The ancient precursor to Halloween, Samhain commemorates the end of the harvest and the onset of the "dark half" of the year. Donna Grace/NYPOST

As autumn proves and Robert Frost reminds us, “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”

In October, daylight wanes, fields empty and much of the Northern Hemisphere turns itself towards full blown memento mori.

All of this death is not without ceremony, found most notably in Halloween, a holiday whose origins trace back to the Iron Age and a feast of fire.

Samhain or Samhuinn, pronounced sow-wen, is the pagan precursor to Halloween, a festival honoring the end of the harvest, the onset of winter and the beginning of the “dark half” of the Celtic calendar year.

The word Samhain translates to “summer’s end,” and as practicing witch Dacha Avelin richly des

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