Saturday, August 8, 2015

Lughnasa and Lammas

From Medievalists:
For centuries two holidays were celebrated by neighboring peoples on the same day. The people were the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons, and their holidays were Lughnasa and Lammas respectively. Usually the date fell on August 1st, but there could be variations. The Celtic Lughnasa, also spelled Lughnasadh, was thus named because it was originally associated with the god Lugh, but the festival had other names in Celtic regions outside of Ireland. The Anglo-Saxon word Lammas evolved from the Old English hlaf-mas, meaning “loaf-mass” in honor of bread baked from the first grain harvest. (Read more.)
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1 comment:

Hans Georg Lundahl said...

However, like other holidays ending in “mas” (such as Christmas, Candlemas, St. Michaelmas, etc), a pre-Christian origin is strongly believed.

The Norse Yule or Midwinter Sacrifice cannot BOTH be Christmas AND Candlemas.

And it is also documented well after the documentation of Christian Christmas.

As to Sol Invictus, dec 25, it is certainly not an old Roman festival, it is same date as a very little later documented Christian one (if even that documentation is later) while Christians had been around well before it.

Any turning point of the seasonal year is likely to have attracted the attention of some Pagans, must the Church of God and God's providence in giving occasions for feasts, studiously therefore avoid them in order not to be "Pagan"?

That's one of the points against modern academia.