Lughnasadh

Named after the god Lugh, Celtic deity of light, harvest and abundance, and ‘nasad’, meaning an assembly in old Irish.  The word ‘Lunasa’ is also the word for August in modern Irish.

In Irish mythology, Lugh founded Lughnasadh as a funeral feast (and athletic competition), to commemorate the death of an earth goddess.

The mythological tales are varied, with differing views on who the earth goddess was, but the overall common theme is one of a struggle between two gods for the harvest.

Lughnasadh is also known as the First Harvest among pagans, when many crops will be harvested and stored for the coming winter. In the Northern hemisphere, we now tend to celebrate this on 1st August to tie in with the other Wheel of the Year sabbats, but traditionally, Lughnasadh would have been celebrated on the closest full moon to this date.

Christians and others celebrate the festival of Lammas at this same time, and the two have become inter-twined. The word Lammas is old English, derived from ‘loaf-mass’. Loaf Mass Day celebrating the bread and Eucharist. Both Lammas and Lughnasadh have come to signify the first harvest.

Lughnasadh is a magickal time to reflect on the metaphorical harvests in our own lives, whether that be creative endeavours, relationships, or personal growth.