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Southern Hemisphere: 1 February
Northern Hemisphere: 1 August
Also known as Lammas, Cornucopia.
Deities: Lugh, John Barleycorn, Adonis, Dionysus, Crone, Dark Mother, Demeter, Juno Augusta.
Colours: Gold, yellow, olive green, black.
Incense: Copal, sandalwood, frankincense, heather, yarrow, hazelwood.
Traditional Motifs: Corn, wheat, wine, beer, cornshuck God figures, games and athletic competitions.
For Irish Gaelic, Lughnasadh is a feast to commemorate the funeral games hosted by Lugh in honour of his foster mother, Tailte. This festival is also known by its Saxon name "Lammas", meaning "Loaf mass" where the first loaf baked from the newly gathered corn celebrates the corn harvest. Lughnasadh is a Goddess festival and a time for celebrating the bounty of the Goddess of the Harvest. Once the harvest was gathered, people would cease work for a few days and enjoy a well-earned rest. Lugh's Games were celebrated with fairs, contests and revelry. Cattle markets would be held and goods traded, all in preparation for the coming Winter.
The Goddess at Lughnasadh is the bountiful Mother but She is also the Crone, wielder of the sickle. Lughnasadh is known as the first harvest festival. The God is cut down with the corn and enters the Underworld. Amidst all the abundance, the Goddess mourns His death, but She is with child and knows that the God will be reborn again at Yule.
The God personifies the spirit of nature that dies each Winter and sometimes is referred to as the Corn King at this time of the year, representing the spirit of the Corn. He is a dying and resurrecting God. As the corn is cut down, so the Corn spirit dies. He is born again next year as the corn once more rises.
Lughnasadh is considered a time of thanksgiving. It is also the first of the three Pagan harvest festivals. The Sun's strength begins to wane. The plants of Spring begin to wither and drop their fruits and/or seeds for our use and to ensure future crops. At this time, Pagans become conscious of the sacrifice of the Sun God is preparing to make. Pagans experience a sense of abundance yet, at the same time we begin to feel an urgency to prepare for the death of Winter.
The Sacred Marriage of the Goddess and God at the Mid Summer Solstice was echoed in a marriage between the King and the land. The King drew His power and sovereignty from the land itself, and the sacrificial aspect of the God, represented by the King, was often taken literally. Lughnasadh was a time when kings were sometimes actually put to death after their appointed term of rulership. One such sacrificial king was believed to be Rufus the Red who in 1100 CE, in the thirteenth year of his reign, was killed "on the morrow of Lammas". Rufus was killed by an arrow near an oak tree in New Forest, England, and is reputed to have called out for the fatal blow to be struck.
Each of the succeeding harvest festivals will find the daylight hours becoming shorter and the days (and nights) cooler. Time to harvest the fields, pickle beets, tomatoes and such, preserving of herbs, and also placing root vegetables and fruits into cold storage rooms to get us through the Winter. We can also to help our friends and neighbours who may not be able to do these things for themselves as easily as they used to do. Check those fences and gates for any repairs that need to be done. Make an appointment to ahead of time to get the car and/or truck tuned up for Winter. You might even want to start gathering some books and/or hobby items to get you and your family through the times when the weather is miserable or you just don't feel like bundling up to go out. However your Lughnasadh/Lammas is spent, enjoy it!
Pagan Alliance wishes you and yours a very Merry Lughnasadh and Happy Lammas!
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