The pronunciation of a word plays an important part of the understanding of it. However it might be spelled, the sound of a word calls certain images to mind. Samhain, pronounced aloud, has the sound of sow in it. In the play Riders to The Sea, there were festivals that Maurya would likely have had knowledge of that involved the idea of the word sow, and that festival was known as hogmanay.

Death is the preeminent theme in Riders to The Sea, with an underlying theme of resurrection. In this way, the elements are balanced.

Including a discussion of Samhain is appropriate to the themes in Riders to The Sea. In fact, the ramifications of the celebrations are so many and so varied that the word is loaded with associations, much of it so deeply rooted in history that many of the readers or members of the play's audience would not actually know the original source of the customs and ideas, although Synge's audience was probably a little sharper about some things than today's audience might be.

The pre-Christians had their own ideas about death and afterlife, and conversion to Christianity did not erase those ideas completely. The mystical shadow of the Druids in Europe and Ireland still fell upon the Irish people. Druids were the keepers of the sacred fire for which a fee was levied to restart all the quenched hearth fires at Samhain.

The folk aspects of the holiday appear in the play as everyday items or events. Irish legend alludes to this most precarious of times, when mischief might be done as well as magic. In Holiday Symbols it says:

"An old legend associated with Samhain tells the story of the annual destruction of Tara...Every year at Samhain a goblin called Aillen played the harp so skillfully that everyone was charmed into sleep, allowing him to set fire to the palace" (Thompson, 430).

Still another death and resurrection legend included in the same book is this:

"According to Irish folklore, a god named Cenghus fell in love with a young girl Caer (also known as Rhiannon), who was capable of taking the form of a swan at the festival of Samhain...the only way he could be with her was to wait for the festival and then transform himself into a swan. United at last, the pair flew three times around the lake putting everyone else into a dream-sleep that lasted three days and three nights...The festival of Samhain may have celebrated, through the legend of people and gods shape-shifting into swans, the transformation of life from one state to another" (Thompson, 431).

About Cuchulainn's mother Dechtire, Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends tells that "Legend recounts how on swallowing a fly which flew into her cup at her wedding feast, Dechtire fell into a deep sleep." A deep sleep sets the scene for many an act of mischief in legend. Where did the children's song that begins with, "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly” originate?

An important religious theme underlies all of this: the hope of rebirth or resurrection. Whether Christian or pagan, people of the Aran Islands during Synge's stay there needed to bolster their belief that there was some kind of hope in their hard lives. The mere mention of Samhain was enough to call to mind all of the associations of the Otherworld or afterlife, thus offering a spiritual tone, albeit barbaric.

Celtic Myths, written by Miranda Jane Green offers this insight to the delicate balance in the world:

"The somber aspect of the Otherworld is equally represented in myth. Samhain at the beginning of November is a dangerous time, a kind of limbo where the barriers between the real and supernatural worlds are temporarily dissolved and where humans and spirits can penetrate each other's space, thus upsetting the normal balance" (74).

The idea of symmetry and balance, like the symbolic Scale of Justice, is also included in this context, making the two dimensions or worlds delicately balanced, aligned with one another and separated, as it were, by a veil that was dangerously permeable during the Eve of Samhain. During this time, according to legend, the spirits of the dead were free to roam, often thought of as returning to their former homes.

The home hearth was often the center of family life during ancient times. It was the place where food was given as well as warmth from the fire and family fellowship. In The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer, this theme is discussed:

"The festival of Samhain and Hogmany had similar themes, one of which was the lighting of the hearth fire."

The fire of many of the lives of Maurya’s household has been extinguished. Their hope for the future may have been doused, but the question of the bundle arises. Although its first meaning is a literal bundle of clothes, the phrase "bundle of joy" comes to mind. If one of Maurya's two daughters, like the Biblical Mara with her two daughters-in-law in the book of Ruth, should find that one of them marries and provides a new husband and heir, the fire would then be rekindled. This is not a likely option for Maurya, and she doesn't sound optimistic about her daughters' luck turning for the better.

There is the underlying idea of sacrifice in these festivals. The thought is that, as seen by the loss of men in the family and from historical reference, the ocean may give a sparse living, but it wreaks the most terrible havoc on the peasants of Aran.

In Celtic Myths this thought ties the cult of Odin to Samhain. "One Irish tradition involved the triple killing of a king, by burning, wounding and drowning, at the feast of Samhain" (Green, 69). Not only are the natural elements vicious, but their so-called celebrations are equally horrible.

If Odin appeared in the play, it would be in disguise. He might be playing the part of the old man who makes the coffin in Riders to The Sea, a paradox that portrays Odin as the long dead mythical hero, and yet, alive enough to build a coffin.