As summer begins to wane we come upon the first of three harvest festivals. In Celtic lands the festival of Lughnasadh was held around the 1st of August. The festival takes its name from the Celtic deity, Lugh - a sun god of many talents. He was aptly called The Many Skilled. The celebration began originally to honor his mother who died toiling to clear land for cultivation. Not one to want people to mourn her, she decreed that games should be held in her honor.

The funeral games also fell at the time of year when the grain harvest came in. In celebration of the ritual winnowing of the grain, baking of bread, markets, fairs and celebrating the bounty of the land became the late summer customs in agricultural communities. As Christianity rose, the festival drew the name Lammas, or loaf mass, for its central theme of grain harvesting and the baking of bread to guide people away from the old pagan customs. Another custom common to the ancients were trial marriages that lasted a year and day and would begin at Lughnasadh. After the period is up, if the two are not compatible, they each were free to go their separate ways, or if compatible they could be bonded by a handfasting, thusly making August a popular month for weddings in modern times.

Today, we take a very laid back approach to this cross-quarter day in the lazy days of summer just before autumnal garden chores begin. Now is a time to give thanks for the blessings and gifts you have received throughout the year and for the bounty your garden has given you. Take time to be in nature and contemplate. Give back to the Earth by recycling or planting trees. Host a meal featuring grain products and the produce from your garden. Decorate your table with grains, sunflowers and baskets of fruit.

ASSOCIATIONS
· Animals: griffins, basilisks, roosters, calves, centaurs, phoenix
· Colors: red, orange, yellow, gold, bronze
· Element: fire
· Food: grain based foods,summer squash, berries, elderberry wine, blackberries, meadowsweet tea, corn pie, blueberry panckaes
· Plants: acacia, all grains, blackberry, calendula, cornstalks frankincense, grape, heather, mistletoe, oak, rose, sandalwood, sunflower
· Power: fruitfulness, reaping, prosperity, reverence, purification, transformation
· Symbols: god figures, phallic symbols, threshing tools, spear, cauldron, sickle, bonfires

DECORATIONS
· Bouquets of sunflowers
· Bundles of grain, wheat sheaves, corn dollies
· Images of the harvest

ACTIVITIES
· Bake bread
· Plan a family meal using the harvest of your garden; corn pie, tomato salad, apple pie, blackberry lemonade
· Give back to the Earth by recycling
· Shake off bad habbits bad casting a symbol of them into a fire
· Meditate on the bounties and gifts the year has presented you

LUGHNASADH INCENSE
(burn on incense charcoal or cast into the fire)
2 parts frankincense - protection, spirituality
2 parts sandalwood -protection, healing, spirituality
1 part pine needles - purifying and cleansing, protection, healing, money
1/2 part bay - protection, purification, psychic powers, healing, strength
1/2 part cinnamon - success, healing, psychic powers.
1/2 part coriander - protection, peace
1/2 part meadowsweet - romance, marriage
1/2 part rosemary - purifying, cleansing, protection, healing, mental power, knowledge
1/2 part rose petals - love, healing, life spirits and open the heart, divination, luck
A few drops oak moss oil - drawing of money
A few drops patchouli oil - money, prosperity, fertility, lust

Posted in: The Wheel of the Year