The most recent thing I read was "sar-win." I've read a bunch of pronunciations, but the one they used last night was definitely wrong, because the one thing everyone agrees on is that it's NOT pronounced like it's spelled.
It's Irish Gaelic, and there is standard pronunciation of Gaelic sounds represented by English letters, but I don't know them.
Hypothesis: They knew all the Pagans in the audience would throw a fit if they actually said Samhain was a demon, so when they all write in to complain about it they can say, "But we said 'sam-hain.' See, we pronounced it wrong so you would know it was something else!"
Dude, I watched it last night sitting on a couch with three or four pagan types, including my aunt and uncle. The instant they started in with the "origins of Halloween" crap, I literally slapped my forehead and hid my face in my hands. I KNEW it was going to go downhill from there.
I don't think Hollywood has any conception of what real pagans believe. I've seen this on Charmed and The Craft and any kind of show that has supernaturally elements. I think they just see paganism as a cool, rebel-against-the-prevailing-orthodoxy-and-traditions kind of thing. Drives me right up the wall. It offends me as a Christian and it offends me on behalf of my many pagan friends and family members.
I don't know if they don't have a concept of real paganism, or if they just know it wouldn't make for very good TV. Same with Satanism. Satanists are very live-and-let-live, but on TV they're always making blood sacrifices and summoning the devil.
Maybe both. Hopefully the latter, but even there, I htink they're wrong. It'd be nice if they showed the difference between people messing about with forces they dodn't understand for very personal, human reasons of jealousy, envy, etc, and sincere people of faith, whether that faith is Christianity, paganism, Satanism, or Jainism. That's all I ask for. Is it too much?
I've heard it most often like "suh-vwanye." (The n sound, especially when spelled in the Scots Gaelic is doubled, would sound a lot like the spanish "n" with the tilde over top. But I'm no expert, so who knows?
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It's Irish Gaelic, and there is standard pronunciation of Gaelic sounds represented by English letters, but I don't know them.
Hypothesis: They knew all the Pagans in the audience would throw a fit if they actually said Samhain was a demon, so when they all write in to complain about it they can say, "But we said 'sam-hain.' See, we pronounced it wrong so you would know it was something else!"
I don't think Hollywood has any conception of what real pagans believe. I've seen this on Charmed and The Craft and any kind of show that has supernaturally elements. I think they just see paganism as a cool, rebel-against-the-prevailing-orthodoxy-a
Sorry. I'll step off the soapbox now.