It's
almost Lughnasadh! Quick, everybody, let's put on our wheat hats and
sing our Lammas song...
..well...perhaps
not. I'm not so sure I look good in grain.
What
can we say about Lughnasadh that hasn't already been said.
Humm...well, it is one of the four major holidays in the Irish year.
For those of you who don't know, the year is divided between the
Divine Male and Female. The eve of May 1 (Beltane) is the start of
the Goddess season, and Samhain (Oct 31) the beginning of the God's
reign. His season opens the time of Death and the hunt, while the
Goddess season is one of fruitfulness and growth.
However, there is a
little yin in the yang, a celebration of Goddess in the God season.
That would be Imbolg – Feb 2nd. Opposite that... the
yang in the yin .. is Lughnasadh (or Lammas, as the modern church
calls it), the celebration of Lugh ( pronounced “Loo”, not
“lug” as in “lug wrench”), the Irish god of the Sun.
“Lughnasadh” translates to “Lugh's assembly”, and for good
reason. The modern Irish spelling “Lunasa” is also the name for
August. How convenient!
Anyway,
this was a time of declared truce among any feuding clans so that
folks could get there and back from the festivals in one piece. It
was a celebration, founded by Lugh, in honor of his foster mother
Tailtiu. So, what can we do to observe Lughnasadh? Let's do what the
ancestors did. After all, everything old is new again!
Let's
sacrifice a bull!
...or how about a cow? It was a sacred offering to the Gods, after which those gathered would feast on its flesh. No? OK, wimps, throw a couple burgers on the Hibachi and let one burn to a charcoal brick. There's usually one of them doing that anyway.
Let's
play a game!
There
were usually athletic competitions held at these festivals, with clan
vs. clan in feats of daring do. However, given our suburban
lifestyles, perhaps the family can get together for horseshoes,
croquet, or a rousing game of lawn darts.
(I haven't given up on that
sacrifice notion.)
Hike
A Hill
It
was traditional to make a journey up the local knock ( hill), where
prayers were said, offerings left, and feasting enjoyed. In
Christian times, this trek was envisioned as a pilgrimage. The most
famous is the one up croagh Patrick, on “Reek Sunday”, the last
Sunday in July. (Some do it on their knees or barefoot!)
Don't have
a hill? No problem! Just run up and down the stairs barefoot without
checking for discarded toys. If the idea is to offer up your personal
pain and safety, ya got it covered.
Say
a prayer at a sacred well
There
are so many wells associates with healing and miracles, and they are
visited as part of the Lughnasadh observances. Alas, there aren't
any sacred wells in my neck of the woods. The nearest facsimile we
have is this worshiped urban body of water.
Deities are still addressed here, however. After total immersion, I've often heard individuals rise to the surface chanting, “Oh, my God, that's cold!”
Get
married!... a little...
Lughnasadh
was a time for sealing contracts, and one such agreement was
marriage. However, it wasn't a one-off deal. You could do a “hand
fasting” (still the name of the Wiccan marriage ceremony) for a
year and a day. By reaching and grasping hands through a naturally
occurring hole in a stone (or, lacking one of those, a hole in a
wooden door), you could become spouses.
If ya like it, you could renew the vows for a lifetime at the next Lughnasadh festival. If not, you get to walk away without consequences. Today, we would call that ,“signing a year lease on a flat”.
Bake
some bread.
Lughnasadh,
or Lammas, is all about the corn. We're not talking American maize,
but wheat. A loaf of bread would be baked from the ripening wheat,
and blessed. It was considered a sign of faith that the grain would
grow golden and the harvest in September would be bountiful. Sharing
bread at the feast represented the same. So, bake some nice braids
of dough.
Not much of a baker? Here's another sacred icon of the
season around my house:
And
since here in the States “corn”is the yellow stuff on the stalk,
I even have my aunts Jemima, Martha, and Betty to rely on.
It's
market time!
At
Lughnasadh, deals are made for the purchase of your crop once
harvested. Perhaps you have a crop of your own to sell. I'm
thinking herbal..and I'm thinking legal, you berks! If gardening
isn't your thing, no worries. Have a family flea market! Once you're
through eating and diving into the scared pool, gather your unwanted
crap together and trade it for everyone else's unwanted crap.
Recycling is good for the planet!
Go
crown a goat.
Some
Lughnasadh activities remain with us in the form of other
celebrations. Take, for instance, the Puck Fair in county Kerry. For
three days, a wild goat is brought into town and crowned “king”.
A local maiden is crowned “queen”. There is music, food, craft
demonstrations, after which goat meat becomes available in the local
market ( at a royal price, no doubt...wink, wink...).
Quickly dig through the garage for an old Christmas cracker, snap it, and crown him with the paper tiara inside.
Have a young village maiden sit on his lap with a bottle of The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey (goat, geese,.. close enough). Have camera ready for snaps to show Auntie Bridget. Sit back and watch the fireworks. Family fun for the whole tribe!
Have
a Blessed Lammas, everybody. Remember, if a Druid sees his shadow....
...it's six more weeks of disgusting heat and humidity in New Jersey.
I
went to see “Mr. Holmes” this past Sunday. Don't miss this
brilliant film. Also, do yourself a favor and read the book upon
which it is based: Mitch Cullin's “A Slight Trick of the Mind”.
Next
up, a fun YouTube offering called, “The Boys are Back in Town”.
Cute and cleaver!
Now,
for the adult fans and the Johnlock shippers, a Victorian NSFW parody
to end the blog entry..
The
best of the season to you all!
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