Acknowledging Lughnasadh - Activities and Meditation
- Jen Blaxall.
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-na-sah) is a harvest festival, falling between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox within the wheel of the year.
This harvest festival celebrates the first fruiting crops and is celebrated on or around 1st August. This fire festival is rooted deep in ancient culture to reflect on the hard work and sacrifice, and the bounty it produced. It was celebrated with athletic games, storytelling, making corn dollies, matchmaking, and rituals.
There is also a Christian version of this harvest festival, known as Lammas, which occurs around the same time. This religious event focuses on celebrating the harvest and praying for a fruitful season. Christians bake loaves to represent the first grains of the harvest and share bread together. Whether your motivation is religious or not, it is about honouring the land and what it has provided. Lammas involves prayers to the Christian God, while Lughnasadh rituals honour the Celtic God Lugh, the deity of light and craftsmanship, celebrated as the God of warfare, harvest, and craftsmanship. His association with this festival, named after him, stems from the funeral games he was said to host in honour of his foster mother, Tailtiu, who cleared the Irish forest for planting and died from the exhaustion of her labour. She symbolises the fertility of the earth and the sacrifices made in nurturing crops.
Many people still hold ritual for Lughnasadh in a variety of ways, these include fruit picking together, baking bread, making corn dollies, bonfires, story telling and carrying out crafts.
Consider spending a day with the children during the summer holidays to honour this turn of the wheel. You could bake some bread, or go foraging for blackberries and make some jam. You could organise some fun games and races in your garden or local park. You could make some corn dollies, or get crafting in other ways, before lighting a bonfire in the evening to tell stories while munching on your homemade jam on bread and, of course, some toasted marshmallows.
Or if you would like to acknowledge Lughnasah quietly on your own, get comortable and enjoy this hour long meditation I created for you.
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