{"id":1625,"date":"2023-07-30T14:24:25","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T19:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/?p=1625"},"modified":"2023-07-30T14:24:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T19:24:27","slug":"celebrating-lugnasad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/celebrating-lugnasad\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Lugnasad"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"1625\" class=\"elementor elementor-1625\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-501a6a5 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"501a6a5\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-f6e2747\" data-id=\"f6e2747\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5e3b0c1 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"5e3b0c1\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.18.0 - 08-12-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=\".svg\"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"275\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/lugnasad.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-1627\" alt=\"Lugnasad.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/lugnasad.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/lugnasad-300x206.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-b95758c elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"b95758c\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-b4c4d09\" data-id=\"b4c4d09\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-99e9bae elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"99e9bae\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.18.0 - 08-12-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>Although named for the Irish God Lugh (aka Lleu, Lugos, Lugus), Lugnasad (aka G\u0175yl Awst) almost certainly ultimately derives from the Proto-Indo-European root word for his name: <em>*leu-g-<\/em> (black, dark, dim; swamp) or <em>*leug-<\/em> (bend, bow, twist) + Old Irish <em>n\u00e1sad<\/em> (assembly, gathering \u2014 especially one of a festive or commemorative nature; death, put to death). It most likely means the \u201cGathering of the Black or Bent One,\u201d but it could also mean \u201cBlack Death\u201d or any other such combinations thereof. However, an enormous amount of weight must be given to the first interpretation, simply because Lugnasad is still today often referred to as Black Stoop Sunday, and largely connected with an Irish deity called Crom Dubh (Black Bent One or Dark Bowed One, etc.). This figure is associated, as well, with the Irish God Crom Cruach (Bent or Bowed One of the Mound or Stack [of Grain]), to whom the people made sacrifices in exchange for milk and grain.<\/p><p>Thus, it would seem that both Crom Dubh and Crom Cruach were actually similar or identical to Lugh, who was also known as the \u201cfaery cobbler\u201d Lugh Chromain, usually translated as meaning \u201cLittle Stooping Lugh,\u201d from <em>cromm<\/em> (bent, stooped, crooked) + <em>\u00e1n<\/em> (diminutive suffix). However, given what I know of Lugh, I suggest that the correct translation is actually \u201cBlack or Bent One of the Sickle,\u201d from <em>*leu-g-<\/em> (black, dark, dim; swamp) or <em>*leug-<\/em> (bend, bow, twist) + <em>cromm\u00e1n<\/em> (hook, reaping-hook, sickle). Far from the tall, glorious golden Sun God that Lugh is sometimes described as being, he is instead small, dark, compact, and \u201ccrooked backed,\u201d i.e., bent, bowed, or stooped beneath the weight and wealth of all the golden sheaves of grain he has gathered or harvested \u2014 hence \u201cLugnasad,\u201d which can also be interpreted as \u201cLugh\u2019s Gathering,\u201d one of the puns so beloved by the Celts, meaning both Lugh\u2019s assembly\/gathering and Lugh\u2019s gathering of the harvest.<\/p><p>In his guise as the faery cobbler, Lugh further devolved into the <em>leipreach\u00e1n<\/em> &lt; <em>luprac\u00e1n<\/em> &lt; Luchorp\u00e1n (often translated as Lugh of the Small Body) and <em>leithbr\u00e1gan<\/em> &lt; Leath Bhr\u00f3gan (Little Half-Brogue or Half-Shoe; figuratively, Cobbler, Shoemaker). Like the Greek Hermes and the Roman Mercury, Lugh was strongly associated with shoes (particularly with brogues \u2014 low-heeled country boots or shoes with decorative perforations or \u201cbroguing\u201d along the visible edges), for traveling between the Worlds.<\/p><p>It has frequently been suggested that from Luchorp\u00e1n derives the word \u201cleprechaun,\u201d which figure was originally Lugos with his herald\u2019s staff (caduceus) and merchant\u2019s sack of coins, but which god eventually shrank over the millennia into the faery cobbler with his shillelagh and pot o\u2019 gold at the end of the rainbow. However, it should be noted that beginning in 2012, new research by Jacopo Bisagni, Michael Clarke, and Simon Rodway proposed connecting the word \u201cleprechaun\u201d instead to the Roman Luperci (Brothers of the Wolf), who ran naked through the streets of Rome during the Lupercalia (Wolf Festival). So it\u2019s highly interesting that Lugos was associated with both dogs and wolves, as well.<\/p><p>It was, of course, Lugos or Lugh who brought the August rains and storms (and rainbows) on or around Lugnasad, to break the fiery back of summer, lest all the crops burned up in the fields before they could be harvested. To accomplish this, Lugh fought a mighty battle with Bal\u00f3r na S\u00faile Nimhe (Balor of the Evil, Poisonous, or Venomous Eye). With either his slingshot or spear, Lugh slew Bal\u00f3r by putting out his scorching Evil Eye (the relentless, blazing Sun). The Milky Way was known as Lugh\u2019s Chain, and his <em>cloich tabaill<\/em> (slingstone) or <em>t\u00e1thluib<\/em> or <em>t\u00e1thlum<\/em> (slingstone made of cement) was described as being fashioned of the \u201cbloods collected from toads, bears, the lion, vipers and the neck-base of Osmuinn, mixed with the sands of the Armorian Sea and the Red Sea,\u201d or else as a \u201cconcrete ball, made of his [Lugh\u2019s] enemies\u2019 brains hardened with lime.\u201d It seems likely that Lugh\u2019s slingstone was, in reality, the Moon, something else with which he is also associated: Gallo-Brittonic <em>*lugra<\/em> &lt; Proto-Celtic <em>*lugo-ra-<\/em> (radiant, shining moon) and Irish <em>lughna<\/em> (moon):<\/p><p>A <em>tathlum<\/em>, heavy, fiery, firm,<br \/>Which the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann [People of the Goddess Danu] had with them,<br \/>It was that broke the fierce Bal\u00f3r\u2019s eye,<br \/>Of old, in the battle of the great armies&#8230;.<\/p><p>To the hero Lugh was given<br \/>This concrete ball \u2014 no soft missile \u2014<br \/>In Mag Tuireadh [the Plain of Towers] of shrieking wails,<br \/>From his hand he threw the <em>tathlum<\/em>.<\/p><p>Ancient Europeans saw a man, bent or stooped beneath his harvest burden, on the face of the Moon; it is he who was the original \u201cMan in the Moon,\u201d often accompanied by his dog.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-16ccd16 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"16ccd16\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-fc5fa77\" data-id=\"fc5fa77\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-97a07c7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"97a07c7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/moonman.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-1629\" alt=\"Man in the Moon, with dog.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/moonman.png 300w, https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/moonman-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-3971a9b elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"3971a9b\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-2de0641\" data-id=\"2de0641\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b7f8f49 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"b7f8f49\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Thus, if Lugh has any connection to the Sun at all, it is almost assuredly only to the pale, sickly winter Sun, which sometimes resembles the Moon. He is the psychopomp who guides the Souls of the Dead to the Underworld (remember his shoes, for traveling between the Worlds). His riches are the harvests he gathers, and life itself \u2014 the latter the steep price one must pay to learn the secrets of his Sacred Mysteries.<\/p><p>As Lugh is the beginning of the end for Bal\u00f3r and for us, so Lugnasad is a threshold or liminal time, the beginning of the end of the Light Half of the Year. From the standpoint of the seasons, it is the first day of autumn, and the First Harvest. The Great Mother\u2019s milk no longer flows freely. Tailtiu (Great One of the Earth), Lugh\u2019s foster mother, who plowed the Great Plain, has died of exhaustion from her labors, and Lugh, in his grief (note the Proto-Indo-European <em>*leug-<\/em> \u201cgrieve, be pained\u201d), has established his Festival of Gathering to honor her memory, complete with an assembly of the people and a plethora of funeral games. The old name of this festival was, in fact, <em>Br\u00f3n Trogain<\/em> (Earth\u2019s Sorrow), for at this time, Earth gives birth to the first fruits of her labor, so her children may live. It is a metaphor based on the labor of childbirth.<\/p><p>Lugh himself is the Winter Lord, the Grim Reaper, accompanied by the crows and ravens (he is also associated with an ill-attested Gaulish <em>lugos<\/em> \u201craven\u201d) that scavenge the cornfields, battlefields, and other places of Death; and the Summer Lord, once the \u201cscare-crow,\u201d is now no more than the straw- or wicker-man, who will soon be dead and burned.<\/p><p>Lugnasad is not only the time to give thanks for the First Harvest, but also to recognize that just as the crops give their lives to ensure our survival, so we, too, will give our own lives in the end \u2014 perhaps to ensure the survival of something even greater than we are. But this is a Mystery that we cannot know fully until we ourselves have passed through the Gates of Death to the vast, unknown Beyond.<\/p><p>From the first gatherings of the harvest, offerings were made to Lugh; a bull was sacrificed to him, as well, to be eaten at the harvest feast shared by the community. This was also the time when berries (especially bilberries) were picked, and when many handfastings (a-year-and-a-day trial marriages) took place (humankind has a great, instinctive urge to \u201cmake life\u201d in the face of Death). Pageants and plays were performed, too, replete with storytelling, dancing, and ritual fighting. A carved stone head was installed atop a hill, and the actor portraying Lugh triumphed over it (in some tales, instead of putting out Bal\u00f3r\u2019s Evil Eye, Lugh beheads him, setting the head on a large rock, which is subsequently shattered by it).<\/p><p>Pilgrimages called \u201crounding rituals,\u201d which involved praying while walking sunwise around features on Croagh Patrick (Patrick\u2019s Stack), located in County Mayo, Ireland, and known locally as \u201cThe Reek\u201d (Rick or Stack; hence Reek Sunday), were carried out by both the devout and the penitent. Believed to be at least 1,500 years old, such pilgrimages pre-date Christianity and were originally associated with Lugnasad.<\/p><p>In addition, the best athletes and warriors from miles around gathered for the funeral games. Oaths were sworn and contracts and trade agreements undertaken. Among many other things, Lugh was a God of Oaths and Commerce, and some scholars have suggested the former as the origin of his name: Old Irish <em>luige<\/em> (oath, vow, act of swearing) &lt; suffixed Proto-Celtic form, <em>*lugiyo-<\/em> (oath).<\/p><p>During Lugnasad, people also visited holy wells, bringing with them coins and\/or strips of cloth called \u201cclooties,\u201d which were used in blessings and healing for the sick. The coins were often hammered into the trunk of the sacred tree at the holy well, and the clooties tied around its branches, the theory being that as the cloth weathered and wore away, so the sick person\u2019s illness would wear away, as well. Lugnasad\u2019s alternative name of Garland Sunday stems from the tradition of decorating such holy wells with garlands of flowers at this celebrated time.<\/p><p>Blessings!<br \/>APs Rhianwen Bendigaid<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-ae48a10 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"ae48a10\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-25d0717\" data-id=\"25d0717\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8e43352 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"8e43352\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sources<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p><p>\u201cAll about Lughnasadh,\u201d Claddagh Design. Web.<\/p><p>\u201cBalor,\u201d \u201cCroagh Patrick,\u201d \u201cCrom Cruach,\u201d \u201cCrom Dubh,\u201d \u201cLammas,\u201d \u201cLeprechaun,\u201d \u201cLugh,\u201d \u201cLughnasadh,\u201d and \u201cReek Sunday,\u201d Wikipedia. Web.<\/p><p><em>The Festival of Lughnasa<\/em>, M\u00e1ire MacNeill, Folklore of Ireland Council, 1962, reprint 1983, 2008; ISBN: 9780906426104.<\/p><p><em>In Nature\u2019s Honor: Myths and Rituals Celebrating the Earth<\/em>, Patricia Montley, Skinner House Books, 2005; ISBN: 9781558964860.<\/p><p><em>Lammas: Celebrating the Fruits of the First Harvest<\/em>, Anna Franklin, Llewellyn Publications, 2001; ISBN: 9780738700946.<\/p><p>\u201cLeprechaun: A New Etymology,\u201d Jacopo Bisgni, <em>Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies<\/em> 64 (Winter, 2012): 47\u201384.<\/p><p><em>Lughnasadh: Rituals, Recipes &amp; Lore for Lammas<\/em>, Melanie Marquis, Llewellyn Publications, 2015; ISBN: 9780738741789.<\/p><p>\u201cLugus: The Many-Gifted Lord,\u201d Alexei Kondratiev, <em>An Tr\u00edbh\u00eds Mh\u00f3r: The IMBAS Journal of Celtic Reconstructionism<\/em> #1, L\u00fanasa 1997.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although named for the Irish God Lugh (aka Lleu, Lugos, Lugus), Lugnasad (aka G\u0175yl Awst) almost certainly ultimately derives from the Proto-Indo-European root word for his name: *leu-g- (black, dark, dim; swamp) or *leug- (bend, bow, twist) + Old Irish n\u00e1sad (assembly, gathering \u2014 especially one of a festive or commemorative nature; death, put to death). It most likely means the \u201cGathering of the Black or Bent One,\u201d but it could also mean \u201cBlack Death\u201d or any other such combinations thereof. However, an enormous amount of weight must be given to the first interpretation, simply because Lugnasad is still today often referred to as Black Stoop Sunday, and largely connected with an Irish deity called Crom Dubh (Black Bent One or Dark Bowed One, etc.). This figure is associated, as well, with the Irish God Crom Cruach (Bent or Bowed One of the Mound or Stack [of Grain]), to whom the people made sacrifices in exchange for milk and grain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,101,8],"tags":[77,160,33,162,161,157,159,158],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1625"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1648,"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions\/1648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fethfiada.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}