"LOO-nah-sah."
Southern Hemisphere Date: February 2nd
Northern Hemisphere Date: August 1st
© http://twopagans.com/graphics/index.htmlLughnasadh is the time of the first harvest, when the plants of spring wither and drop their fruits or seed for our use as well as to ensure future crops. The God loses his strength as the sun rises farther in the South each day and the nights grow longer. The god is dying, and yet lives on inside the Goddess as her child. We are reminded that nothing in the universe is constant. Children born on Lughnasa, like children born on Mabon, are said to be like the crop that is brought in. Lughnasa is a fairly recent holiday, appearing within the past 500 years. Often Mabon and Lughnasa are combined into great harvest festivals. Actually, Lughnasa is the beginning of the harvest and Mabon is the end. Lughnasa is the most overlooked festival of the year. Lughnasadh means the funeral games of Lugh (pronounced Loo), referring to Lugh, the Irish sun god. However, the funeral is not his own, but the funeral games he hosts in honor of his foster-mother Tailte. For that reason, the traditional Tailtean craft fairs and Tailtean marriages (which last for a year and a day) are celebrated at this time. This day originally coincided with the first reapings of the harvest. It was known as the time when the plants of spring wither and drop their fruits or seeds for our use as well as to ensure future crops. Lughnasadh is Irish Gaelic for "festival of Lugh" (a major Irish deity) Lunsa is Anglo-Saxon for "festival of the loaves" ("hlaf-mass")
Other Names: Lughnasa, Lammas "LAH-mus" Lughnasadh in Scottish dialect is "LOO-nah-soo," Cornucopia (Strega), and Thingtide (Teutonic).
Correspondances
Colors: Yellow, Orange, Green and Brown
Deities:
Symbols: Corn Dolls, wheat weaving, grain
Food: homemade breads (wheat, oat and corn,) nuts, wildberries, apples, rye, berry pies, elderberry wine, ale, corn, rice and meadowsweet tea.
Incense: aloes, rose, sandlewood.
Candles: orange, yellow.
Gemstones: aventurine, citrine, peridot, sardonyx, carnelian.
Herbs: grains, grapes, heather, blackberries, sloe, crab apples, sunflowers and pears.Activities and Traditions
- Adults only or with adults help - maybe dangerous
- Ask permission from parents first
- Feast with family or coven members
- Save and plant seeds from the fruits consumed during the feast or ritual. If they sprout, grow the plant or tree with love and as a symbol of your connection with the Lord and Lady
- Walk through the fields and orchards or spend time along springs, creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes reflecting on the bounty and love of the Lord and Lady.
- Bake bread in honour of the first reapings of the grain harvest.
- If you have a well or spring in your areas, bless it and decorate it with flowers and ivy.
- Harvest the first crops from your garden and dedicate them to the Old Gods. If you don't have a garden, take a trip to a local farmer's market and purchase some vegetables and fruits to dedicate.
- Make a corn dolly.
- Have a singing contest
- Float some flowers at your local creek.
Poems
LUGHNASADH
- On the feast day of Tailtiu the bountiful,
- Foster-mother of Lugh of the fields,
- I cut me a handful of the new corn,
- I dried it gently in the sun,
- I rubbed it sharply from the husk
- With mine own palms.
- I ground it in a quern on Friday,
- I baked it on a fan of sheepskin,
- I toasted it to a fire of rowan,
- And I shared it round my people.
- I went deosil round my dwelling,
- Calling upon the Great Mother,
- Who promised abundance in my need,
- In peace, in honour,
- In lightness of heart,
- In labour, in love,
- In wisdom, in passion,
- In mirth, in reverence,
- For the sake of thy love.
- Thou Mother of blessings,
- Who will ever be about me,
- Who will ever be within me,
- Until the end of desire.
- So mote it be.
Document Copyright © 1993, 1997 by Mike Nichols
THE BLESSING OF THE STRUAN
- Each meal beneath my roof,
- They will all be prepared together,
- In name of the Goddess of plenty,
- Who gave them growth.
- Milk, and eggs, and butter,
- The good produce of our own flock,
- There shall be no dearth in our land,
- Nor in our dwelling.
- In name of Manannan of my love,
- Who bequeathed to us enchantment,
- With the blessing of Mongan,
- And of Fand, his mother.
- Strengthen us at thy sailing,
- Be thine own ship beneath us,
- Ward from us evil spectre and glamour,
- And preserve us.
- Consecrate the produce of our land,
- Bestow prosperity and peace,
- In name of our Mother, the Great Queen,
- And of the three birds who escort Her.
- Dandelion, smooth garlic,
- Foxglove, woad, and butterwort,
- The three carle-doddies,
- And marigold.
- Gray 'cailpeach' plucked,
- The seven-pronged seven times,
- The mountain yew, ruddy heath,
- And madder.
- I will put water on them all,
- By the power of the maiden Goddess,
- In name of Danu the generous,
- And of the Crone.
- When we shall sit down
- To take our food,
- I will sprinkle in the name of the Goddess
- On the children.
- Document Copyright © 1993, 1997 by Mike Nichols
THE RUNE OF LADY DAY
- The rune of Lady Day, O bright Goddess,
- Truth above the strength of arms always.
- On Lady Day Lugh was conceived,
- Sun Child of golden yellow hair,
- On Lady Day Lugh was conceived
- As a blessing to the world.
- Lady Day, the fourth feast day,
- The Goddess ordained to make merry,
- To create life everlasting,
- Without making use of work or travail,
- Or of any chore but that which is desired,
- Without spinning thread of silk or of satin,
- Without sewing, without embroidery either,
- Without sowing, without harrowing, without reaping,
- Without rowing, without snaring, without fishing,
- Without going out to the hunting hill,
- Without trimming arrows on Lady Day,
- Without cleaning byre, without threshing corn,
- Without kiln, without mill on Lady Day.
- If you would keep Lady Day,
- Even would it be to you and lasting,
- From setting of sun on Lady Day Eve
- Till rising of sun on Lady Day's morrow.
- You would obtain blessings therefrom,
- Produce after the ploughs,
- Fish on the pure salt-water stream,
- Fish excelling in every river confluence.
- The water of Lady Day mild as honey,
- If you would partake of it as drink
- You would obtain health in consequence
- From every disease afflicting you.
- Weeping on Lady Day is out of place,
- Doing so is untimely;
- Let you weep betimes on Samhain,
- But not weep once on Lady Day.
- The wood of Lady Day is too soon.
- In the pool it is pitiful,
- Though its head should fall in char,
- It would till the morrow be dormant.
- About noon on the morrow,
- The wood will arise very quickly,
- And by the great flood without
- Hasten the story of my trouble.
- Without any searching for lamb, sheep, kid or goat
- That would not belong to the King in the cause.
- It is now it ought to be burnt,
- Without listening to the clamour of the stranger,
- Nor to the blind babbling of the public.
- To keep corn on a high hillock,
- To bring physician to a violent disease,
- To send a cow to the potent bull of the herd,
- To go with a beast to a cattle-fold,
- Far or near be the distance,
- Every creature needs attention.
- To allow a boat under her sail from land,
- From land to the country of her unacquaintance.
- If you would meditate my lay,
- And say it every Lady Day,
- The luck of faery will be on your head,
- And blessed each night you'll take your bed.
Document Copyright © 1993, 1997 by Mike Nichols
- ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS (Welsh)
- Hill river is very palatable,
- Ever meandering to the Menai,
- Right well it retained its tribute
- On Lady Day though great its flood.
- No drop, though pure be its water,
- Shall run in the channel of the Sinking Lands.
- The wood of Lady Day now, alas!
- In the channel of the Cynvael,
- Though the red head should fall off
- It would be till the morrow asleep.
- Let me not leave aught behind,
- To talk of Nature's rebirth.
Document Copyright © 1993, 1997 by Mike Nichols
