Happy Lughnasadh everyone!
Celebrating Lughnasadh
The golden glow of late summer sun, the tang of early morning that tells you autumn will soon be here, the scent of dill & mustard seed & pickle brine, the first ears of a corn patch, tomatoes so ripe they burst when you touch them.....it is August~~the Festival of Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo'-na-sah).
Lughnasadh is a Celtic festival dedicated to the God Lugh, the Long Handed, who is associated with light & fire. The festival is also considered to be the first harvest of the grain, and is linked to the God/Spirit of the Corn, personified by the name of John Barleycorn. In Lammas, the Christianized version of Lughnasadh, we see a strong connection to the sacrifice of the corn god, for Lammas means "loaf mass", what one might consider a requiem for the grain.
Lughnasadh, usually celebrated on August 1 or 2, is the season during which the God of Grain is sacrificed that the harvest might take place and thus people can live through the coming seasons of Autumn & Winter. Once again it is a time of cleansing, it is a time to clear your house for the approaching Autumn, for the waning of the year.
In magickal terms, the Oak King journeys into the underworld where he will rest until Yule. The Holly King increases his grasp over the season as days grow shorter. As fruits of the Lady ripen, She becomes the Dark Goddess, the Crone, who sacrifices the God of Corn so that the people might live.
We consider Lughnasadh the end of summer & the beginning of fall.
Colors associated with Lughnasadh range from golds to yellows to black. Although we still see green, for the fields & trees have reached their full spectrum of foliage, the focus is on the yellows & golds of the corn, and the black of the Dark Mother.
