Lughnasadh – The Start of Autumn

Today is 1st August, which is marked by the old Celtic festival of Lughnasadh, named after the God Lugh. This coincides with the English Lammas Day, one of many Christian festivals with pagan origins. The word for August in modern Irish is Lúnasa, a name derived from the old Celtic word. Traditionally 1st August marks the start of the harvest season and is celebrated accordingly, with rites involving the first fruit and bread baked from flour obtained from the first corn. It is also one of the cross-quarter days, lying roughly half-way between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox (in the Northern Hemisphere). In the Northern hemisphere, from an astronomical point of view, the solar year is defined by the two solstices (summer, around June 21st and winter, around December 21st) and the equinoxes (Spring, around March 21st, and Autumn, around September 21st). These four events divide the year into four roughly equal parts of about 13 weeks each. If you divide each of these…