Samhain pronounced Sow-in is the Last Harvest. The Earth nods a sad farewell to the God. We know that He will once again be reborn of the Goddess and the cycle will continue. This is the time of reflection, the time to honor the Ancients who have gone on before us and the time of 'Seeing"(divination). As we contemplate the Wheel of the Year, we come to recognize our own part in the eternal cycle of Life.

The Witches' New Year And in the turning of the year, the walls of time and space become as air, until life and death are as one and departed souls walk again among the living. Here on this most sacred night, as the old year died and the new was born, around the fires the people gathered in celebration. There was wine and cider from the vines and groves, bread from the fields of winnowed wheat, and meat steaming from the slaughter. A great feast and celebration of life to take into the darkness. Hearken now, the darkness comes! (Mike Nichols)

Samhain marks the beginning of the season of death, Winter. The Goddess of Agriculture
relinquishes her power over the earth to the Horned God of the Hunt.  The fertility of the summer fields gives way to the winter forests.

"It is also the day we honor the dead.  On this night, the veil between the worlds is thinnest.  The doors of the sidhe-mounds are open and neither human nor faery need any magickal passwords to come and go.  Our ancestors, the blessed dead, are more accessible, more approachable.  Samhain is a day to commune with the dead and a celebration of the eternal cycle of reincarnation."

It is a time of beginnings and endings.