Lughnasadh

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Lughnasadh [ 'Luɣnasað ] ( Old Irish , "death of Lugh", "killing of Lugh") also Lugnásad , Lughnasa , today's New Irish form Lúnasa , Anglo-Irish Lammas ; also Brón Trogain ("Mourning for Trogain"), is the third of the four great Irish festivals. The other three are Imbolg (February 1st), Beltane (May 1st) and Samhain (November 1st). The festival was celebrated beginning the night before August 1st and on that day and marks the beginning of autumn.

mythology

Lugnasadh lies at the beginning of the harvest season and was therefore celebrated with community festivities. In the Sanas Cormaic , the glossary of Bishop Cormac, it is reported that the Túatha Dé Danann god Lugh mac Ethnenn is said to have donated this festival in pre-Christian times in memory of his deceased foster mother Tailtiu , the wife of the Firbolg king Eochaid mac Eirc that is why it bears his name. Another name is for this reason oenach Taílten ("Tailtius Fest"), but this festival lasted from mid-July to mid-August and ran in the manner of a potlatch (with games, races, engagement parties, giving gifts, community feasts , etc.) from. Co-sleepers ( concubines ) were bought and sold on this date, with fixed-term marriages being concluded with them for the period up to the next Lughnasadh. The trial marriages of young people were also closed and divorced again in the spring if they were “infertile” and Clarus therefore translates Lughnasadh as “Lugh's wedding [with Tailtiu]”. The name Brón Trogain ("Mourning for Trogain") for Lughnasadh is an ancient name for Lugh's wet nurse.

The main festival locations were Teltown (the mythical place where Tailtius died), Tara and Kildare . In the latter places, instead of Tailtiu, a mother goddess named Carman was celebrated, who had been driven from her rule over the island during the invasion of the Túatha Dé Danann. Similar celebrations, some of which still live today, took place in Lughnasadh in many other places in Ireland, such as the Old Lammas Fair in Ballycastle (Antrim) and the Puck fair in Killorglin , as well as pilgrimages. The most important of these are those on "Reek Sunday", such as the Turas on Croagh Patrick ( County Mayo ) on the last Sunday in July and on the Cnoc Bréanainn ( Mount Brandon in County Kerry ). Already in the Dindsenchas ("Collection of place names declarations of Ireland") the pagan ceremonies that were previously connected with it are mentioned. At Lughnasadh it should be possible for people to come into contact with the figures of the Other World , such as the Sídhe (the inhabitants of the fairy hills). There were also ceremonies at the graves.

Neo-paganism

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In neo-paganism , Lughnasadh is one of the eight holidays or lunar festivals in the wheel of the year and comes before Mabon and Samhain . Lughnasadh recalls the sacrifice and death of the grain god: the grain, initially born as a seedling that nourishes people in its “death”, is understood as one of the aspects of the sun god. Some neo-pagans celebrate the holiday by baking an image of the god as bread, which they then consecrate and eat. Some also tie bouquets of various grains and grasses, as well as flowers. These are knotted together with a ribbon on which you write your wishes and hung up.

Lughnasadh is often defined as the midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox, which is halfway in Leo (for the northern hemisphere) or Aquarius (for the southern hemisphere). The Lughnasadh in the northern hemisphere coincides with Imbolg in the southern hemisphere. As a holiday, it is preceded by midsummer, while Lughnasadh is followed by Mabon. Neo-pagan Lughnasadh festivals can contain elements from the most diverse lines of development of customs.

At Lughnasadh - in addition to Beltane - temporal ties or neo-Celtic weddings (marriages for 1 year and 1 day) are performed.

Neuheiden also use the name Lammas , which is attested for the first time in Anglo-Saxon times as hlafmæsse  "(bread) loaf mass" and denotes the Christian festival of Petri chain celebration , where bread from the first grain cut was consecrated.

literature

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Whether the genetivus subiectivus or obiectivus applies here, i. H. "Lugh kills" or "Lugh is killed" is unclear. (Helmut Birkhan: Kelten. Attempt to present an overall picture of their culture. P. 536.)
  2. ↑ Máire MacNeill: The Festival of Lughnasa. A Study of the Survival of the Celtic Festival of the Beginning of Harvest. Oxford 1962, p. 10.
  3. ^ Bernhard Maier: Lexicon of the Celtic religion and culture . P. 215 f.
  4. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 535 f.
  5. ^ Ingeborg Clarus: Celtic myths. Man and his otherworld. P. 90.
  6. ↑ Patricia Monaghan: The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog: The Landscape of Celtic Myth and Spirit. New World Library, 2004, ISBN 9781577314585 , p. 231. ( Preview in Google Book Search).
  7. ↑ Reek Sunday or Garland Sunday is the Angloir name for an annual pilgrimage on the last Sunday in July, when pilgrims traditionally march with bare feet. The pilgrimage is said to have existed for around 1500 years
  8. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 790 ff.
  9. ^ TF Hoad: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology , Lemma Lammas