This auspicious Blue Moon from tonight also heralds Lughnasadh (also spelt Lughnasa) or early Autumn time, one of the great quarterly feast celebrations. Midpoint between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox, the festival is commonly celebrated on August 1st or the three days of the first weekend of August. Named after the sun god Lugh, our Ancestors celebrated this time with a passion as the crops reached early harvest and they came to live in the bounty of Mother Earth.
While there was outdoor feasting, dancing and merrymaking after or before the hard labour of cutting crops, there were also ceremonies of gratitude. Cruach is a harvest god and the first sheaf of wheat (Mother Earth’s bounty) is given back to him by burying it there, in the spirit of gratitude and keeping the cycle of abundance flowing for next year’s harvest. Crom Cruach is more commonly known today as Croagh Patrick when on Reek Sunday, many climb in pilgrimage (or try to, if the weather is fine!). Folk memory of the Tailteann Games at Lughnasadh speak of sports requiring endurance and strength.
Lughnasadh, like all our native festivals is a call for pause and alignment. However, Lughnasadh is also synonymous with dancing; wild and fancy dancing, where our endurance and strength is given wholeheartedly to celebrating the bounty in our lives in these still warm and sunny days.
