“To win from the soil the bread of life is [humanity’s] most primitive task.”[1] It was a task woven into humanity’s understanding of the world; it shaped beliefs and practices, especially in a time when crop failure jeopardized a community’s survival. It’s fitting in our current geopolitical climate and lived experience of precarity to consider the celebration of harvest. This is not to be glib about people’s suffering, but rather to reflect on the truth that life can be difficult and the circumstances are often beyond our control.
Lughnasa marks the beginning of the harvest. Lúnasa is also the modern Irish name for the month of August. It is the last of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals and it predates history. The earliest records are from medieval Christian writers. We also know about this festival through the vagaries of folk memory and tradition. At its core, after prayers for a successful harvest, and toiling in the field, the people would give thanks and celebrate, making offerings to honour Lugh, the god of skill and mastery. There are nearly two hundred known sites in Ireland connected to the Festival of Lughnasa. At these places, people would gather to pick bilberries, feast, sacrifice, and revel in gratitude for the harvest. Dancing was a prominent feature in these festivals, as was flirting and courting.
In ancient myth, Lughnasa was also an athletic competition; a set of funeral games to honour Tailtiu, Lugh’s foster-mother, who died while clearing the fields for agriculture. It is possible that Tailtiu was an earth goddess who represented the dying vegetation that fed humans. It is an annual miracle whereby the people of Ireland were fed and they celebrated. In some accounts, Lughnasa was a divine struggle between Crom Dubh, a god who demanded a sacrifice in exchange for milk and grain, and Lugh who sought to gather it for humanity. Another story recounts this as a fight between the two gods over Eithne, a woman who represents the grain. As Christianity grew and took hold in Ireland, Lugh’s victory over Crom Dubh was replaced with St. Patrick’s, thereby sanctifying an ancient pagan tradition and transforming it into a Christian story.
Gregorian calendar reforms in the eighteenth century also helped, unwittingly, to preserve this tradition.[2] Celebrations shifted from August 1 to the last Sunday of July. This contributed to a renaming of the festival, a few of which include First Sunday of Harvest, the Last Sunday of Summer, Garland Sunday, and Bilberry Sunday. These different naming conventions separated the festival from its pagan namesake and allowed it to align with Christian practices. Additionally, the crops underwent a transformation shifting from the reaping of grain to the harvesting of potatoes. These changes reflect shifting cultural identity markers.
It feels somewhat strange to observe an agricultural festival when most of my food comes from someone else’s labour and often from places far from my home. How then do we honour this festival when grocery stores provide most of our food? I argue that while this particular festival lacks practical application for most of us, it allows us an opportunity for ritual. In the busy-ness of modern life, it’s easy to forget to mark annual cycles – the turning of the wheel – but ritual is part of how we ground ourselves. They are a way to stay tethered in the midst of a storm. Wherever you may be reading this, you are undoubtedly facing storms of one kind or another, perhaps political upheaval, ecological disasters, familial challenges, or internal chaos. In these times, it is good to lean in to community and find gratitude, however small. As I write this, I am eagerly anticipating the ripening of tomatoes in my garden. Perhaps I will be able to delight in their harvest as part of my own Lughnasa celebration.
Regardless, as the wheel turns towards fall, I continue to work on the studio community and finding ways to gather, connect, create, and celebrate through dance. If this appeals to you, join us for classes this fall. Registration for six-week sessions is open!