Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-nas-ah), August 1st, is the first harvest festival in the Celtic and Neo-Pagan Year. It is one of the Cross-quarter Days, hence a Greater Sabbat occuring 1/4 of a year after Beltane. Like all Celtic Fire Festivals, it begins on the eve of the actual day.  It is also the first of the three harvest festivals and considered the beginning of fall by many. This day originally coincided with the first reaping 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. The theme of sexuality and reproduction is carried over into Lughnasadh as well to ensure the remainder of a good harvest.

The modern Irish spelling, Lúnasa, is the name of the month of August in Irish Gaelic. Lughnasadh, an older spelling, is often used to designate the name of the seasonal festival that surrounds the first day of the month of August. In Scots Gaelic the day is known as Lunasda or Lunasdal.  This is the time that marks a rest from labor, a time to take stock of what the summer sun has yielded. It is a time to celebrate and enjoy the outcome of our daily.

In some Wiccan traditions this is the time the Grain God or Sacrificial King whose self sacrifice allows the people who worship him to survive through the winter. We say that his blood is poured out upon the fields so that the corn and grain harvest will thrive. His Spirit enters into the corn and the grain, and is then known as John Barleycorn. As the God dies with the harvesting of the grain, so also is he resurrected in the new sprouts. So therefore, we are given the myths of the Gods who are sacrificed, and then reborn, again and again. These myths occur in every country and culture.

For this reason baking bread, especially those made of corn is very sacred to this Sabbat. The cakes for ritual are usually homemade corn muffins, or if you can find a pan shaped like a person (gingerbread man perhaps?) then you can bake your own John Barleycorn to share in circle. Be sure to invoke the God of the Grain when you are baking the bread/muffins/cakes, and to chant positive affirmations while stirring or kneading the dough!

To other traditions, as autumn begins, the Sun God enters his old age, but is not yet dead. The God symbolically loses some of his strength as the Sun rises farther in the South each day and the nights grow longer.  It's true astrological point is 15 degrees Leo, an alternative date around August 5. This date has long been considered a 'power point' of the Zodiac, and is symbolized by the Lion, one of the 'tetramorph' figures found on the Tarot cards, the World and the Wheel of Fortune (the other three figures being the Bull, the Eagle, and the Spirit). Astrologers know these four figures as the symbols of the four 'fixed' signs of the Zodiac, and these naturally align with the four Great Sabbats of Witchcraft. Christians have adopted the same iconography to represent the four gospel-writers.

The name of Lugh, the Sun God, is said to be derived from the old Celtic word "lugio", meaning "an oath". A traditional part of the celebrations surrounding Lughnasadh have been the formation of oaths. From before recorded history into the twentieth century marriages, employment contracts and other bargains of a mundane nature were formed and renewed at this time of year. Since the agricultural year had its culmination in the harvest and the harvest festivals, oaths and contracts that had to wait until after the corps were in could be focused on at this time. Marriages, hiring for the upcoming season and financial arrangements were often a part of the Lughnasadh activities and in many areas fairs were held specifically for the purpose of hiring or matchmaking.

Lugh is known as a God of grain and harvest who dies annually with the reaping of the crop. He is  the Celtic deity who presides over the arts and sciences, traveling, and influences money and commerce. He was later replaced by Cúchulain/Finn, and then St. Michael and St. Patrick. Lugh remained in folk memory as Lugh-chromain  or the "little stooping Lugh", better known today as a Leprechaun. To the Romans, Lugh was seen as a counterpart to Mercury. Lugh is the son of Arianrhod, who is associated with sacred kingship and Three-fold Death. His wife's name is Blodeuwedd, also known as the Flower Maiden.  He is the warrior of light inextricably bound with the Earth Goddess and must enter her dark womb to be reborn in the spring; thus conquering darkness. He is known as Lugh (Irish and Scottish), Lugus (Gaul) and Lleu (Welsh). He is Sam Ildanach, "master of all skills" and is much like the Roman Mercury. Many qualities of Lugh lived on in later tales of King Arthur as Lancelot. Some myths say that Bel (of Beltane fame) was his father.

Although, to many, Lughnasadh means the funeral games of Lugh  referring to Lugh, the Irish sun god. Lugh was an important solar deity to the ancient Celts whose name means "shining one" and nasad is a tribal gathering for fairs and games. His death is necessary for rebirth of the land to take place. Called by many names, "Green Man," "Wicker Man," "Corn Man" or just the "Spirit of Vegetation," his essence begins to merge with the harvested crops, a sacrifice that will be realized with the new growth in the spring.

At first glance, it may seem that we are celebrating the death of Lugh, the god of light does not really die (mythically) until the autumnal equinox. And indeed, if we read the Irish myths closer, we discover that it is not Lugh's death that is being celebrated, but the funeral games which Lugh hosted to commemorate the death of his foster-mother, Taillte.

According to Celtic legend, Lugh decreed that a commemorative feast be held each year at the beginning of the harvest season to honor his foster mother, Tailtiu. Lugh was the son of Kian and Eithlinn, daughter of Balor, the Formorian king. To escape Balor's wrath he was fostered out to Tailltiu. Fosterage was a well-respected custom among the Celts. It was quite as common to accomplish family alliances through fosterage as through marriage. The child who was fostered established ties with her/his foster brothers, sisters and foster-parents as strong as, and in some cases stronger than, the natural ties to the biological family. Parents sought to place their young children, girls as well as boys, with a foster family of higher standing in the community then they themselves enjoyed. A fostered child was not viewed as either a nuisance or a means of income. It was an honor to be asked to foster a child. Foster placement would have been a major decision and the entire extended family, the clan, would have been consulted in the matter. Celtic lore is full of stories of foster-brothers fighting to the death for one another and of foster-sons and daughters going to great lengths to show their respect and affection for foster parents.

Tailtiu is the Fir Bolg princess. After the defeat of her people by the Tuatha De Dannan, she was obliged by them to clear a vast forest for the purpose of planting grain. She died of exhaustion in the attempt. The legend states that she was buried beneath a great mound named for her, at the spot where the first feast of Lughnasadh was held in Ireland, the hill of Tailte. At this gathering were held games and contests of skill as well as a great feast made up of the first fruits of the summer harvest. Tradition holds that if the faire and games are not held in her honor, Lugh would take vengeance upon the crops in his grief. The original length of the feasting and games was fifteen days

There is evidence that the games were held at Teltown as long ago as the early part of the second millennium BCE. Many of the Teltown Games were, in fact, holdovers from the óenach, or tribal gathering. These gatherings were a mixture of tribal business, horse racing, athletic contests, and ritual. Tailltean was the site of the High King's óenach, being only fifteen miles from Tara, the Seat of the High King. The Stone of Fal was taken from Tara to Teltown during the fair and it was said that any king who failed to find the Fal Stone before the festival ended would not see the next year's Lughnasadh.

The games were held around the graves on the hill of Tailltean. The last games are thought to have been  held August 1, 1169 under Ruraigh Ó Conchobar, last High King of Ireland. As years passed, traditions surrounding the feast at Tailte began to solidify into events and ceremonial activities designed to celebrate not only Tailtiu and the bounty of the harvest that her original sacrifice provided but also to honor the work and sacrifice of human beings as they strove to provide sustenance for their families and community. Although there were other places where the Lughnasadh games were held the principal festival was, therefore,  at Teltown, near the cairn Lugh had raised over his foster-mother after her death. That is why the Lughnasadh celebrations in Ireland are often called the 'Tailltean Games'.

During The Tailltean Games many ancient sports and athletic contests were held such as horse races, chariot races, foot races, driving cattle, hurley, Irish football, and sword-play. The traditional Tailtean craft fairs and Tailtean marriages are celebrated at this time. The games held at Tailltean were considered to be the "Irish Olympics". The competitions, be they athletic or bardic, were often initiations. Many traditional contests of the faire later served to make the winners more attractive to potential marriage partners. There was also singing, storytelling, folk and sword dancing as part of the festivities. It has been suggested that the Olympic Games may originally have been held to commemorate the deeds of heroes who had died in battle.

In the Celtic nations of Europe traditions surrounding Lughnasadh still continue from pre-Christian times. Most often, celebration of the holiday occurs on the first Sunday of August or the Sunday just before the first day of August. In modern Ireland the tradition still continues that on the last Sunday of July families ascend into the hills of the countryside to pick bilberries. The bilberries are symbolic of the bounty of Mother Earth at this time of year and of the fruits harvested in that ancient time. And, of course, there are the fairs which are still held all across Europe and America in late August or early September. The early European settlers to the new land brought with them the tradition of celebrating the fruits of their summer labor and the harvest fair. The agricultural competitions and midway games echo the ancient days when people gathered to pay homage to the land and the fruits of their labor and to take to take time for community reverie.

With the coming of Christianity to the Celtic lands, the old festival of Lughnasadh took on Christian symbolism  and became Anglo-Saxon Lughomass ("Lugh's Mass") and later Lammas (from OE hlaf-mas,'loaf mass'). Loaves of bread were baked from the first of the harvested grain and placed on the church altar on the first Sunday of August. Even though its roots were in the corn harvest and the killing of the corn king, they were "officially" replaced by a mass in which the loaves of bread made from the first sheaves harvested were taken to church and blessed. It is sure that this feast was converted by the church in order to "sooth" the Pagan people and once again help in converting them. Columcille (St. Columba) tried to change Lammas into a "Feast of the Ploughmen", perhaps to sever ties with the Pagan symbolism of death, but he was not successful. Another Chritian holiday at this time was St. Catherine's Feast. Although the Roman Church moved St. Catherine's feast day all around the calendar with bewildering frequency, it's most popular date was Lammas. They also kept trying to expel this much-loved saint from the ranks of the blessed because she was mythical rather than historical, and because her worship gave rise to the heretical sect known as the Cathari.

To the ancient Druids this festival is called Elembious or Claim Time. The Druids were the priestly cast of the Celts. Both men and women were Druids, In addition to enacting the rituals and ceremonies, the Druids were also teachers. There is evidence that the full training of a Druid took from eighteen to twenty-seven years. One of the things that the Druids learned during these many years was the common-law that bound all the tribes and clans together.

The Celtic system of law was based on victims' rights rather than the crown's or government's rights. In the Celtic world a person who committed murder or robbery or any other crime was responsible for recompensing the victim or the victim's family. Where the crime was one of property or honor, the recompense was generally of a material nature. When the crime was one of assault or murder, it was important to settle the matter without starting a blood feud.

Death penalties were rarely meted out. Usually the most severe form of punishment was banishment. The criminal would be placed in a small, open boat, without oars, sail or rudder and cast adrift into the sea. This was not simply a way of moving the problem to another neighborhood. Anyone adrift in an open boat in the fierce Irish Sea was in deadly peril and not likely to survive.

A lesser form of punishment was frequently resorted to. The criminal would be given a very difficult task, one which involved a great deal of physical danger, that he was under obligation to accomplish in a set period of time, often a year and a day. If he succeeded, the culprit, after a ritual cleansing that might involve some further physical ordeal, was readmitted to society.

The story of the Sons of Tuireann tells how Lugh took vengeance on the three men who murdered his father. After the Sons of Tuireann agreed to pay a fine for Cian's death, Lugh said he would be satisfied with three apples, a pig's skin, a spear, two horses and a chariot, seven pigs, a dog, a cooking-spit, and three shouts on a hill.

The Sons of Tuireann accepted the fine reluctantly, fearing a trick on Lugh's part, and they were not wrong. Each of the items was a great and magical treasure in the possession of a supernaturally strong guardian. Though the Sons of Tuireann successfully completed the first part of the fine, the final part, the three shouts made on the Hill of Miochaoin, summoned faery warriors who finally slew the three murderous brothers.

Lughnasadh celebrates not only the fertility of the field; it is tied to marriage and fertility rites celebrating Lugh and his bride. It was at the Lughnasadh fairs that marriages were contracted and petitioners also presented their claims to the Druids for judgment. Trial marriages of a year and a day or until next Lammas, also known as Tailltean Marriages, were performed. At the following Lughnasadh the couple appeared again at the festival and either confirmed their vows, entering into a more permanent relationship, or ended the trial marriage by standing back to back and walking away from one another, thus, bringing the marriage to a formal close. To our ancestors it was very important to have children as soon as possible. Life was often short, babies were essential to the clan if the clan was to have a chance at survival. It is possible that the decision to continue in a trial marriage or not may have been based, at least in part, on whether or not there was a baby to show off at the next Lughnasadh. A baby would have been considered as proof of the Goddess's blessings on the union.

Such trial marriages were quite common even into the 1500's, although it was something one 'didn't bother the parish priest about'. Indeed, such ceremonies were usually solemnized by a poet, bard, or shanachie or, perhaps, by a priest or priestess of the Old Religion. In the Orkney Isles, young men and women chose "brothers" and "sisters" to lie with them for the night alongside grain. The mountains and hills were the place of choice for lovers. One peak called Snaefell became notoriously known for the indecent behavior of the people who climbed it during Lammas. The term Tailten marriage has survived to modern times - referring to a casual love affair.

Lammas was also the traditional time of year for craft festivals. The medieval guilds would create elaborate displays of their wares, decorating their shops and themselves in bright colors and ribbons, marching in parades, and performing strange, ceremonial plays and dances for the entranced onlookers. The atmosphere must have been quite similar to our modern-day Renaissance Festivals. A ceremonial highlight of such festivals may have been the 'Catherine wheel', referring to the Christian Saint, Catherine. Here a large wagon wheel was taken to the top of a near-by hill, covered with tar, set aflame, and ceremoniously rolled down the hill. There is some confusion on this issue, as this is also thought to be a tradition of Litha or Mid-Summer. Some mythologists see in this ritual the remnants of a Pagan rite symbolizing the end of summer, the flaming disk representing the sun-god in his decline. This seems to make more sense.,

In the same spirit, corn dollies were made from the straw of the first harvest at this time as well. Modern corn dollies may be  made of wheat. In the case of the Iron Age Celts, their corn dollies were probably made from made from two early grains called emmer or spelt. Once again, in Celtic climes, this first harvest of the corn/grain crops occurs around the beginning of August.

In other traditions Lughnasadh is heavily associated with the Goddess of Sovereignty. Sovereignty has always been linked with the horse in Celtic beliefs. In the Coligney Calendar this period falls between Equos, meaning "horse time" and Elembrios meaning "claim time". Two Goddesses who are equated with sovereignty and horses are Rhiannon and Epona; both appear to stem from the Gaulish word rigantona meaning "great queen. Other goddesses are a part of Lughnasadh who represent cultivation, birth and trials by ordeal. Macha is much like Tailltui in that she died after attempting to accomplish a great feat; racing on foot against a team of horses. Considering Taillte's connection with horses, it is not surprising that horse racing was one of the main events of the Lughnasadh fair.

In most Pagan cultures, the sun god is seen as split between two rival personalities: The God of Light and his twin, or other self  The God of Darkness. They are Gawain and the Green Knight, Gwyn and Gwythyr, Llew and Goronwy, Lugh and Balor, Balan and Balin, the Holly King and the Oak King, in different mythologies. Often they are depicted as fighting seasonal battles for the favor of their goddess or a lover, such as Creiddylad or Blodeuwedd. These goddess figures generally represent nature or the mother earth.

The god of light is always born at the winter solstice, and his strength waxes with the lengthening days, until the moment of his greatest power, the summer solstice, the longest day. And, like a look in a mirror, his 'shadow self', the lord of darkness, is born at the summer solstice, and his strength waxes with the lengthening nights until the moment of his greatest power, the winter solstice, the longest night.

In Welsh mythology in particular, there is a startling vindication of the seasonal placement of the sun god's death, as pointed out by Mike Nichols in his Lughnasadh article.  "Llew is the Welsh god of light, and his name means 'lion'. (The lion is often the symbol of a sun god.) He is betrayed by his 'virgin' wife Blodeuwedd, into standing with one foot on the rim of a cauldron and the other on the back of a goat. It is only in this way that Llew can be killed, and Blodeuwedd's lover, Goronwy, Llew's dark self, is hiding nearby with a spear at the ready. But as Llew is struck with it, he is not killed. He is instead transformed into an eagle. Putting this in the form of a Bardic riddle, it would go something like this: Who can tell in what season the Lion (Llew), betrayed by the Virgin (Blodeuwedd), poised on the Balance, is transformed into an Eagle? My readers who are astrologers are probably already gasping in recognition. The sequence is astrological and in proper order: Leo (lion), Virgo (virgin), Libra (balance), and Scorpio (for which the eagle is a well-known alternative symbol). Also, the remaining icons, cauldron and goat, could arguably symbolize Cancer and Capricorn (representing summer and winter), the signs beginning with the two solstice points. So Llew is balanced between cauldron and goat, between summer and winter, on the balance (Libra) point of the autumnal equinox, with one foot on the summer solstice and one foot on the winter solstice. This, of course, is the answer to a related Bardic riddle. Repeatedly, the 'Mabinogion' tells us that Llew must be standing with one foot on the cauldron and one foot on the goat's back in order to be killed. But nowhere does it tell us why. Why is this particular situation the ONLY one in which Llew can be overcome? Because it represents the equinox point. And the autumnal equinox is the only time of the entire year when light (Llew) can be overcome by darkness (Goronwy). It should now come as no surprise that, when it is time for Llew to kill Goronwy in his turn, Llew insists that Goronwy stands where he once stood while he (Llew) casts the spear. This is no mere vindictiveness on Llew's part. For, although the 'Mabinogion' does not say so, it should by now be obvious that this is the only time when Goronwy can be overcome. Light can overcome darkness only at the equinox -- this time the vernal equinox. (Curiously, even the Christian tradition retains this association, albeit in a distorted form, by celebrating Jesus' death near the time of the vernal equinox.)

The Welsh myth concludes with Gwydion pursuing the faithless Blodeuwedd through the night sky, and a path of white flowers springs up in the wake of her passing, which we today know as the Milky Way. When Gwydion catches her, he transforms her into an owl, a fitting symbol of autumn, just as her earlier association with flowers (she was made from them) equates her with spring. Thus, while Llew and Goronwy represent summer and winter, Blodeuwedd herself represents both spring and fall, as patron goddess of flowers and owls, respectively. Although it is far more speculative than the preceding material, a final consideration would pursue this mirror-like life pattern of Llew and Goronwy to its ultimate conclusion. Although Llew is struck with the sunlight spear at the autumnal equinox, and so 'dies' as a human, it takes a while before Gwydion discovers him in his eagle form. How long? We may speculate 13 weeks, when the sun reaches the midpoint of the sign (or form) of the eagle, Scorpio -- on Halloween. And if this is true, it may be that Llew, the sun god, finally 'dies' to the upper world on Halloween, and now passes through the gates of death, where he is immediately crowned king of the underworld, the Lord of Misrule! (In medieval tradition, the person proclaimed as 'Lord of Misrule' reigned from Halloween to Old Christmas -- or, before the calendar changes, until the winter solstice.)

Meanwhile, Goronwy (with Blodeuwedd at his side) is crowned king in the upper world, and occupies Llew's old throne, beginning on Halloween. Thus, by winter solstice, Goronwy has reached his position of greatest strength in OUR world, at the same moment that Llew, now sitting on Goronwy's old throne, reaches his position of greatest strength in the underworld. However, at the moment of the winter solstice, Llew is born again, as a babe, (and as his own son!) into our world. And as Llew later reaches manhood and dispatches Goronwy at the vernal equinox, Goronwy will then ascend the underworld throne at Beltane, but will be reborn into our world at midsummer, as a babe, later to defeat Llew all over again. And so the cycle closes at last, resembling nothing so much as an intricately woven, never-ending bit of Celtic knot work."

Another tradition of ancient peoples was to make Corn dolls from the last sheaf of grain

which was cut by all the harvesters together. The harvesters  stand away and throw their sickles until one succeeds in cutting the sheaf. That person is honored later at the feast. These corn dolls were sacred to the Cailleach, the Crone.

Sources for information include but are not limited to:

Lammas by Mike Nicols

LUGHNASAD  by Sig Lonegren

LUGHNASADH© A.L.Folberth 1996 / HalfWolf

Lughnasadh or  Lammas