The Wheel of the Year: Lughnasadh - the First Harvest

Lughnasadh (pronounced LOO-na-sah) marks the first of three harvest celebrations in the Wheel of the Year (the other two being Mabon and Samhain) and traditionally the gathering of the grains. It occurs between the Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox and is a celebration of the generosity of Mother Earth and the life-force of Father Sun.

Lughnasadh was celebrated in Gaelic cultures usually around the first of August which is in the sign of Leo, when the sun reaches 15 degrees of Leo (though celebrations often continued into the following weeks). The festival is also known as Lammas, though Lammas was the Christian name for this time of harvest and means ‘loaf mass’ where special breads would be blessed in church. Either way, this time of year honours the sanctity of grain and its special place at the heart of the community as the ‘staff of life’.

For our ancestors in agricultural communities, Lughnasadh was a very important and busy time of year when the first grains were ready to be harvested. The seeds planted earlier in the year would have grown into an abundant crop and could now be harvested and stored to see out the barren months to come. It was seen as a time of plenty with many getting involved in the community’s harvest activities, community celebrations and feasts in celebration of the first harvest and for honouring the natural cycle of life, death and rebirth.

“This is a time for generosity, compassion and community spirit; a moment when we offer our labour, talent, and effort to the collective.” - Carmen Spagnola, The Spirited Kitchen, Recipe & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year

In gaelic lore, Lughnasadh was the time when the sun god Lugh is celebrated, one of the most important gods who represented sun and light and was known as the ‘Many Skilled’ (who was later thought of as a historical figure and Irish cultural hero). This festival marked his being cut down in his prime in sacrifice for the sustenance of the community so he can rise up again the following year.

Sacrifice is one of the core themes of Lughnasadh with many communities having long-standing traditions of making offerings of the first fruits of the harvest in gratitude to the local deity to maintain a positive relationship and ensure a long season of abundance - a ritual that dates back to ancient Greece.

To this day, Lughnasadh is a potent portal for reaping the harvest of rewards from the energetic seeds of any intentions we may have planted back at Imbolc and action we took during the Ostara, Beltane and Midsummer solar season. It’s a time to make the most of the remaining light and warmth and practice gratitude and appreciation for all the abundance and growth we experienced over the Light half of the year as the days gradually start to shorten and we begin to prepare for the season of turning inward.

In Triple Goddess terms, we’re still connected to the Mother Goddess phase of the triple Goddess with these first two harvest festivals (before turning to the Crone Goddess at Samhain) so my next couple of blog posts for the Goddesses of Lughnasadh will focus on Mother Goddesses, beginning with Demeter, ancient Greek Mother Goddess of the Harvest.

Lughnasadh themes:

• Harvest

• Abundance

• Prosperity

• Success

• Nourishment

• Gratitude

• Community & Interconnection

• Sharing

• Fire/ Sun

• Warmth

• Maturation/ Motherhood

• Growth

• Fulfilment

• Sacrifice

• Cleansing

RITUALS TO HONOUR LUGHNASADH:

• Gratitude Altar - create an altar for Lughnasadh, with an offering to a deity you have a personal connection with or just to ‘the Universe’ or whatever you wish to give thanks to, to acknowledge the blessings, abundance and growth of the Light season. Decorate it with sunflowers and wheat-craft (abundance of ideas on pinterest!) or other symbols of abundance and plenty personal to you (crystals, gold, other food or craft items), light a candle and give thanks for all you have received.

• Share a Feast - take this as a good excuse to come together with friends, neighbours and community and put on a good, hearty nourishing feast to celebrate the last hurrah of summer (this doesn’t have to be done on 1st August as feasting and celebrations were often made for weeks after Lughnasadh). Get everyone to ‘bring a plate’, foster that community spirit and give thanks for all the abundance on offer! Traditionally bread, beer, cake and baked goods with traditional grains such as wheat, barley, oats and rye were used in feasts to celebrate the beginning of the harvest season (or you can certainly substitute for corn or GF grains if you’re coeliac/intolerant or other foods to give it a more twenty-first century spin!). Berries also started to come into season at this time (so jam-making would be another ideal Lughnasadh ritual) and honey was also a sweet and symbolic addition to Lughnasadh feasts.

• Ritual of Acknowledgement - do a simple ritual of reflection - light a candle and reflect on the seeds of intentions that you may have set either back at the New Year or over Imbolc and acknowledge the growth, transformation, blessings and abundance that have come your way - either directly related to those intentions or perhaps in other areas of your life. Appreciate yourself and all the hard work you (and your team if you have one!) have put in throughout the year and where there may still be some more work to be done to reap some last rewards (there’s still another two harvest festivals yet…!)

References:

• Seasons of the Witch: Mabon Oracle by Lorriane Anderson & Juliet Diaz

• The Spirited Kitchen - Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year by Carmen Spagnola

• 2024 Witches’ Diary - Flavia Kate Peters & Barbara Meiklejohn-Free