The ancient Celtic holiday or fire festival called Lugnasadh, Lunasda, Lammas or "Loaf Mass" falls on or about August 1, at a time when summer is in full swing and the grain harvest has already begun. This cross quarter day is one of the four High Holidays on the Wheel of the Year, and it occurs about three months after Beltane on May 1. Astrologically, Old Style Lugnasadh occurs precisely at 15 degrees Leo, and those who live according to the old calendar traditionally celebrate the festival on August 6th, but for modern practitioners of the Craft, it is customary to celebrate the beginning of the harvest on the first day of August. Like the other observances on the Wheel of the Year, Lugnasadh celebrations and rites begin at sunset on the day before.
The observance before Lugnasadh is called Litha or the Midsummer Solstice (June 21), and it marks the longest day of the year, the day on which the Sun is at its zenith and the height of its powers. When Lugnasadh arrives early in August, the summer days are already growing shorter and fall is not far off. By the time Harvest Home (or the Fall Equinox or Mabon) arrives on September 21, day and night will be equal in length, and daylight hours will continue to wane until the shortest day of the year, Yule (December 21), at which time the days begin to wax or lengthen again.
Lugnasadh celebrates the cultivation of grain and the abundance of the harvest, and the reverence for both grain and harvest is almost as old as humanity. Images of grain sheaves, grinding stones and mill wheels have been sacred to humanity for many centuries. Lugnasadh is sacred to harvest gods, vegetation gods or "dying and rising" gods such as Tammuz, Lugh, Adonis, Attis and of course Dionysus, whose mythical tavern with its endlessly turning mill wheel has appeared in so many magical tales. The day is also sacred to harvest goddesses and grain deities as such as Demeter, Persephone, Ceres, Bridget, Cailleach, Selu, the Corn Mother and Freya, who is also known as the Lady of the Loaf.
Lugnasadh is the special day of Lugh, Celtic god of the sun, patron of the arts and the sciences, and it was the ancient Irish who named the feast in his honour. Although the day is commonly associated with Lugh's funeral games, it does not commemorate the funeral games of Lugh himself, but rather those of his beloved foster mother, Taillte, and to this very day the celebrations held in Ireland on August 1 are known as the 'Tailltean Games''.
Because it was unable to stamp out Lugnasadh celebrations, the Christian church appropriated the day for its own purposes, as it had the other seven observances on the Wheel of the Year. It is curious and interesting too, that the Church chose to retain most of the pagan harvest symbolism which had always been associated with Lughnasadh. Lammas, the Christian Church's own designated name for the feast signifies "loaf-mass" and also celebrates the harvest. On this day, bread was baked with flour ground from the first grain of the harvest, and the loaves were placed on church altars as offerings for continuing good harvest, and in thanksgiving for the bounty to come.
For the ancients, Lugnasadh was the Festival of First Fruit or First Grains, and it marked both the beginning of the year's harvest and the end of summer. At this golden time when high summer is all around us, it is difficult to believe that summer will ever end, and that it is already declining. Although the earth is lush and green, the fields deep in fragrant hay, the market gardens full of ripening produce and the orchard trees are heavy with fruit, the glorious sun drenched summer days are already becoming shorter, and winter is only a few short months away. The time has come to prepare and store the harvest to sustain us through the long dark winter.
At Lugnasadh, the arduous back breaking work of the harvest has begun and is gathering momentum. Those who live close to the land are hard at work from sunrise to sunset, harvesting, processing and storing the fruits of field and orchard to ensure survival for themselves and their loved ones over the winter. This is also the time of the year when country fairs, markets, ploughing competitions and horse pulls are taking place in the countryside, and the first produce and crafts of the season are on display. However far we have come from our roots and the ways of our ancestors, traces of the old rites and harvest celebrations remain in the countryside. When I started spending time in Lanark County a few years ago, I was fascinated (and delighted) to discover that Lugnasadh festivities are alive and well in my highlands - they may be called by names such as "ceilidh" or "field party", and the attendees are often unaware of their ancient origins and significance, but the festivities are very definitely Lugnasadh celebrations with all the trimmings, food, wine, music, storytelling, merrymaking (and occasionally ritual) in abundance.
One interesting feature of old country fairs used to be the 'Catherine wheel', named after the much beloved saint whose feast day once fell on August 1. The Church's feelings about St. Catherine have always been ambivalent, and at one time or another there have been concerted efforts to oust her from the roster of the saints. This was due to her mythical associations, and it did not help her cause when the radical Christian sect known as the Cathars decided to take their name from her. In earlier times, the Catherine Wheel was a wagon wheel which was carried to the top of a hill, covered with pitch, set alight and then rolled down the hill with much pomp and circumstance. Many folklorists believe that Catherine Wheel is the sole remnant of a pre-Christian rite which symbolized the decline of the Sun's power and the inexorable descent of the sun god to his death.
The essential activities of Lugnasadh all have to do with natural cycles and the harmony of the seasons, with timeless rhythms of growing, harvesting, winnowing and storing things for winter. Besides the gathering of the harvest, other essential Lugnasadh activities include baking bread, weaving onion and garlic braids, making sun wheels, harvest wreaths and Corn Mother dolls, gathering and drying garden herbs and spices for winter, canning, pickling and "putting food by". The baking and sharing of Lugnasadh bread made with flour from the first grain of the harvest is an activity with profound significance, for in performing such acts of sharing and community, we draw closer to each other and to the ancients who went before us.
Blessings of the harvest to you and your clan!
Page revised July 17, 2003
