The Festival at Lúghnasadh [Video]
Celebrating the Harvest Within
Lúghnasadh was one of the four festivals in the ancient Irish/Celtic year. Lúnasa also means August in the Irish language. Lúnasa marks the mid-point between the Summer Solstice and the Equinox and was celebrated in remembrance of the God Lugh.
Lugh, the Celtic god, is a warrior and a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He’s sometimes called Lámhfhada, which translates as “long hand” or “long arm” and is likely related to his skill with a spear. He also had a hound that travelled with him. Lugh is also known as a Samildánach, which, in the Irish language, means “master of all the arts.”
He was skilled in many disciplines. Lugh himself was the son of Cian of the Tuatha Dé Danann and Ethniú of the Formorians. He was said to be the father of another hero of our mythology, Cú Chulainn.
When Tailtiu, Lugh's foster Mother, died, Lugh held a festival in her memory in Tailteann, Co. Meath. Tailtiu was a Fir Bolg Goddess. During these festivals, ancient sports were played, something akin to the Olympic festivals of today. The last of those games was held in 1169 under Ruaidri O Conchobair, Rory O’Conor, the last High King of Ireland. Ruaidhri ruled before the Anglo-Norman invasion in the 1170s. He was also King of Connacht from 1156 - 1186. (1) It was a festival of music and celebration. Great fires were lit throughout the land. Some festivals, like the Puck Fair in Kerry, date from Pre-Christian Ireland and are thought to originate from the festival of Lughnasadh. Puck Fair is one of the most ancient festivals in Ireland and has been held in Kerry in the month of August every year for centuries. In this unique festival, a wild mountain goat is crowned king and reigns over the town for three days. A male goat is called a puck and is a pagan symbol of fertility.
“This morning, the sun endures past dawn. I realize that it is August: the summer’s last stand.”
Cultivating Joy - The Harvest Within
This Celtic festival marks the end of the period of summer growth and the beginning of the autumn harvest. Lúghnasadh celebrates the fruition of the year’s work. Most of the food that could last the winter has been stored, and people are preparing for Autumn and Winter to settle in. Lúghnasadh / Lúnasa is a time to enjoy the fruits of the summer, the harvest, the sun in her glory and the bounty. It is a time to rejoice with gratitude at the hard work. To embrace in the moment the abundance that life has to offer.
Letting in the Harvest at Lúnasa symbolizes the letting in of life, of eros, of abundance, and of gratitude. When we give ourselves permission to do that in our lives, we open ourselves up to the life force of creation and the energy of love. It awakens in us a desire to share this bounty with others and to return the goodness of life received. This is the basis of generosity. This is the energy of abundance.
Sometimes in our lives, due to early wounding, it can be hard to let in life’s moments of joy because we can fear it. It is hard to trust in the flow of life. We can fear that something will happen that will mean us experiencing pain, disappointment or suffering. The capacity for joy and letting it in also recognises life’s ebb and flow. It is a recognition that life has inherent challenges, disappointments, pain, suffering, and joy. No matter how we might guard against those realities by living a life that is half lived, by avoiding living life fully, these things we fear can happen nonetheless.
Allowing the ebb and flow of life is to allow the season for joy and abundance, as well as sadness and disappointments. What helps us in this fear is to engage with life from a place of gratitude. What are you grateful for today?
What is beautiful about the energy of gratitude is that it grows the more you engage in it. The more you allow the harvest of life in, the more examples of things you feel thankful for you will find all around you, and the more you will lose sight of what is fearful and lacking. Our hearts open in the energy of gratitude.
This is not to negate the suffering inherent to life but to embrace the moments of abundance, too.
Joy and the Journey Inward
What brings us joy often in life is the feeling that we are growing, learning new things, cultivating a sense of self, and deepening a connection within.
What brings joy is that we are more and more aligned with who we truly are in our lives, paths, inner life, and soulful depths. That is what feels good in the world when we are most ourselves.
When we risk it and practice being more ourselves, our hearts are most open, and we feel present in what we do, even if it is washing the dishes. Life has a sense of the sacred in the ordinary moments when we meet life in this way. That is the cultivation of joy in life. This is what helps us cultivate a real sense of contentment and presence. That is the engagement with eros. With life itself. That is where creativity lives, too. This is what taking a seat at the banquet of life truly is: fulfilling our true nature as human beings.
Carl Jung described it as:
“A relationship that seems like the happiness of a secret love, or like a hidden springtime, when the green seed sprouts from the barren earth, holding out the promise of future harvests.” - C. G. Jung, vol 14, pa. 623
So, let us enjoy this harvest season with a conscious attunement to our inner lives. Let us give thanks for the bounty and beauty of life around us. Let us give thanks for it all. That is the harvest within.
Here is the story of Lugh at the gates of Tara…
Sources: Koch, John (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia . ABC-CLIO pp 1663-1664.