Lughnasadh is a traditional Celtic celebration that falls on August 1. On the Wheel of the Year, it designates the midpoint between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox. Lughnasadh is one of four great festivals of ancient Ireland and Scotland. The others are Samhain (October 31), Imbolc (February 2), and Beltane (May 1). Each of the four falls on a midpoint on the Wheel of the Year.
The pagan originated holiday celebrated the first harvest of the year. With feasts of bilberries, apples, and corn, it was a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest that would see the people through the long winter to come. It corresponds to harvest festivals in other countries, including the English Lammas. Cultural observances of Lughnasadh have resurged in modern times, and many modern pagans also celebrate the holiday.
Traditional observances of Lughnasadh took place in Ireland and Scotland up until the 20th century, usually on the Sunday nearest August 1. The word Lughnasadh is the basis of the Gaelic word for August. Rites involved climbing hills and mountains to offer the first of the harvested corn to the god Lugh by burying it in a sacred high place. Other activities included feasts, athletic contests similar to the early Olympics, rituals that involved dancing and playacting, the sacrifice of a bull, sacred rites, religious observances, and handfasting or trial marriages. Through a hole in the door, a man and woman joined hands and then lived together for a year and a day. At the end of that period, they could stay together or amicably dissolve the union.
In the wonderful Sister Fidelma mystery novels by Peter Tremayne, the title character handfasts with the Saxon monk Eadulf. If you haven’t read these books, get them now. Fidelma is not only a sister in the religious order of the community of St. Brigid of Kildare, she is also a dalaigh of the law court. The books put you smack dab into colorful and pivotal times in 7th century Ireland.
The Celtic god Lugh or Lug is said to have started his festival as a funeral service for his mother, the goddess Tailtiu. She was an earth mother goddess who symbolized the dying vegetation harvested to feed the people. Games and athletic competitions were an important historical aspect of the celebration in her honor. Lugh is also identified as a High King of ancient Ireland. His father was one of the glorious Tuatha de Danann, while his mother came from the Fomorian people. Since their marriage joined the two tribes, the handfasting aspect of Lughnasadh celebrations is particularly fitting. On a side note, the times of the Tuatha and Fomorians have always enthralled me, and Aedar, the hero of my paranormal romance Time Singer – Wytchfae 4, is a Fomorian, while the heroine Seraphina has Tuatha blood somewhere in her ancestry.
According to Barbara G. Walker’s The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, the Celtic god Lug or Lugh was the basis of the former name of London, which was Lugdunum, and Lug’s temple stood on Ludgate Hill. There stood also a great stone called the Bloody Crescent, which commemorated Lug’s wife, a moon goddess. The name Lug may have originated from ancient Mesopotamia. According to Joseph Campbell in The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology, the title of the king who served as the husband of the Great Goddess was lugal.
The connections among the mythologies of the world are endlessly fascinating to me. I hope you have enjoyed today’s tip of the hat to Lughnasadh.
Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic with Paranormal Fantasy Romance
The feasts of Lughnasadh and Imbolc are new to me. I also think the concept of handfasting is a unique one. It would be interesting to see how many of those trail marriages became permanent ones!
That would be an interesting statistic to have, Mae. In the Sister Fidelma series, she and her Saxon monk do stay together and finally have a baby boy. I need to check and see if there are new titles in the series that I haven’t read yet.
A wonderful time of the year and a lovely image to remind us of the beauty of this part of summer.
Thank you, Daisy.