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Lughnasadh
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also known as Lammas, First Harvest
The name of this festival
is Irish Gaelic for "Commemoration of Lugh". Some
authors give the meaning as marriage, gathering or feast (in
the name of) of Lugh. The meaning remains basically the same:
Lugh is the Deity of Lughnasadh, and there is a feast.
Although Lugh gives his name to this festival, it is also associated
with Lugh's foster mother Tailtiu, who is said to have cleared
the way for the introduction of agriculture in Ireland, thus
linking Lughnasadh to the land and the harvest.
The modern Irish Gaelic name for the month of August is Lúnasa.
In Scottish Gaelic Lunasda means the 1st of August.
One of several historic sources for the four Celtic fire festivals
Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasadh und Samhain is the early medieval
Irish tale "Tochmarc Emire" (The Wooing of Emer),
which is part of the Ulster Cycle. In the form we know it today
it was written in the 10th or 11th century CE, but it is safe
to assume that this tale - like so many others - contains a
much older nucleus. |
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The tale narrates how the hero Cú Chulainn is courting
Emer. He receives several tasks to fulfill, one of them being
that he must go without sleep for one year. As Emer utters her
challenge, she names the four major points of the Irish-Celtic
year, as they are also mentioned in other Irish sources. Doing
this, she does not use the solar festivals, nor Christian ones,
which were certainly well known and established by the 10th
century. Instead Emer choses the first days of each season.
One of these days is Lughnasadh, marking the beginning of fall.
It takes place on the 1st of August, a date internationally
agreed upon, or on the day of the full moon next to this date,
if you want to celebrate when the ancient Celts probably did.
Since the Celtic day started with sunset, the celebration takes
place on the evening before the calendaric date.
Lughnasadh marks the begin of the noticeable descent of the
Sun into the darkness of winter. From the connection between
the Earth (female principle) and the Sun (male principle), the
marriage of the Sky Father (Sun God) with the Earth Mother we
celebrated at Bealtaine, emerge the fruits of the first harvest
of the year. Lughnasadh is a time of joy about the first fruits.
It is also a time of tension, because the dark days of winter
are coming nearer, and most of the harvest is not brought in
and stored away yet.
The God of the harvest is the Green Man (also known as John
Barleycorn). He sacrifices himself every year in order to enable
human life on Earth. In some areas his death is mourned with
wreaths decorated with poppies or cornflowers.
The grain is cut, part of it goes into bread and nutrition,
another part is stored away and used as seeds next spring, to
create new life. Looking at that, thoughts about sacrifice,
transformation, death and rebirth are also part of Lughnasadh.
The celebration of Lughnasadh includes the ritual cutting of
the first grain and an offering thereof, possibly the making
of a first meal and the ritual eating of it, as well as dancing.
Fires are mentioned, but fire or light do not play such a prominent
role as with the other fire festivals. This is probably because
August is a warm month in most of Europe, with still long daylight
hours, where no fire is needed. Lughnasadh celebrations are
reported from Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.
Another name used for Lughnasadh is "Lammas", from
the old-anglosaxon "hlaef-mass" (loaf mass, mass where
the first loaf of bread is consecrated), which developed into
the later medieval English and Scottish "Lammas".
As such it is first mentioned in old anglosaxon chronicles as
early as 921 CE as "Feast of the First Fruits". In
an agricultural society the begin of the harvest was a natural
occasion to celebrate and to give thanks to the Divine for Its
gifts.
In Bavarian tradition, the most important festival in August
is the "Ascension of Mary" on the 15th of August.
On this day, numerous processions through the villages and along
the fields are held. During these processions, decorated bundles
of herbs, consisting of up to 77 different herbs, are carried
along on wooden sticks. These herbs are specially consecrated
and stored away then. They are used for ritual incense burning
later in the year, e.g. during the "rough nights",
the time of the winter solstice. An older name for this festival
is "Maria Kräuterweih", meaning "Day of
Mary and the Consecration of Herbs".
The beginning of fall was marked by the day of St. Bartholomäus
(Bartholomew) on August 24th.
The original Lughnasadh customs have obviously shifted to August
15th and additionally into numerous local and regional harvest
celebrations. Lughnasadh is the therefore only one of the eight
Celtic festivals which did not survive in Bavaria as a compact
celebration ON or near the original date (August 1st). Harvest
celebrations are instead dispersed over all of August. This
might have to do with the geographical situation of Bavaria,
where August tends to be a rather warm month, and harvest and
fall are a bit later than elsewhere.
The Deities of Lughnasadh are Danu (Anu), the Mother of Gods
and Men, and Lugh, the patron of scholars, craftsmen, warriors
and magicians. Lugh is also known as Lugh Samildánach
(the Many Skilled) and Lugh Lámhfada (Lugh with the Long
Arm). It is disputed among authors whether this refers to Lugh's
magical spear or to the rays of the Sun. Lugh seems to have
been worshipped, like his Greek and Roman correspondences Hermes
and Mercury, mostly on elevations, hills or mountaintops.
The plant of Lughnasadh is any form of grain or corn, in a wider
sense every fruit of field and garden.
The meaning of Lughnasadh on the inner planes is the start of
the harvest of the fruits that we have sown in spring. Which
things or projects are reaping in us in the moment? What would
we like to finish, what to start anew? Do we have the insight
that to every harvest there is a necessity of preparation?
The essence of Lughnasadh is the joy of life under the knowledge
that darker times are moving in. We take in the warming rays
of the Sun and store their power for the times coming. At the
time we celebrate the next festival, Alban Elfed, it will be
fall and the warm summer days will already be a memory.
Of course Lughnasadh is a very good time to express gratitude
to the Gods and the Earth Spirits for their blessings and gifts
that we are now receiving. In times of microwave and frozen
pizza it may seem anachronistic to thank for the harvest. Many
of our modern food stuffs make it hard to still recognize the
waving grain on the field in them. And yet there is a way to
connect with nature via the food that we eat. This is especially
valid for self-harvested fruits. But also conscious eating,
eating with focus on the food and not on TV or newspaper, is
one way of expressing our thanks for the harvest - all year
round, but especially at Lughnasadh.
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