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Lughnasadh, is the Gaelic festival for August, prounounced (LOO-nus-uh) which is the pagan
name for this Sabbat, and honors the Celtic Sun God, LUGH, which means "Light" or
"Shining One."
It celebrates the ripening of the first grains such as wheat, barley, and the first corn of the season, and for this reason, the schythe and wheat are the main symbols for the holiday.
It is also commanly known by the name Lammas, which is the medieval Christian name, which means "Loaf Mass." This came about when the Irish were converted to Christianity.
This is the day in which loaves of bread were baked from the first grains of the season, and laid on the church altars, as offerings. It is the beginning of the First Harvest.
Bread was one of the main staples of our pagan ancestors, and the ripening of the grain was a great cause for celebration....because it was the beginning proof, of the fruits of all the labors that was put into bringing it about. :)
This is a Cross-Quarter Holiday, and a
Major Sabbat, one of the Four High Holidays.
It is known as the First Harvest, with the other two harvest holidays, being Mabon, and Samhain.
On Lughnasadh, we fully enter the waning part of the year. Even though this is the hottest, and most abundant, and fertile time of the year, it is obvious that the light is lessening, and the days are becoming darker now, and daylight is coming to an end, earlier and earlier.
CORN DOLLIES
Are dolls made from the husks of the corn.
This tradition came about because it was believed that the spirit of the corn, as it was being cut down, would jump from one stalk to another and another, and so on, until the last stalk was cut. Much care was taken with this last stalk, where the spirit of the corn was thought to reside. This was carefully made into a corn dollie, to perserve the spirit of the corn until the following year. This would be kept in a place of honor until spring, and then plowed into the fields to bring it to life once again.
FAIRES
"Are you going to Scarborough Fair,
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme,
Remember me to one who lived there,
She once was a true love of mine."
This is also the time of many Faires......
Holidays were timed to coincide with the first
harvest so that more people were free to help with the harvesting. This was the time, when people had much to sell, with the first crops of the season, and the weather was fine for traveling.....
So this was the social time of the year, when people sold their wares, met for enjoyment and entertainment, traded farm animals, and it was also a way for young people to meet prospective partners. :)
In Gardnerian traditions, this was also the time when the Oak King (Light Half) dies in the arms of His Goddess, who is at her peak of fertility, and then journeys to the Underworld to open the gates of Death, to be yet reborn again at Yule.
He sacrifices his life, so that we may live, and be fed, and teaches us that though we may die, we shall live yet again, and be reborn, as the circle of life continues.
The Oak KIng, or "God" is known by many names: The Green Man, John BarleyCorn, The Wicker Man, The Corn Man, or even The Spirit of Vegetation.
Here..... the lore of John Barleycorn comes in, as he is cut in half, buried, beaten with sticks, and crushed between 2 stones, only to rise again,
the following spring.
Lughnasadh, is much about sacrifice.
In the dictionary, the word "sacrifice" is from the
latin meaning "to make sacred."
In Ancient times, Kings would come unto the throne, and be treated as "Gods", during their
reign, with the knowledge, that at the end of the year, at Lugnasadh, they would be sacrificed for the comman good of the people, and the king would willingly go to his death.
This practice came from the belief that the king must periodically die, and spill his blood to the earth so that others could live, just as the plant spirits at Lughnasadh, sacrifice for us, so that we too, can continue to survive. In the beginning of the
Middle Ages, many of the Western Cultures began sacrificing goats, in place of the kings,
which is where the term "scapegoat" originated from. In modern times, the sacrifice is symbolic, using wine as a substitute for the "blood."
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'We have ploughed, we