Thoughts on Lughnasa

So I didn't celebrate much on the night, but since then I think I've appreciated the festival, or rather the time of year, more.

It's still hot in the daytime, yet by 8 o clock the temperature has noticeably dropped.  It's dark at 8.30, not 10.30.

There is lots of UK grown fruit around.  I've been stuffing myself on nectarines, raspberries, blackberries, cherries and apples.

I walk home and see sparrows flitting about.  I wake up in the morning and hear the bubbling of the goldfinches.  I heard an owl screeching around the house a couple of weeks ago.

It feels like Autumn is coming.  I am grateful for the last few weeks of summer but feel prepared for the seasons to come.

Lughnasa

The 1^st of August is recognised as Lughnasa.  Lughnasa is named for Lugh, the Irish God of the Sun and/or Light.  His Welsh equivalent is Llew.  Lughnasa is the Irish Gaelic word for August.  Lughnasa can be spelt Lughnasadh and is also known as Lammas, or the festival of first fruits.  It marks the start of the harvest season and is celebrated by food, drink, games and ritual offerings.

Truth be told, I haven’t read as much this year as I would like to do, so I don’t feel quite up to speed on the symbolism and traditions of the festival.  Instead, I have been thinking about food and the price of vegetables and fruit, and what we’ve got growing in the garden.

The East of England has had something of a heat wave these past few weeks.  Until July, we’d had a cold, wet and snowy year.  It was miserable.  Plants and trees seemed to flower about 2 weeks late.  Then it got hot.  For several days it was between 26 and 30 degrees, and it stayed like this. We had the odd bit of rain, but that only lasted 20 minutes.  We’ve had precious few thunderstorms and it’s been so warm.  I’ve pretty much forgotten what being cold feels like.  As I write, this, on 31^st July, it is predicted to be 20 degrees today and 28 degrees tomorrow, on Lughnasa.  I think this is entirely appropriate.

Perhaps it’s the great heat that has speeded up plant growth, but for the last few weeks the cost of my weekly vegetable shop has dropped by a third to a half.  It’s wonderful.  I haven’t seen much new in, apart from lots of green beans, but it’s great to know everything is getting harvested.

We’ve got raspberry and blackberry bushes in the garden and they started throwing up fruit a few weeks ago.  We’ve been picking them and freezing them ready to put them in a rhubarb crumble, or possibly rhubarb fool.  We haven’t decided yet.

I haven’t really made any celebratory plans for the day tomorrow.  I intend to get up at 6.30 to go out for a run, then I’m at work all day.  In the evening we have family coming over.  This wasn’t timed to go with Lughnasa, but just fell in that way.  I’m sure there will be good food, cake and wine or beer.  I'll try and do some reading.  By the time you read this I will have put out my altar decorations and hopefully have had a few moments to myself to contemplate things.

To finish, I leave you with the lyrics to John Barleycorn, a folk song commemorating the corn harvest, which takes place round about now:

There were three men come from the West
Their fortunes for to try,
And these three made a solemn vow:
"John Barleycorn must die."

They plowed, they sowed, they harrowed him in,
Threw clods upon his head,
'Til these three men were satisfied
John Barleycorn was dead.

They let him lie for a very long time,
'Til the rains from heaven did fall,
When little Sir John raised up his head
And so amazed them all.

They let him stand 'til Mid-Summer's Day
When he looked both pale and wan;
Then little Sir John grew a long, long beard
And so became a man.

They hired men with their scythes so sharp
To cut him off at the knee;
They rolled him and tied him around the waist,
And served him barbarously.

They hired men with their sharp pitchforks
To pierce him to the heart,
But the loader did serve him worse than that,
For he bound him to the cart.

They wheeled him 'round and around the field
'Til they came unto a barn,
And there they took a solemn oath
On poor John Barleycorn.

They hired men with their crab-tree sticks
To split him skin from bone,
But the miller did serve him worse than that,
For he ground him between two stones.

There's little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl,
And there's brandy in the glass,
And little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl
Proved the strongest man at last.

The huntsman cannot hunt the fox
Nor loudly blow his horn
And the tinker cannot mend his pots
Without John Barleycorn.

Happy Lughnasa everyone!

Lughnasa!

Today is Lughnasa, or Lammas as some call it.  It's the time of the first harvest and is named for the Irish sun and light God Lugh.  Lugh is also the God or artisans, smiths and craftsmen, and so shares attributes with Brigid, celebrated at Imbolc in February, and Athena, Greek God of weaving, wisdom and strategy.  I finished my decorations last night, and I'm pleased with them (especially as I managed to incorporate some sewing).

Symbols for Lughnasa are poppies, apricots, apples, nuts and grain.  In my display I also have bees and fish and birds, and candles, for the light.  I have just finished a minor feast of toast and marmalade, followed by cheese and biscuits.  I shall have my proper celebration on Friday I think, as I am out tomorrow night, same as tonight.  I was able to have apricots and nectarines in my morning porridge though.

There's a poem by Robert Burns, well, collected by Robert Burns as it's an old folk song, about John Barleycorn, who personifies the season.  Here it is:

There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die.

They took a plough and plough'd him down,
Put clods upon his head,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn was dead.

But the cheerful Spring came kindly on'
And show'rs began to fall;
John Barleycorn got up again,
And sore surpris'd them all.

The sultry suns of Summer came,
And he grew thick and strong:
His head weel arm'd wi pointed spears,
That no one should him wrong.

The sober Autumn enter'd mild,
When he grew wan and pale;
His bendin joints and drooping head
Show'd he began to fail.

His colour sicken'd more and more,
He faded into age;
And then his enemies began
To show their deadly rage.

They've taen a weapon, long and sharp,
And cut him by the knee;
They ty'd him fast upon a cart,
Like a rogue for forgerie.

They laid him down upon his back,
And cudgell'd him full sore.
They hung him up before the storm,
And turn'd him o'er and o'er.

They filled up a darksome pit
With water to the brim,
They heav'd in John Barleycorn-
There, let him sink or swim!

They laid him upon the floor,
To work him farther woe;
And still, as signs of life appear'd,
They toss'd him to and fro.

They wasted o'er a scorching flame
The marrow of his bones;
But a miller us'd him worst of all,
For he crush'd him between two atones.

And they hae taen his very hero blood
And drank it round and round;
And still the more and more they drank,
Their joy did more abound.

John Barleycorn was a hero bold,
Of noble enterprise;
For if you do but taste his blood,
'Twill make your courage rise.

'Twill make a man forget his woe;
'Twill heighten all his joy:
'Twill make the widow's heart to sing,
Tho the tear were in her eye.

Then let us toast John Barleycorn,
Each man a glass in hand;
And may his great posterity
Ne'er fail in old Scotland!


I hope you all enjoy the day .  Go get some fresh fruit, some seasonal vegetables and make a delicious feast.
May your cupboards and bellies be ever full!

Lughnasa

Today is Lughnasa. It is a harvest festival and dedicated to the sun god Lugh. Ever seen the film Dancing at Lughnasa? That’s set around this time.

I don’t grow my own food, I barely garden. The boyfriend gardens a bit, and we tend to have lots of flowering plants (for the bees, everyone loves bees), but we have given up growing our own veg. After a couple of years where we were overrun with tomatoes and the courgettes turned into marrows we gave up and now I just buy all our veg. I try to buy stuff that’s in season, and that’s been grown in this country, in winter that gets a bit harder and we end up eating a lot of cabbage and cauliflower. Since about May more UK grown stuff is available, which makes me a bit confused. As I’m not exactly au fait with the crop cycle I have no idea what’s meant to be in season now that wasn’t in season a month ago. There’s been loads of UK grown fruit around f’rinstance.

Anyway, that’s not going to stop me acknowledging today. I shall be baking a cake (lemon and poppy seed since you ask), but not doing a fancy meal. There must be something about this time of year because last year I completely missed Lughnasa and this year I’ve been struggling to find appropriate decorations. Hence why my only real effort will be in baking a cake (type of cake determined by the boyfriend’s request). We are also going out to a friend’s housewarming in the evening, which I think is a nice way to spend a harvest festival – thinking along the lines of gaining fruits for your efforts, abundance etc. It’s a sort of loose farming analogy. Very loose. Anyway it’ll be a celebration, and a good way to relax after a week where it seems that loads of people I know have ended up in hospital, with things of varying degrees of seriousness. Gah.


Anyway, enjoy your day everybody and I hope the sun shines for you!