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Lammas
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Lammas August 1...The days are visibly shorter the Light is failing and you finally know and accept that Summer with its long days and warmth is not eternal. The ancients chose this day to mark as "Special" because it marked the day of "First Harvest" ...the earliest of the crops were coming ripe in the fields and work was begun to harvest and store them away for the long dark time when cold ruled the earth. In Ireland and Scotland and the areas where the Gaelic culture held sway this day was known as "Lughsannagh" which translates out to modern English as "the Funeral Games of the Sun God's Mother". A bit of back story the Sun God in these cultures was known as Lugh and was given birth to on December 21 and His Mother was generally accepted to be one of the Earth Goddess variants (in Ireland this was the Virgin earth mother Lady Brighid among other variants) on August 1 the Sun God's mother was seen to be preparing for her long winter dormancy after all the harvests were completed. To celebrate this competitions were held races and displays of strength and skill to please both the Sun God and His Mother and to hone villagers abilities mentally and physically as well as feasts ad parties to celebrate the bounty of the earth In Greece and Rome this day was the recognition that Demeter (or Ceres if you were Roman) the Goddess of the Harvest, Hearth and Home was soon to lose her Persephone for 6 moths when she left for her 6 month stint to become the wife of Hades and in her grief Demeter/Ceres would make the world cold. and here it was the start of the harvest and celebration of the bounty of the earth in feasting The early Christians and Catholics eliminated this holiday from their calendar completely as it was purely a pagan feast day and could not quite be adapted to the new framework they were constructing as it referred to Gods they were trying their damndest to eliminate An addition to this---August is the only month in the Christian calendar that lacks holidays completely |
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Very interesting! To celebrate this competitions were held races and displays of strength and skill to please both the Sun God and His Mother and to hone villagers abilities mentally and physically as well as feasts ad parties to celebrate the bounty of the earth IIRC, the Picts and other Highland people were the last to convert to Christianity. Could this festival have been the pre-Christian roots of the Highland Games?
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