The shimmering days of summer dance around us. The sky an endless blue, greenery and flowers are easy on the eyes. Soon July will melt into August and the beginning of the Celtic autumn will again arrive in the twilight of Lughnasadh eve on July 31.
For many, July personifies the fullness of the summer. Holiday time is scheduled, friends and families journey to meet each other and experience new places. Picnics, abundance, relaxation and good times are at hand.
But to the relatives and ancestors who came before us, July was known as "the Staggering month" and "the Hungry month." The time between Midsummer and July's end were referred to as "the bitter six-weeks" because food stores were either very low or nonexistent.
A wealth of symbolism surrounds the great fire festival of Lughnasadh, but at its core it celebrates the end of hunger and scarcity. Known in many Celtic lands, Lughnasadh has names such as Bilberry Sunday, Garlic Sunday Lammas, Garland Sunday and Domhnach Chrom Dubh. As autumn began so did the harvest and food was once again plentiful.
In the near past, the first crop of potatoes was lifted on Lughnasadh. Potatoes are believed to have been introduced to Ireland in the seventeenth century and remained as the staple food crop until the mid-nineteenth century. Before that, grain-growing was a larger part of the farming economy. Many of the customs associated with potatoes were once connected with the earlier grain crops.
To dig potatoes before Lugnasadh was to risk crop failure and bad luck throughout the year. According to information gathered by the Irish Folklore Commission in 1942, the traditional first meal of potatoes on Lughnasadh was called Colcannon and composed of "boiled potatoes mashed, mixed with butter or milk and seasoned with onion garlic or cabbage." As with other festivals throughout the Celtic year it was important, not just enjoyable, to feast heartily at Lughnasadh to ward off hunger in the next twelve months.
Harvest, in the company of other labours such as stock-tending, fishing and hay and turf cutting all began around the first of August. By the end of the autumnal season, these tasks were completed in preparation for the coming of winter on October 31, Samhain.
At present though, it is still July in a country when deprivations are not so readily predicted by season. Rose mallow flowers wave outside my window as thickets of lavender wands cast their enchantments to brilliant yellow goldfinches flitting nearby. Perhaps harvest can be expressed in our time by relishing the fruits of our labours whether they be of the garden or of the heart. And by sharing that abundance, whether it is food or energy, with those who have less, we too can partake of the joy of Lughnasadh.