Lughnasadh
Gaelic harvest festival named after the god Lugh.
Lughnasadh is a Gaelic festival that marks the beginning of the harvest season, historically observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, alongside Samhain, Imbolc, and Beltane, and corresponds to the Welsh Gŵyl Awst and the English Lammas. Traditionally held on 1 August, or about halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox, it has pagan origins and is named after the god Lugh.
Quick Facts
- Nickname
- Lúnasa (Modern Irish)
- Lùnastal (Scottish Gaelic)
- Luanistyn (Manx Gaelic)
- Observed by
- Historically: Gaels; Today: Irish people
- Scottish people
- Manx people
- Celtic neopagans
- Wiccans
- Significance
- beginning of the harvest season
- Date
- 1 August
- Celebrations
- Offering of First Fruits
- feasting
- handfasting
- fairs
- athletic contests
- Related to
- Calan Awst, Lammas
Facts from the source article.
Name
In Old Irish the name was Lugnasad, combining Lug (the god Lugh) and násad (an assembly). Another theory derives it from nás (death) rather than násad. Later spellings include Lughnasadh and Lughnasa. In Modern Irish the spelling is Lúnasa, also the name for August; the genitive is Lúnasa as in Mí Lúnasa. In Scottish Gaelic the festival and month are both Lùnastal, and in Manx they are Luanistyn, with the day called Laa Luanistyn or Laa Luanys.
Mythology and folklore
Irish mythology holds that Lughnasadh was founded by the god Lugh as a funeral feast and athletic competition to commemorate the death of an earth goddess. Myths about Lughnasadh sites often feature a woman carried off or held against her will who dies of grief, shame, exhaustion, or natural causes, with parallels noted to the Greek tale of Persephone. One story says Lugh founded the festival as funeral games for his foster-mother Tailtiu, who died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture; she may have been an earth goddess representing dying vegetation. Another tale says Lugh founded it in memory of his two wives, Nás and Bói. Folklorist Máire MacNeill concluded that the main theme is a struggle for the harvest between two gods: Crom Dubh guards the grain, and Lugh seizes it for mankind, sometimes portrayed as a struggle over a woman named Eithne representing the grain. Lugh also fights a figure representing blight. In surviving folklore, Lugh is replaced by Saint Patrick and Crom Dubh by a pagan chief who opposes Patrick but is overcome and converted. Crom Dubh is likely the same as Crom Cruach and shares traits with the Dagda and Donn, possibly based on an underworld god like Hades or Pluto.
Historic customs
In the Middle Ages, the Óenach Tailten was held each Lughnasadh at Tailtin in what is now County Meath. Kings attended and a truce was declared for its duration. It included ritual athletic and sporting contests, horse racing, music and storytelling, trading, proclaiming laws, settling legal disputes, drawing up contracts, and matchmaking. Young couples entered into trial marriages by joining hands through a hole in a wooden door, lasting a year and a day. After the 9th century the Óenach Tailten was celebrated irregularly and gradually died out, though it was revived for a period in the 20th century as the Tailteann Games. Another gathering, the Óenach Carmain in County Kildare, included a food market, livestock market, and market for foreign traders. From the 18th to mid 20th century, many customs were recorded. In 1962 Máire MacNeill published a study concluding that the ancient festival involved: a solemn cutting of the first corn with an offering taken to a high place; a meal of new food and bilberries; sacrifice of a sacred bull and a feast of its flesh; a ritual dance-play; installation of a carved stone head on a hill; a play representing Lugh confining blight; and a three-day celebration presided over by Lugh or his human representative.
Today
In Ireland some mountain pilgrimages survive, most notably the Reek Sunday pilgrimage at Croagh Patrick, attracting tens of thousands of pilgrims each year. The Puck Fair in Killorglin, County Kerry, held each year in early August, is believed to be a survival of a Lughnasadh festival; it includes crowning a feral goat as king and a local girl as queen, with traditional music, dancing, a parade, arts and crafts, a horse and cattle fair, and a market. Other towns such as Gweedore, Sligo, Brandon, and Rathangan now hold yearly Lughnasa Festivals and Fairs with similar activities. Craggaunowen open-air museum in County Clare hosts a yearly Lughnasa Festival with historical re-enactors demonstrating daily life in Gaelic Ireland. In the Irish diaspora, some families still choose August for reunions and parties, though these may shift to adjacent secular holidays. The festival is referenced in Brian Friel's 1990 play Dancing at Lughnasa, adapted into a 1998 film. Lughnasadh is observed by some modern Pagans and Celtic neopagans, with celebrations varying widely.
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