Dave's Blog

Tuesday, 7/31/2007

Lughnasa 

The modern holy day of Lammas was once Lughnasadh, a festival of 
light, and a harvest festival. It was celebrated for four weeks, 
with August 1 at its midpoint. 

Many religions worship light, perhaps the first abstraction that 
takes divinity beyond the physical world. Lugh was a god of light 
and a Herculean hero, who fought to gain the Tuatha da Danaan, 
one of the later tribes to immigrate to (or, rather, invade) 
Ireland, access to the fruits of the land. Lugh was also 
associated with a life-and-death cycle, and this festival 
commemorated his death. Today young men carry his empty coffin 40 
miles down an ancient road across the Yorkshire moors. The cycle 
differed from the Greek model in that the death and life were not 
of one person, but of two. The old King would die, the new King 
would be born and crowned. In spirit, father and son were one, 
and the life of the father lived on in the son. We hear echoes of 
this tradition in the cheer, "The King is dead, long live the 
King!" 

This is also the festival that brought us the trial marriage, 
solemnized at the Tailtean games. A man and a woman could marry 
for "a year and a day," or one solar year, at the games. If they 
decided that the marriage wouldn't work out, they both had to 
return to the games the next year, and declare their annulment by 
standing back-to-back and then walking directly away from each 
other. If they hadn't agreed on much during the year, hopefully 
they could agree on that!

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