exorcise]]d by an unknown force.<ref name="four07">[[4.07 It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester]]</ref>
Samhain can be summoned out of the confines of [[Hell]] by two witches through three human sacrifices over three days, the last of which must occur on the final day of Celtic harvest, the 31st of October, the American Halloween. This ritual can only be attempted every 600 years. As such, Samhain's servants had to wait and prepare until the year 2008 before they could attempt to raise him again. They succeeded, but Don was killed for the third sacrifice and Tracy was murdered by Samhain himself, with Samhain using Don's corpse as his host.<ref name="four07" />
==Samhain in Lore==
Samhain - actually properly pronounced "sa-win" as opposed to how the [[demon]]'s name is pronounced in the show (which is as spelled) - originated as a Celtic end of summer and harvest festival and was named after the Celtic name for the month. It later became associated with the Christian [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Souls'_Day All Souls' Day], also known as the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) in Spanish cultures. Some of the rituals associated with Samhain are now seen in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween Halloween] traditions. ==Trivia==* [[Tracy Davis]]'s complaint about her experiences when waiting 600 years to summon her master indicates that Samhain was [[exorcise]]d in the year 1408. Stephen King fans might recognize this number as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1408_(short_story) the title] of a short story King wrote which was first published in 1999 and later adapted into a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1408_(film) 2007 movie], about a mysterious, malicious entity that warps the minds of anyone who enters Room 1408 at the Hotel Dolphin before ultimately killing them. "1+4+0+8" also adds up to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_(number) the number 13], which has a number of meanings but is most notorious as an unlucky number to the superstitious.
==External links==
