Lughnasadh
Also called
Lúnasa (
Modern Irish)
Lùnastal (
Scottish Gaelic)
Luanistyn (
Manx Gaelic)
Observed by
Historically:
Gaels
Today:
Irish people,
Scottish people,
Manx people,
Celtic neopagans
Type
Cultural,
Pagan (
Celtic polytheism,
Celtic Neopaganism,
Wicca)
Significance
Beginning of the harvest season
Begins
Northern Hemisphere: Sunset on July 31
Southern Hemisphere: Sunset on January 31
Ends
Northern Hemisphere: Sunset on August 1
Southern Hemisphere: Sunset on February 1
Celebrations
Offering of First Fruits
Bonfires
Feasting
Handfasting
Related to
Calan Awst,
Lammas
Lughnasadh (pronounced
LOO-nə-sə;
Irish:
Lúnasa;
Scottish Gaelic:
Lùnastal;
Manx:
Luanistyn) is a traditional
Gaelic holiday celebrated on
1 August in the
northern hemisphere and
1 February in the
southern[dubious – discuss]. It originated as a
harvest festival, corresponding to the Welsh
Calan Awst and the English
Lammas.
Name
In
Old Irish (or Old Gaelic), the name was usually spelt
Lugnasad (pronounced
[luɣnəsəð]). Later spellings include Luġnasaḋ,
Lughnasadh and
Lughnasa.
In
Modern Irish (
Gaeilge), the spelling is
Lúnasa, which is also the name for the month of August. The
genetive case is also
Lúnasa as in
Mí Lúnasa (Month of August)
[1] and
Lá Lúnasa (Day of Lúnasa).
[2][3] The word
násadh means a feast, fair, assembly, or celebration, but is unstressed when used as a suffix on Lughnasadh.
[1]
In
Modern Scottish Gaelic (
Gàidhlig), the festival and the month are both called
Lùnastal.
[4]
In
Manx (
Gaelg), the festival and the month are both called
Luanistyn. The day itself may be called either
Laa Luanistyn or
Laa Luanys.
[5]
In
Welsh (
Cymraeg), the day is known as
Calan Awst, originally a
Latin term,
[6] the
Kalends of August in English.
[1]
In Irish mythology
In
Irish mythology, the Lughnasadh festival is said to have been begun by the god
Lugh (modern spelling: Lú) as a funeral feast and sporting competition in commemoration of his foster-mother,
Tailtiu, who died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of
Ireland for agriculture. The first location of the
Áenach Tailteann gathering was at
Tailtin, between
Navan and
Kells. Historically, the
Áenach Tailteann
was a time for contests of strength and skill and a favored time for
contracting marriages and winter lodgings. A peace was declared at the
festival, and religious celebrations were held. The festival survived as
the
Taillten Fair, and was revived for a period in the 20th century as the
Telltown Games.
[7][8]
A similar Lughnasadh festival was held at Carmun (whose exact location is under dispute).
Carmun is also believed to have been a
goddess of the Celts, perhaps one with a similar tale as Tailtiu.
[8]
Historic Lughnasadh customs
In 1962
The Festival of Lughnasa, a study of Lughnasadh by folklorist
Máire MacNeill,
was published. MacNeill drew on medieval writings and on surveys and
studies from throughout Ireland and Britain. Her conclusion was that the
evidence testified to an ancient Celtic festival on 1 August that
involved the following:
[A] solemn cutting of the first of the corn
of which an offering would be made to the deity by bringing it up to a
high place and burying it; a meal of the new food and of bilberries of which everyone must partake; a sacrifice of a sacred bull,
a feast of its flesh, with some ceremony involving its hide, and its
replacement by a young bull; a ritual dance-play perhaps telling of a
struggle for a goddess and a ritual fight; an installation of a head on
top of the hill and a triumphing over it by an actor impersonating Lugh;
another play representing the confinement by Lugh of the monster blight
or famine; a three-day celebration presided over by the brilliant young
god or his human representative. Finally, a ceremony indicating that
the interregnum was over, and the chief god in his right place again.[9]
People climbing Croagh Patrick on "Reek Sunday"
Lughnasadh celebrations were commonly held on hilltops.
Traditionally, people would climb hills on Lughnasadh to gather
bilberries, which were eaten on the spot or saved to make pies and wine.
[10] It is thought that
Reek Sunday—the yearly pilgrimage to the top of
Croagh Patrick in
County Mayo in late July—was originally a Lughnasadh ritual.
[11] As with the other Gaelic seasonal festivals (
Imbolc,
Beltane and
Samhain), the celebrations involved a great feast.
[12] In the
Scottish Highlands, people made a special cake called the
lunastain, which was also called
luinean when given to a man and
luineag when given to a woman. This may have originated as an offering to the gods.
[13]
Another custom that Lughnasadh shared with the other Gaelic festivals was the lighting of
bonfires and visiting of
holy wells. The ashes from Lughnasadh bonfires would be used to bless fields, cattle and people.
[14]
Visitors to holy wells would pray for health while walking sunwise
around the well. They would then leave offerings; typically coins or
clooties (see
clootie well).
[15]
In
Gaelic Ireland, Lughnasadh was also a favored time for
handfastings —
trial marriages that would generally last a year and a day, with the
option of ending the contract before the new year, or formalizing it as a
lasting marriage.
[7][16][17][18]
Modern Lughnasadh customs
In Ireland, some people continue to celebrate the holiday with
bonfires and dancing. The Catholic Church in Ireland has established the
ritual of blessing fields on this day. In the
Irish diaspora,
survivals of the Lúnasa festivities are often seen by some families
still choosing August as the traditional time for family reunions and
parties, though due to modern work schedules these events have sometimes
been moved to adjacent secular holidays, such as the
Fourth of July in the United States.
[7][16]
Neopaganism
Lughnasadh and Lughnasadh-based festivals are held by some
Neopagans.
As there are many kinds of Neopaganism, their Lughnasadh celebrations
can be very different despite the shared name. Some try to emulate the
historic festival as much as possible. Other Neopagans base their
celebrations on other unrelated sources, Gaelic culture being only one
of the sources used.
[19][20][21]
Celtic Reconstructionism
Like other
Polytheistic Reconstructionist traditions,
Celtic Reconstructionists
(CRs) emphasize historical accuracy. They base their Lughnasadh
celebrations on traditional lore and from historic texts that describe
the festival. Celtic Reconstructionists who follow Gaelic traditions
tend to celebrate Lughnasadh at the time of first fruits, or on the full
moon nearest this time. In the Northeastern
United States, this is often the time of the
blueberry harvest, while in the
Pacific Northwest the
blackberries are often the festival fruit.
[16][22]
In Celtic Reconstructionism, Lughnasadh is seen as a time to give
thanks to the spirits and deities for the beginning of the harvest
season, and to propitiate them with offerings and prayers not to harm
the still-ripening crops. The god
Lugh
is honored by many at this time, as he is a deity of storms and
lightning, especially the storms of late summer. Gentle rain on the day
of the festival is seen as his presence and his bestowing of blessings.
Many CRs also honor the goddess
Tailtiu on this day, and may seek to keep the
Cailleachan ("Storm Hags") from damaging the crops, much in the way appeals are made to Lugh.
[16][22][23][24]
Wicca
Lughnasadh or Lammas is also the name used for one of the eight
sabbats in the
Wiccan Wheel of the Year. It is the first of the three autumn
harvest festivals, the other two being the
Autumn equinox (also called
Mabon by Wiccans) and
Samhain. It is seen as one of the two most auspicious times for
handfasting, the other being at
Beltane.
[25] Some Wiccans mark the holiday by baking a figure of the "corn god" in bread, and then symbolically sacrificing and eating it.
[26]
Why
do spiders have so many legs (besides giving us the creeps)? Alain
Pasquet and colleagues noticed that more than 1 in 10 spiders caught in
the wild are missing one of their eight legs, so they decided to see
whether spiders with fewer limbs suffer any disadvantage when it comes
to spinning webs:
