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Ask which winter and autumn customs are secretly pagan and most people would name Christmas first. The atlas grades each of these continuity claims on its own evidence, and the verdicts run the other way.

One Verdict Is Settled

All Hallows' Eve is recorded as an established continuation of the Gaelic Samhain, the same turn of the calendar at the end of October, carrying the same season's folk customs forward with it.

The Rest Are Still Open Cases

Christmas is a harder case, twice over: whether it took over the Roman Saturnalia's midwinter slot and mood, and whether the 25th of December was chosen to absorb the feast of the Unconquered Sun, are both recorded as genuinely argued rather than settled. The same caution covers Easter's link to the goddess Eostre, Candlemas and the Gaelic Imbolc, and the Day of the Dead's link to the Aztec festival of Miccailhuitl. Only one detail beside Samhain survives without dispute: the eighth century monk Bede's account that the English month, and so the festival, took its name from a goddess called Eostre. Whether an actual cult stood behind that name is exactly the kind of question the atlas still leaves open.

Where To Read More

• All Hallows' EveObservancesRecorded as an established continuation of Samhain
• SamhainCeltic Pagan FestivalsThe Gaelic festival Halloween is attested to continue
• ChristmasFeastsIts links to two Roman winter feasts are both recorded as debated
• SaturnaliaRoman FestivalsOne of the two Roman feasts Christmas is debated to continue
• EasterHigh Holy DaysIts link to Eostre is debated even though the name itself is not
• EostreAnglo-Saxon Pagan FestivalsThe goddess Bede names as the source of Easter's English name