Lùnastal – “folk Autumn”

[kyst]

this photo is what captured my attention... then found the article  thought id share ..

This time of year has always been special to me, which we try to align to the new moon or full depending. It marks the beginning of the “folk Autumn” season or second half of summer in the Celtic Calendar, midsummer. Nature’s signs tell us its time when we are able to gather the berries such as blae and bilberries and the collect the first raspberries. The fields of yellowing billowing wheat, barley and other grains, dotted with the red of poppy, as they are waiting to be cut.

The two festivals of midsummer ( or start of folk autumn)

There are two linked but distinct festivals at this time of year. The Gaelic possibly Celtic festival of Lunastal, Lunasdal, and Lughnasadh and Lammas. The first is Lugh of the Tuatha De Dannan festival. The second is Lammas from the word half-maesse or hlámmaesse meaing loaf mass or loaf feast, the festival of the Anglo-Saxons and quite possibly influenced by the Norse.

Lunastal – celebrating Lugh or Lughaidh lamhfhada or lleu. Folks say that Lughansdah/lunastal was in honour of Lugh’s foster mother Tailltiu buried beneath the ground where the first Tailleten festival was held. This festival involved games, such as horse racing and these were possibly held in honour of the dead, fairs, couplings and hand fastings and other courtings. Unlike the common belief that hand fasting’s happened in May, this is not the case as the lady folk would have been off to the Shielings to work the dairy herds at this time and pretty removed from the men folk, they would come back around Lunastal to help gather in the harvest.read the rest of this article  here ~http://www.cailleachs-herbarium.com/lunastal-the-first-sorrow-part-...