The Nature of Lughnasadh

It is August 1st, the Festival of Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo’-na-sah).

Lughnasadh is the Celtic festival dedicated to the God Lugh, the Long Handed, who is associated with light and fire.  The festival is also considered to be the first harvest, the harvest of the grain, and is linked to the God/Spirit of the Corn, personified by the name John Barleycorn.  In Lammas, the Christianized version of Lughnasadh, we see a strong connection to the sacrifice of the corn god, for Lammas means loaf mass, what one might consider a requiem for the grain.

Lughnasadh, celebrated on August 1st, is the season during which the God of Grain is sacrificed that the harvest might take place and thus the people can live through the coming seasons of autumn and winter.  Once again it is a time of cleansing, it is time to clear your house for the approaching Autumn, for the waning of the year.