Editing Lughnasadh (section)

==Historic customs==
In the Middle Ages, the {{lang|ga|[[Tailteann Games (ancient)|Óenach Tailten]]}} or {{lang|ga|Áenach Tailten}} (modern spelling: {{lang|ga|Aonach Tailteann}}) was held each Lughnasadh at [[Telltown|Tailtin]] in what is now [[County Meath]]. According to medieval literature, kings attended this ''[[óenach]]'' and a truce was declared for its duration. It was similar to the [[Ancient Olympic Games]] and included ritual athletic and sporting contests, [[horse racing]], music and storytelling, trading, proclaiming laws and settling legal disputes, drawing-up contracts, and [[matchmaking]].<ref name="monaghan297" /><ref name="kelly459">Kelly, Fergus. ''Early Irish Farming''. [[Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies]], 1997. p.459</ref><ref>Patterson, Nerys. ''Cattle-lords and Clansmen: The Social Structure of Early Ireland''. University of Notre Dame Press, 1994. p.145</ref> At Tailtin, young couples entered into [[Handfasting|trial marriages]] by joining hands through a hole in a wooden door.<ref>Monaghan, p.444</ref> The trial marriage lasted a year and a day, at which time it could be made permanent or broken without consequences.<ref name="monaghan297" /><ref name="McNeill">{{Cite book |last=McNeill |first=F. Marian |title=The Silver Bough |publisher=William MacLellan |year=1959 |isbn=0-85335-162-7 |volume=2 |location=[[Glasgow]] |pages=94–101}}</ref><ref name="Danaher">{{Cite book |last=Danaher |first=Kevin |url=https://archive.org/details/yearinireland00kevi/page/167 |title=The Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs |publisher=Mercier |year=1972 |isbn=1-85635-093-2 |location=Dublin |pages=[https://archive.org/details/yearinireland00kevi/page/167 167–186]}}</ref><ref name="Chadwick">{{Cite book |last=Chadwick |first=Nora |title=The Celts |publisher=Penguin |year=1970 |isbn=0-14-021211-6 |page=181}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=O'Donovan |first1=J |title=Ancient laws of Ireland, published under direction of the Commissioners for Publishing the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland |last2=O'Curry |first2=E |last3=Hancock |first3=W. N. |last4=O'Mahony |first4=T |publisher=W.S. Hein |year=2000 |isbn=1-57588-572-7 |editor-last=Richey |editor-first=A. G. |editor-link=Alexander George Richey |location=[[Buffalo, New York]] |editor-last2=Hennessy |editor-first2=W. M. |editor-link2=William Maunsell Hennessy |editor-last3=Atkinson |editor-first3=R.}} (Originally published: Dublin: A. Thom, 1865–1901. Alternatively known as {{lang|la|Hiberniae leges et institutiones antiquae}}.)</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/2514 |title=Llewellyn Worldwide – Articles: Traditional Lughnasadh with a Modern Twist |website=www.llewellyn.com |date=22 June 2015 |access-date=1 August 2017}}</ref> After the 9th century the {{lang|ga|Óenach Tailten}} was celebrated irregularly and it gradually died out.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Koch |first=John T. |title=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia |year=2006 |pages=1201–02}}</ref> It was revived for a period in the 20th century as the [[Tailteann Games (Irish Free State)|Tailteann Games]].<ref name="McNeill" /><ref name="MacKillop">{{Cite book |last=MacKillop |first=James |title=A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-19-280120-1 |pages=309–10, 395–6, 76, 20}}</ref> Another Lughnasadh gathering, the {{lang|ga|Óenach Carmain}}, was held in what is now [[County Kildare]]. [[Carman]] is also believed to have been a goddess, perhaps one with a similar tale as Tailtiu.<ref name="MacKillop" /> The {{lang|ga|Óenach Carmain}} included a food market, a livestock market, and a market for foreign traders.<ref name="kelly459" />  A 15th-century version of the Irish legend ''[[Tochmarc Emire]]'' ("the Wooing of Emer") is one of the earliest documents to record these festivities.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Blumberg |first=Antonia |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/8-facts-to-know-about-lughnasadh-pagan-harvest-festival_us_579a832ee4b08a8e8b5d6134 |title=8 Facts To Know About Lughnasadh, Pagan Harvest Festival |date=29 July 2016 |work=Huffington Post |access-date=1 August 2017 |language=en-US}}</ref>

From the 18th century to the mid 20th century, many Lughnasadh customs and folklore were recorded. In 1962 ''The Festival of Lughnasa'', a study of Lughnasadh by [[folkloristics|folklorist]] [[Máire MacNeill]], was published.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/new-year-folder-3/the-festival-of-lughnasa/ |title=Four Courts Press {{!}} The Festival of Lughnasa |website=www.fourcourtspress.ie |language=en-GB |access-date=1 August 2017}}</ref> MacNeill studied surviving Lughnasadh customs and folklore as well as the earlier accounts and medieval writings about the festival. She concluded that the evidence testified to the existence of an ancient festival around 1 August that involved the following:

<blockquote>A solemn [[First Fruits|cutting of the first of the corn]] of which an offering would be made to the deity by bringing it up to a high place and burying it; a meal of the new food and of [[bilberry|bilberries]] of which everyone must partake; a sacrifice of a sacred bull, a feast of its flesh, with some ceremony involving its hide, and its replacement by a young bull; a ritual dance-play perhaps telling of a struggle for a goddess and a ritual fight; an installation of a [carved stone] head on top of the hill and a triumphing over it by an actor impersonating Lugh; another play representing the confinement by Lugh of the monster blight or famine; a three-day celebration presided over by the brilliant young god [Lugh] or his human representative. Finally, a ceremony indicating that the interregnum was over, and the chief god in his right place again.<ref name="macneill426">MacNeill, Máire. ''The Festival of Lughnasa: A Study of the Survival of the Celtic Festival of the Beginning of Harvest''. Oxford University Press, 1962. p.426</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Croagh Patrick - geograph.org.uk - 1773515.jpg|thumb|Pilgrims climbing [[Croagh Patrick]] on [[Reek Sunday]]. It is believed that climbing hills and mountains has formed a major part of the festival since ancient times, and the Reek Sunday pilgrimage is likely a continuation of this tradition.]]

Many of the customs described by medieval writers survived into the modern era, though they were either Christianized or shorn of any pagan religious meaning. Lughnasadh occurred during a poor time of the year for the farming community when the old crops were done and the new ones not yet ready for harvest.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Gráinseach Ailt an Chaistín (St. Johnston) {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url=https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4493739/4415638/4529000|access-date=13 February 2022|website=dúchas.ie|language=en}}</ref> Many of Ireland's prominent mountains and hills were climbed at Lughnasadh. Some of the treks were re-cast as Christian pilgrimages, the most well-known being [[Reek Sunday]] – the yearly pilgrimage to the top of [[Croagh Patrick]] in late July.<ref>Monaghan, p.104</ref> Other hilltop gatherings were secular and attended mostly by the youth. On the [[Mountains of the Iveragh Peninsula|Iveragh Peninsula]], a pilgrimage to the summit of [[Drung Hill]] was part of local Lughnasadh celebrations until it died out around 1880.<ref name="Atlas">{{cite book | url=https://www.academia.edu/774555 | chapter=Iveragh’s Mountain Pilgrimages | last=Ó Carragáin | first=Tomás | editor-last=Crowley | editor-first=John | editor-last2=Sheehan | editor-first2=John G. | title=The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry | date=2009 | publisher=Cork University Press | isbn=978-1-85918-430-1}}</ref> 

In Ireland, [[bilberries]] were gathered<ref>{{Cite book |last=Monaghan |first=Patricia |title=The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2004 |page=45}}</ref> and there was eating, drinking, dancing, folk music, games and matchmaking, as well as athletic and sporting contests such as [[Weight throw|weight-throwing]], [[hurling]] and horse racing.<ref>MacNeill, ''The Festival of Lughnasa'', pp.142–143, 150, 180, 182</ref> At some gatherings, everyone wore flowers while climbing the hill and then buried them at the summit as a sign that summer was ending.<ref>MacNeill, ''The Festival of Lughnasa'', p.143</ref> In other places, the first sheaf of the harvest was buried.<ref>MacNeill, ''The Festival of Lughnasa'', p.421</ref> There were also faction fights, whereby two groups of young men [[Bataireacht|fought with sticks]].<ref>MacNeill, ''The Festival of Lughnasa'', p.424</ref> In 18th-century [[Lothian]], Scotland, rival groups of young men built towers of sods topped with a flag. For days, each group tried to sabotage the other's tower, and at Lughnasadh they met each other in 'battle'.<ref>MacNeill, ''The Festival of Lughnasa'', pp.369–372</ref> 

Bull sacrifices at Lughnasadh time were recorded as late as the 18th century at [[Gaeltacht Cois Fharraige|Cois Fharraige]] in Ireland, where they were offered to Crom Dubh, and at [[Loch Maree]] in Scotland, where they were offered to Saint [[Máel Ruba]].<ref>MacNeill, ''The Festival of Lughnasa'', pp.407, 410</ref> Special meals were made with the first produce of the harvest.<ref>Monaghan, p.180</ref> In the [[Scottish Highlands]], people made a special cake called the {{lang|gd|lunastain}}, which may have originated as an offering to the gods.<ref>Monaghan, p.299</ref>

Another custom that Lughnasadh shared with Imbolc and Beltane was visiting [[holy well]]s, some specifically [[clootie well]]s. Visitors to these wells would pray for health while walking [[sunwise]] around the well; they would then leave offerings, typically coins or [[wikt:clootie|clootie]]s.<ref>Monaghan, p.41</ref> Although [[bonfire]]s were lit at some of the open-air gatherings in Ireland, they were rare and incidental to the celebrations.<ref name="hutton">{{Cite book |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |title=Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |pages=327–330}}</ref>

Traditionally, Lughnasadh has always been reckoned as the first day of August.<ref name="Danaher166">{{Cite book |last=Danaher |first=Kevin |url=https://archive.org/details/yearinireland00kevi/page/166 |title=The Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs |publisher=Mercier |year=1972 |isbn=1-85635-093-2 |location=Dublin |pages=[https://archive.org/details/yearinireland00kevi/page/166 166]}}</ref> In recent centuries, however, much of the gatherings and festivities shifted to the nearest Sundays – either the last Sunday in July or first Sunday in August. It is believed this is because the coming of the harvest was a busy time and the weather could be unpredictable, which meant work days were too important to give up. As Sunday would have been a day of rest anyway, it made sense to hold celebrations then. The festival may also have been affected by the [[Adoption of the Gregorian calendar|shift to the Gregorian calendar]].<ref name="Danaher166" />

Lughnasadh was a time of unpredictable weather in Ireland. Heavy rains known as "Lammas floods" often coincided with beginning of August and were responsible for destroying the corn.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Certain Days|url=https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4723864/4720367/4785052|access-date=13 February 2022|website=dúchas.ie|language=en}}</ref> There are many folk sayings that relate to the unpredictable weather conditions during Lughnasadh and the importance of these conditions to the harvest:

<poem>"...For Lammas floods, with crops oft havoc play,
And e'en one swept the rustic bridge away."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Glassalts {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url=https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4493776/4419623/4535151|access-date=13 February 2022|website=dúchas.ie|language=en}}</ref>
"August needs the dew as much as men need bread.
After Lammas corn ripens as much by night as by day."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sayings of the Seasons|url=https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5009279/5004163/5132788|access-date=13 February 2022|website=dúchas.ie|language=en}}</ref></poem>