I am going to be doing a blog series dedicated to the 4 Celtic Fire Festivals: Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtainne, and Lughnasadh. I thought that since Lughnasadh is so close to us today I would start off with Lughnasadh.
Lughnasadh marked the beginning of the Harvest Season in the Celtic Callendar. It was a time of festivities and games. Such games included but were not limited to Horse Races, and the games now known as the Highland Games. In Ireland it was also known as a time for Handfastings (Trial Marriages) lasting a year and a day.
In Irish Mythology the holiday Lughnasadh was said to begin as a holiday to commemorate the funeral of the foster mother of the God Lugh. The first location of this feast was at Teltown inbetween Navan and Kells. Similar to Lughnasadh is the Goddess Carmun who has another feast happening around about the same time as Lughnasadh. I am assuming that over the centuries the two feasts have merged into one feast.
A festival corresponding to Lughnasadh has been celebrated by the Gauls up until the first century. Later that date was adopted as a meeting of all the representatives of Gaul at the Condate Altar. During the reign of Augustus, the Romans instituted a Holiday to worship the genius of the Emperor on August 1st in Lyons (a city believed to have been named for Lugh's Gaulish Cognate, incidentally).
On mainland Europe the Fires continue to burn with dancing. The Church blesses these Fires for some reason I couldn't even begin to fathom. And in the diaspora the 4th of July has in someways subsumed Lughnasadh as the primary festival of the end of summer.
