Samhain is pronounced Sah-ween if you're wondering how it transmuted into Halloween. These days Halloween is the second most commercially successful holiday in the world (the first is Christmas), even outselling Easter.
The witch is a central symbol of Halloween. The word comes from the Saxon wicca, meaning wise one. Some witches rode on horseback, but less financially wise witches went on foot and carried a broom or a pole to aid in vaulting over streams. When setting out for a Sabbath, witches rubbed a sacred flying ointment, that contained toad poison, onto their skin. This created feeling of flying, if they had been fasting the hallucination was even stronger. In England when new witches were initiated they were often blindfolded, smeared with flying ointment and placed on a broomstick. The ointment would confuse the mind, speed up the pulse and numb the feet. When they were told "You are flying over land and sea," the witch took their word for it. Apparently if you want to meet a witch, put your clothes on inside out and walk backwards on Halloween night. Try it at home then make accusations of your wife and threaten to put kindling under the bed.
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