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Lughnasadh in the South falls around the 1st/2nd of February traditionally, or the 3rd/4th if you use the astrological measurement of 15 degrees Aquarius. Lughnasadh marks the halfway point between midsummer and the autumnal equinox. The first harvests are gathered in and people begin to turn their attention from the heat and plenty of summer to the cold of winter. In keeping with this shifting attention, the festival itself is a blend of celebration and mourning as we cheer for Lugh Long Hand's victory over the Firbolgs and mourn the death of his foster-mother, Taillte. Or at least, this is the common perception. But more on that in a bit.
There is a strong tendency to refer to this festival as Lammas among many Pagans. A belief that the loaf mass is descended from the worship of Lugh, the grain god. Unfortunately, Lammas is an Anglo-Saxon word grounded in the Christian mass. It is not appropriate for a Pagan festival, especially when perfectly valid and applicable Pagan titles exist. The modern Irish Gaelic word is Lunasa, the Manx Gaelic is Luanistyn, the Scots Gaelic is Lunasad, and the Welsh is Calan Awst. As is obvious, Lughnasadh is a pretty universal term for this festival, and it refers quite simply to the god - Lugh - and the clan gathering - nasad. Together these words mean "Lugh's clan gathering" and came to be the name for the actual month in which the festival took place. August (or, in our Southern Hemisphere case, February).
Who is this god for whom this festival is named? Firstly, Lugh is not a sun god. If you equate him with that, you are suffering misinformation perpetrated by the Victorian renaissance of Celtic Paganism. Or you are paying too much attention to the claims of The Golden Bough and The White Goddess. Lugh is Samildanach, the 'Many-Skilled' One. He is successful at everything he tries, and is the flower of his people. His people are both the Tuatha de Danaan and the Fomorians. The Fomorian Eithne, daughter of Balor married Cian, son of Dian Cecht to seal an alliance between the Fomorians and the Tuatha de Danaan. Their son, Lugh, is the literal unification of these two warring tribes. Lugh stands across a liminal boundary between past and future, light and dark, ignorance and knowledge. He is not a sun god. Rather, he has agricultural ties and is more closely tied to Tammuz and Osirus than Shamash and Ra. Also Lugh could easily be seen as more closely allied with winter than summer - see below.
Lugh's counterpart is Bres Mac Elatha, son of the Fomorian King, Elatha, and Eriu, the daughter of Delbaeth, one of the Tuatha de Danaan. Bres is as beautiful to behold as Lugh, but is his opposite in every way. Bres took the leadership of the Tuatha de Danaan and brought imbalance to the land. His rule resulted in famine and blight and the ultimate revolt of the Tuatha de Danaan. It is Lugh who leads them to victory against Balor and the Fomorians, and then defeats Bres and as a part of his victory obtains knowledge of agriculture for the people of Ireland.
Lugh is ultimately the agricultural deity who brings bounty to the land, while Balor and Bres are associated with the harsh season that blights all. This conflict is replayed year after year and this creates balance for the world. This is what the celebration of Lughnasadh is about - the bounty of the harvest that we have because Lugh obtained the knowledge of ploughing, sowing, and reaping for humanity. It is this bounty that enables us to survive through the lean times of Bres' rule. There are also overtones of the old wild ways versus the new civilised ones. Bres and Balor are Fomorians - ancient people who represent the untamed land. Lugh, who takes after his father's people, is Tuatha de Danaan, and thus representative of the newcomers who have tamed the land. In contrast, Bres is Fomorian in mind and character.
Taillte's connection to Lughnasadh is debatable. She certainly has a link to the festival, but she is not the other half the way many modern explanations indicate. Firstly, it seems that her association with Lughnasadh is a localised one. There are places in Ireland where she, or a deity of similar name, is certainly connected to the celebration, Telltown in County Meath being one of them. Records of Lughnasadh celebrations there date back into pre-Christian times along with the legend that Lugh started the tradition of the Games in honour of his foster-mother, Taillte, who died at Telltown. In Telltown the Lughnasadh Games were almost certainly a combination of harvest celebration and funerary mourning.
In County Wexford however it is an invading deity named Carmun who is honoured in the funerary rites - after Lugh has defeated her. There are other deities associated with other locations whose attributes or deaths tie in to the Lughnasadh mythos very strongly. This all implies that Lughnasadh is not so much about Lugh and his foster mother as it is about the relationship between grain god and earth deity. At Lughnasadh the grain god is triumphant and we honour him and his valour and strength. But we also honour the earth deity that died so he might provide us with his bounty.
This is an interesting alternative view to the traditional viewpoint of ever-living Earth Goddess and yearly dying Agricultural God. Lugh does not die so we might live. Lugh is not John Barleycorn or the Green Man sacrificed as the grains are cut down. Instead he fights and wins the harvest for us, releasing it from the earth. It is the Earth Goddess who slips into dormancy - this ties in so much more with the mythos of the earth slumbering over winter, dormant and seemingly dead. Do we not engage in activities to awaken her and bring life to her flesh in spring? Why then shouldn't we see the Earth as also a cyclic deity who lives, dies, and is reborn of herself? This balances the dual battling gods of summer and winter quite nicely I think.
Also interesting is the seasonal nature of Balor/Bres and Lugh (or the alternate deity in other regions). In each case Lugh defeats the harsh god and ushers in the harvest...which is followed by winter. This would seem to make Lugh a god of the winter half of the year rather than the summer. His opponent, the bringer of famine and blight, rules over the summer half. Indeed, Balor with his one eye is a sun god. Lugh literally puts out Balor's eye - he defeats the sun. Lugh is associated with storms and lightning. He ends summer and brings the time of harvest. Lugh is certainly not a summer deity. He is the King of the Dark Half of the year while Balor and Bres are associated with summer. In this mythic cycle it is winter that is welcomed in.
In light of all this, Lughnasadh is an intriguing festival for me. One that has grown on me over the years - especially once I started researching its history. So this year I will be honouring the bounty the god has given me. Honouring the masculine power within my life and its role within creation. I will also honour the Mother and her sacrifices, but she will take a secondary role.
For further information, please go to Lugus: The Many-Gifted Lord
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And after that it was not a battle any more, but a rout, and the Fomor were beaten back to the sea.
And Lugh and his comrades were following them, and they came up with Bres, son of Elathan, and no guard with him, and he said: "It is better for you to spare my life than to kill me. And if you spare me now," he said, "the cows of Ireland will never go dry."
"I will ask an advice about that from our wise men," said Lugh.
So he told Maeltine Mor-Brethach, of the Great Judgments, what Bres was after saying.
But Maeltine said: "Do not spare him for that, for he has no power over their offspring, though he has power so long as they are living."
Then Bres said: "If you spare me, the men of Ireland will reap a harvest of corn every quarter."
But Maeltine said: "The spring is for ploughing and sowing, and the beginning of summer for the strength of corn, and the beginning of autumn for its ripeness, and the winter for using it."
"That does not save you," said Lugh then to Bres. But then to make an excuse for sparing him, Lugh said: "Tell us what is the best way for the men of Ireland to plough and to sow and to reap."
"Let their ploughing be on a Tuesday, and their casting seed into the field on a Tuesday, and their reaping on a Tuesday," said Bres.
So Lugh said that would do, and he let him go free after that.
~ Gods and Fighting Men, 'Part I Book III: The Great Battle of Magh Tuireadh'
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