Lughnasadh

The story behind the day

Lughnasadh, in Irish Lúnasa, is the early Irish festival of the beginning of the harvest season, kept on 1 August and named for the god Lug. It is one of the four quarter-day festivals of the old Irish year, and a trace of it is often seen in the Christian pilgrimage to the summit of Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday of July. Wiccans, Druids and other modern Pagans keep Lughnasadh, or Lammas, as one of eight festivals marking the first fruits of harvest. The modern eight-festival calendar is a twentieth-century creation.^[1–7]

Origins

The Irish dictionary of the Royal Irish Academy defines Lughnasa as the festival of Lug, Lammas, the first of August, and notes that it was seen as the season of ripe fruit and crops. A medieval Irish saga, the Wooing of Emer, glosses the day as the beginning of autumn, when the earth is under fruit, and it names it with Samain, Imbolc and Beltaine among four festivals. The name seems to be formed from the god's name Lug together with a word for a festival. Cormac's Glossary, in Old Irish, describes it as a game or fair, the game of Lug son of Ethne.^{[1–2, 10–11]}

What it marks

In the early Irish year, Lughnasa marked the ripening of crops and the beginning of autumn, a time when the earth was under fruit. Modern Wiccans call the day Lammas and say that it celebrates the first fruits of harvest, and the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids describes it as the opening of the harvest, with gatherings, games and marriages.^{[1, 4–5]}

How it came to be

The medieval texts record the festival but say little of its rites. Research by Máire MacNeill, published in 1962, has been taken to show that the festival survived in Ireland, and the Encyclopedia of Irish History and Culture notes that hilltop visits at Lughnasa survive in the pilgrimage up Croagh Patrick. The Irish Catholic bishops say the old festival of Lughnasa was absorbed into Christian practice, and that Reek Sunday gets its name from Patrick's ability to Christianise pagan customs.^{[3, 12]}

How it is kept

Reek Sunday pilgrims on the mountainIllustration · AI-generated

On Reek Sunday, the last Sunday of July, thousands of pilgrims climb Croagh Patrick, and Mass is celebrated at the summit. Christian tradition holds that Patrick fasted on the summit for forty days. Modern Pagans keep Lughnasadh as a harvest festival with gatherings, games and marriages.^{[5, 7, 13]}

Across traditions

The Irish festival, the Christian pilgrimage and the modern Pagan sabbat are related but distinct. Lammas, the English name for the festival of 1 August, is glossed in the medieval Irish text and is used by Wiccans today. The cycle of eight Pagan festivals dates only from the mid twentieth century, when Gerald Gardner is said to have adapted eight older pagan festivals into the sabbats of Wicca. Modern Pagans give the date as 1 August.^{[6, 8–9]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.