Lughnasadh: History & Traditions of the First Harvest Festival

August 2, 2019 Kajora Lovely

Lughnasadh, also known as Lughnasa, means “the marriage of Lugh.” It is also known as Lammas, which means “loaf mass.” A Northern European and Celtic tradition, today it is celebrated on August 1, when the first grain is cut for the oncoming winter and the first harvest is celebrated.

According to Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses by Judika Illes, “Once upon a time, Lughnasa was a four week festival: the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August, roughly corresponding to when the sun is in Leo, the astrological sign that belongs to the sun and epitomizes its power. In modern Irish Gaelic, the month of August is Lunasa. However, the modern Wiccan sabbat of Lughnasa is almost always devoted solely to the eve of July 31st leading into Lughnasa day on August 1st.”

In The Hearth Witch’s Compendium: Magical and Natural Living for Every Day by Anna Franklin, it states: “Lughnasa is named for the pan-Celtic god Lugh, who is said to have founded annual funeral games on this date to commemorate Tailtu, his foster mother. The festival is also called Lammas, from the Anglo-Saxon hlaef-mass (meaning “loaf mass”), and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 921 CE mentions it as ‘the feast of first fruits.’”

Franklin continues: “Lughnasa is a harvest festival, marking the end of the period of summer growth and the beginning of the autumn harvest. Lughnasa celebrates the fruition of the year’s work with the weaning of calves and lambs, the ripening of corn, and the first apples, pears, bilberries, blackberries, and grapes. An old custom was to pick the first apples and make them into a drink called Lammas Wool.”

While doing research on Lughnasadh, I found that different sources seem to disagree about the origins of the holiday, whether it is based on funeral games or a wedding. Nonetheless, it is a celebration of the deity Lugh, who was once widely celebrated throughout Europe. To learn more, keep reading reading below about the pan-Celtic god Lugh.

First Harvest Festival

Pagan spiritual traditions followed their daily lives, and we see this with the Celtic Wheel of the Year holidays that mark the solstices, equinoxes, and events about every six weeks in between. As farmers, their connection to the land would be a strong one, and crop yield influenced your chances of the surviving the winter.

Lughnasadh marks the first culling of the grain, which in many ways is a controversial food today, but in the past it acted as a filler, especially if there were not enough animal protein and vegetables to solely eat during the winter.

This holiday is followed by the celebration of the god Mabon on the Autumn Equinox, which is known as the second harvest festival of the year. By this time, most of the food that could last the winter has been stored, and people are preparing for fall and winter to settle in.

Therefore Lughnasadh is a time to enjoy the fruits of the summer, the Sun, and the bounty that comes with the warmer months of the year. You can celebrate Lughnasadh by eating seasonal fruit and vegetables, baking your favorite bread, having a party with your friends and loved ones, or by enjoying the sun (while practicing sun safety, of course).

It can be a time to ask your spirit guides and deities for help with abundance in your life. You can also ask for abundance for others as well, especially if you want to help those whose lives continue to be affected by a bad harvest or famine.

For more ideas and information, check out Kajora Lovely’s Lughnasadh board on Pinterest.

Lughnasadh Correspondences

The colors for Lughnasadh are yellow and green, symbolizing the sun and plants at this time of year.

According to The Hearth Witch’s Compendium: Magical and Natural Living for Every Day by Anna Franklin, these are the plants and essential oils for Lughnasadh:

Alder - Apple - Basil - Benzoin - Borage - Chicory - Daisy - Fennel - Fenugreek - Frankincense - Gorse - Honeysuckle - Ivy - Marshmallow - Mugwort - Nasturtium - Oak - Pine - Poppy - Sunflower - Vine - Woad

The most commonly eaten foods during this time also include grains of any kind, bread, grapes, and wine.

Lughnasadh Tarot Reading

Lughnasadh is about celebrating the harvest, seeing what you’ve grown in the last few months and cultivating what will sustain you for the winter ahead. This tarot reading helps you do that in your personal life, and answers the following questions:

What is an accomplishment you’ve had this year?
What is a new tool or lesson you’re meant to keep using in the future?
Something you’re meant to keep in mind during this time

This reading can be done over Zoom, Skype, phone, or sent to you in a detailed email. It is $70, which can be paid over Venmo or PayPal. To book your reading, email Kajora Lovely at kajoralovely@gmail.com.

Engraving of Lugh that was discovered in Paris in 1867 and is preserved at the Carnavalet museum.

About the God Lugh

Lugh is a Celtic god who was once worshipped across Western Europe and the British Isles. Other names for him are Lug, Luc, Master of All Skills, and The Shining One. In Wales he is known as Lleu Llaw Gyffes, which means Bright One of Skillful Hand, and in other parts of Europe he was known as Lugos, or Raven.

He is the lord of the sun, light, victory, craftsmanship, and war. Lugh’s favored people are physicians, soldiers, warriors, artists, artisans, crafts people, and poets. He’s considered a master poet, warrior, sorcerer, metalworker, cupbearer, physician, harper, and builder.

Lugh is known for using spears in battle, writing poetry, and playing the harp. His planet is the Sun, his plant is red corn cockles, his bird is the raven, and his animals are the lion and horse.

According to Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses by Judika Illes, “At least fourteen European cities are named for Lugh including Laon, Leyden, Loudon, and Lyon. Lyon’s old name was Lugdunum, meaning “Lugh’s Fort.” That city is believed to have been his cult center. Its coins bore the images of ravens, which may be a reference to Lugh. Carlisle in England, the former Lugubalium, is also named in Lugh’s honor. Some theorize that Lugh’s name is reflected in an older name for Paris: Lutetia. The Romans identified Lugh with Mercury. Many European churches dedicated to Michael the Archangel are believed to have been built over sites once dedicated to Lugh. Post-Christianity many of Lugh’s sacred functions were reassigned to saints like Patrick and Luke.”

This explains why in the STARZ original series American Gods based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name, there’s a scene where the character Lugh drunkenly yells at a statue of St. Patrick in New Orleans.

As a deity, Lugh is divided between two groups: his father’s people, the Tuatha Dé Danaan and his mother’s people, the Fomorians. He chooses his father’s side in a battle against his mother’s side. As Illes states in Encyclopedia of Spirits, “the myth may be interpreted as indicating the beginnings of patriarchy in Ireland.”

The Fomorians

Also known as Fomoire in Old Irish and Fomhóraigh, there are only pieces of information about the Fomorians. Interestingly, Illes does not include further information about the Fomorians in Encyclopedia of Spirits, although many mythological blogs do write more on this subject.

This piece goes into greater detail about the myths and legends related to the Fomorians, but as with most pagan traditions, very little is known. This occurs with much older faiths for multiple reasons. Often the people who worshipped pagan deities did not have a written language, and capturing the power of words in symbols was considered a sacred act and only done by those of a certain spiritual rank, such as druids, shamans, priests and priestesses, or other spiritual leaders.

What is known about many faiths is through the eyes of those who conquered them. For example, most of what we know about Celtic faiths is from the Romans, who did have a written language. Often the original sacred sites, shrines, and objects were destroyed or replaced by the people and faiths that conquered them. As time passes, objects and places turn into ruins, and history is forgotten, especially as the local populations change faiths.

The scattered information that exists about the Fomorians states that they were related to the sea, sometimes considered sea creatures or monsters. They were associated with ships and seafaring, which some interpret to mean that the Fomorians could have been Nordic people. The Fomorians also may have been very tall.

Some depictions state that they had one leg or one eye, and were large, hideous creatures. They’re seen as resembling chaos, disorder, evil, night, wild nature, and likely were hunter-gatherers. They were the rivals and sometimes spouses of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, who likely conquered and colonized the Fomorians.

Disputes between the two lead us to the story of Lugh, who chose to align himself with the Tuatha Dé Danaan, his father’s people.

The Tuatha Dé Danaan

Based in Ireland, the Tuatha Dé Danaan means “Children of Danu.” They are depicted in Lebor Gabála Érenn, known in English as The Book of Invasions or The Book of Conquests, which is about the mythic invasions of Ireland, and was written in the 11th century.

Compared to the Fomorians, the Tuatha Dé Danaan were seen as representing order, farming, good, light, and the attributes of those who brought in order amidst the chaos. They were later conquered and displaced by the Gaels.

In Encyclopedia of Spirits, Illes states that “When the Gaels successfully invaded Ireland, their predecessors, the divine Tuatha Dé Danaan were literally driven underground. They established their own parallel realms beneath the Earth. Fairy mounds are their portals. The Dagda, among the leaders of the Tuatha Dé Danaan assigned each member of the Tuatha Dé residence in a sidhe or mound. The Tuatha Dé Danaan became known as the Sidhe.”

Some other well known members of the Tuatha Dé Danaan are Angus mac Og, the Dagda, Boann, Blathnat, Aine, Airmid, Dian Cecht, Manannan, Becuma, and Ogma.