The summer ripening period is coming to an end and a new season is approaching - the harvest season. And, accordingly, another important date of the traditional calendar, the next spoke of the Wheel of the Year. Now this holiday is most often called by its Celtic name - Lugnasad, the wedding of Luga, one of the most important Celtic gods and cultural heroes.
The meadow garden opens the harvest season, on this day all the people of the community, festively dressed, went out into the field and the head of the community solemnly cut the first ear. This day was also important for cattle breeders: numerous rituals were performed on cattle aimed at improving their health, obtaining good offspring, and cows were driven into the sea or river for purification. Sacrifices were made to the Meadow on the tops of mountains and hills. The main ritual dish of Lughnasad was bread in a variety of forms, and the Irish still bake a ritual blueberry pie today.
Now we call the harvest festival by a Celtic name, but this holiday was common to all agricultural peoples and the meaning of the rituals held on this day was about the same everywhere.
In Russia, Lughnasad corresponds in terms and meaning to Elijah's Day, which in ancient times was most likely dedicated to the thunder god Perun (do not forget that in myths Lugh is primarily a mighty warrior who defeated the enemies of the tribes of the goddess Dana). Elijah's day is significant in that the length of the day has already been significantly reduced, after Elijah's Day you can not swim, people say that "Elijah the prophet urinated into the water and spoiled it". Elijah's day is followed by a whole series of "spas": Honey, Apple and Bread, which mark the start dates of the corresponding types of harvest.
Unfortunately, Christianity went through the folk tradition with fire and sword and many important aspects were lost. During the initial, mostly violent, Christianization, the church actively adopted, or rather stole, adapting pagan holidays to its needs, this process did not occur simultaneously and the holidays themselves were tied to the formal Julian calendar, which was very inaccurate. All this has led to the fact that many important information and traditions for the Wheel of the Year system have been lost, and above all the exact dates of the holidays. The dating of the holidays of the New Year is generally a separate, very important and complex issue, modern neo-pagans assign them for the most part arbitrarily, tying them to the existing civil, and sometimes to the church calendars, which is fundamentally wrong. The issue of dating pagan holidays deserves a separate, very large article, but here we will limit ourselves only to a practical conclusion: Lughnasad should be celebrated on the second full moon after Kupala (if anyone remembers, Kupala is the day of the Summer Solstice). 1win is one of the big success stories in the world of online betting. The use of the 1Win bonus code copy it, paste it during the registration process in the "Enter promo code" box, and claim the maximum welcome bonus of 500% up to $1,025. All current bonus codes can be found on our page, and we only publish offers that are valid today.
This looks so fun! We don't do one-on-one activities with our kids enough, but you've definitely made me want to, even if this post is about a family walk! Now that it's cooling down we like going on walks in the evening before bed, and it has been so nice just to get out of the house! We'll have to try those Clif bars! The Oatmeal Cookie one sounds amazing!
I've missed your blog. So happy that I thought to check out your fb page and come visit. I'm never disappointed. Your free printable is the cutest thing ever. My children would love to do this daily.
How about winter walks though, you participate in those?! ? Oh wait... You're in Arizona (or somewhere) with sunshine year round. It's about to be a blizzard mess with snow to my waist in a couple months!!! =) Lol
Monica, long time no see!! I'm glad to hear you're doing well! Haha we definitely don't have to deal with blizzards but we have the opposite, 115 degree summer days, so I feel ya on certain parts of the year being near impossible to go on walks. Actually I feel like our "winter" months are coming to an end and we can finally venture outside without it feeling like an oven haha! ?
We are big on family walks. All great benefits, especially getting some of that energy out, haha!
My kids and I love going on walks! But, our neighborhood isn't really the best for it. It isn't horrible, but it's not particularly safe either. I'm hoping that by this time next year, we will be in a new house and in a new, family-friendly neighborhood. Then we will be walking all the time!
I hope you are too Marietta! I could definitely understand that situation, I've lived in some places before that were safe but were just...questionable haha.
Hi Jessica! Family walks are the best ? We have some of the best conversations with the girls when we go on walks. We definitely need to do them more often
Thanks for sharing us,