If I had to compare our Samhain to anything, it would be to the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Of course, the comparison is inexact, and maybe even a little misleading. Certainly we did not—consciously, at any rate—structure what we do on the ancient Mysteries of the Barley Mother. In fact, although we've been enacting this ritual for more than 30 years now, the analogy with Eleusis has only just occurred to me: interestingly, as I attempted to describe it to a first-time guest.
Really, though, such a resemblance is hardly to be wondered at. That Mystery should variously speak a like tongue in different times and places should surprise no one.
As such, the immemorial principle of Holy Silence obtains. There's much that I cannot tell, nor would I if I could.
But this much I may say.