LUGHNASADH ©
by Tira Brandon-Evans

Lughnasadh is one of the four ancient fire festivals. One might call Lughnasadh (August 1st) and Imbolc (February 1st) the lost festivals. Samhain and, to a lesser extent, Beltane are still respectively celebrated at Halloween and on May Day in many places in the modern world. However, February 1st and August 1st are seldom remembered. Lughnasadh was, however, one of the greatest of the festivals. Traditionally, Lughnasadh was founded by Lugh (Luch as in Luke) Lamfada (Lam-FA-da) to honor His foster-mother, Taillte (TAWL-tay or TAWL-cha). Fosterage was a well-respected custom among the Celts. It was quite as common to accomplish family alliances through fosterage as through marriage. The fostered child 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 often 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.

If the great festival at Teltown is evidence, Lugh certainly loved and honored His foster mother Taillte. Lugh is a very interesting God. His name means ‘the Shining One’. Lugh is also called Samildanach, which means ‘Many-skilled’. He is a solar deity, a god of the harvest, of craftspeople, and of trade and commerce, in short, of all those things that tend towards abundance and prosperity. Lughnasadh is a festival that celebrates the harvest, the crafts, trade and commerce, and marriage. Traditionally, Teltown, which is located between Navan and Kells in Ireland, was the original site of Lughnasadh. Nevertheless, the festival was also celebrated all over Ireland, as well as in Wales, Scotland, Britain, and on the Isle of Man. Teltown is, of course, named after Taillte.

The festival was actually a fair. The fair began on or about July 15th and ended on or about August 15th with the full moon nearest August 1st being the actual day of the fire festival. Lughnasadh was instituted to celebrate the beginning of the harvest. That is surely one of the reasons for the festival, and probably the original reason. The Teltean games were held at Lughnasadh. These games were the ‘Celtic Olympics’. There is evidence that the games were held at Teltown as long ago as the early part of the second millennium BCE. They continued until about 1170 CE. Although there were other places where the Lughnasadh games were held the principal festival was at Teltown, near the cairn Lugh had raised over His foster-mother after her death. It was said that she had died of the effort of clearing the Forest of Breg to create a great plain for the games. As this seems a bit circular in logic, it is probable that the games were instituted to honor Taillte as an Earth Goddess, a Goddess of Fertility who gave Her own life clearing the land for agriculture.

It was at the Teltean games that the kings of all the kingdoms of Ireland were reconfirmed in their offices. The Stone of Fal was taken from Tara to Teltown during the fair. Any king who failed to find the Fal Stone before the festival ended would not see the next year’s Lughnasadh. The festival occurs in the month of July/August, which is called Elembious or Claim Time. It was at the Lughnasadh fairs that marriages were contracted. Petitioners also presented their claims to the druids for judgment. Young men and women entered into trial marriages at Lughnasadh. These trial marriages were usually contracted for a year and a day. 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. Presumably, if the trial marriage had been fruitful, there were many new mothers and fathers proudly showing off their babies at the Lughnasadh fair. We live in an age in which children are often not important to newly wed couples. However, to our ancestors it was important to have children as soon as possible. Life was sometimes 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 was proof of the Goddess’s blessings on the union.

The Druids also decided claims at Lughnasadh. 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 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, which 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, Cian. 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. The sons of Tuireann successfully completed the first parts of the fine successfully. The last fine, the three shouts they made on the Hill of Miochaoin, summoned faery warriors who slew the three murderous brothers.

Considering Taillte’s connection with horses,* it is not surprising that horse racing was one of the main events of the Lughnasadh fair. The horse was very important to the Celt. Even today to be Irish is to love horses. The ancient Irish kings were wedded to a mare, the symbol of the Goddess of Sovereignty, at their coronations. So once again, we find a connection between Lughnasadh and the Land. Lughnasadh was a great festival of thanks for the abundance and bounty of the Earth Herself but it did not have the air of abandon about it of Beltane. Lughnasadh celebrated the social order, the giving and taking in marriage between woman and man, the atonement of injustice and the sheer good spirits of summer. If you can find a fair to attend in the month of August, do so, knowing that you are following the ancient tradition of your ancestors. You might even wish to organize a fair of your own. Your fair might include a picnic or potluck and games such as tug-of-war, archery, volleyball and other team sports. Perhaps you could invite your crafting friends to set up tables and sell their things. Encourage your friends who play musical instruments to provide entertainment. A storyteller or two would be appropriate. Be creative; establish your own tradition for Lughnasadh. If you find the prospect of organizing such an event too daunting, you can celebrate Lughnasadh on your own or with just one or two friends. Regardless of how you choose to remember the day, Lughnasadh is a day of power. It is one of the days on which a shaman may, if she chooses, attune herself to the energies of the Three Worlds.

ENDNOTE

* Taillte married the last Fir Bolg king, Eochaid (Y’OH-he) Mac Erc. Eochaid’s father, Erc, was descended from Connaire Mor the Great Peace-King who was himself descended from Eochaid the Horseman of the Heavens, a Sun God, and Bolg (BOWL’g) a Belgic Goddess of Lightning. Taillte later married Eochaid Garbh, the son of one of the chiefs of the Tautha de Danaan. [Return to Article]



Tira Brandon-Evans is the Founder and Moderator of the Society of Celtic Shamans, editor of Earthsongs: Journal of the Society of Celtic Shamans, and is, herself, a Faery Shaman. Her books, The Green and Burning Tree: A Faery Shaman's Handbook, Portals of the Seasons: A Celtic Wheel of the Year, Through the Unremembered Gate: Journeys of Initiation, The Labyrinthine Way: Walking Ancient Paths in a Modern World, and Healing Waters, are all published by Elder Grove Press. She is presently writing a book about the Ogham. You may contact Tira by email at info@faeryshaman.org.

Lughnasadh excerpted from Portals of the Seasons: A Celtic Wheel of the Year, Copyright © 2001 by Tira Brandon-Evans, all rights reserved. Used with permission. Top of Page

REGULAR FEATURES          SPECIAL FEATURES          REVIEWS          ARCHIVES

Earthsongs: International Journal of the Society of Celtic Shamans copyright © 2007 by Elder Grove Press and content providers. All rights reserved. International copyright laws prohibit reproduction of or distribution of this page by any means whatsoever, electronic or otherwise, without first obtaining the written permissions of the copyright holders. We retain legal counsel to protect our copyrights.