Many modern Pagans, Polytheists and Heathens are observing the summer festival of Lughnasadh. Tyipcally celebrated on August 1, Lughnasadh is one of the yearly fire festival and marks the first of three harvest celebrations. It traditionally honors Lugh, the Celtic God of light and many talents,and his foster-mother, Tailtiu.
In addition, the Assatru/Odinist festival of fruit called Freyfaxi. Both celebrations are celebrated with feastinng, song, games, thanksgiving and the reaing of the first fruits and grains of te season.
~The ancien Irish Festival of the First Harvest is a rembrance of a time when people lived their lives in preparation for the first harvest. This holy day must seem like a relic, in a when every crop is available, year round, in the local grocery, and the land has become a thing we live on but never speak to.
We need a better harvest. We need a generation of people who listen to the voice in the earth. We need to discover our purpose in the land. I need to discover its purose in me…..
Lughnasadh (around August 1st)
also known as: Lammas, Cornucopia, Thingtide
Lughnasadh is the first in the trilogy harvest festivals. It marks the beginning of the harvest season, and the decline of Summer into Winter. It is the turning point of the earths life cycle. Festivities and rituals typically center around the assurance of a bountiful harvest season and the celebration of the harvest cycle. A bountiful harvest insured the safe passage of the tribe through the upcoming winter months. The gathering og bilberries is an ancient ritual symbolizing the success of the Lughnasadh rituals.. If the bilberries were bountiful the crops would also be. Lughnasadh, is the festival in honor of Lugh, the Irish God. Lugh, God of All Skills, is known as the “Bright or Shinning One”, He is associated with both Sun and agriculture fertility. Liue, Lugh’s equivalent in Britain and Wales, is the son of Arianrhod, Goddess of the Stars and Reincarnation.
Games are played in honor of Lugh, these are games of athletic prowess. The games are reported to be funeral games for Lugh and in some traditions his foster mother. His foster mother died preparing the feilds for planting, and thus is honored at the festival. At Lughnasadh many grains, seeds, herbs and fruit can be harvested and dried at this time for later use throughout the remaining year. Corn is one of the vital crops harvested at this time. And in some areas the sacrifice of the corn king is done. Death and rebirth are apart of the cycle Lugh journeys through in his mating with the Goddess, during the wanning year.
The Goddess oversees the festival in her triple guise as Macha. She presides in her warrior aspect, the crow who sits on the battlefields awaiting the dead. She is the Crone, Maiden and Mother, Anu, Banbha, and Macha conveys the dead into the realm of the deceased. Macha is forced, while heavy with child, to race against the King of Ulster’s horses. She wins the race and gives birth to twins, and cuursed the men of Ulster with the pain of labor when they most need their strenght. She become Queen of Ulster through battle for seven years. Her fortress in Ulster is know as the Emain Macha and its otherwordly form known as Emamnia, the moon Goddesses realm of death.
Lughnasadh is a time of bounty and hopes for an abundant harvest season. We celebrate the bounty of our own live’s harvest, the work we have done in and within our own lives as well as community. We understand and acknowledge the need for successes in both the physical and spiritual realms. For without success and successful harvest we will not have the staples we need to continue our work on all levels. Our religion is one of serves, not sacrifice. For their is no service in sacrifice and no sacrifice in service. We need to fill our cups and when our cups runneth over and we can’t help but splash those around us with life giving waters.
For we as members of the Universe and children of the Mother expect to share in the benevolence of Her Love. For ours is the Mother, who nurtures and Loves Her children, sharing her bounty. Prosperity is not amassing and hoarding a great profusion of assets. Prosperity is having more than what is essential and never having less than we desire. We understand the abundance and magnanimity of the Universe and celebrate, recognize, and honor this.
LOVE and LIGHT~

APRIL WATSON #W94003
CIW LATHAM-A #205
16756 Chino-Corona rd.
Corona, CA