Lughnasadh: the first harvest festival

The age-old tradition of harvest festivals and the myth of Persephone: the two topics interweave and guide us, modern humans, to gather the fruits and to find the seeds of the future.

It’s almost the start of the harvest season!

Though for many of us living in the modern urbanized world, disconnected from the land and the growing of food, the harvest may seem a background “thing” which happens without our efforts: out of sight and out of mind. For our ancestors, however, the harvest season was the time that revealed whether the winter was going to be easeful thanks to the plentiful yield, or a harsh period of famine if the harvest was poor. And if we are being honest, despite our modern capabilities of growing and exporting food, Mother Nature still has the last word, and a shortage of, say, a grain will doubtlessly shake up the region it is usually supplied to, if not the whole world.

Food means survival so unsurprisingly harvest festivals were universally celebrated across continents and cultures but at different dates depending on the climate of the area and the main crops and vegetables grown there. In some cultures, there is only one main day to celebrate the bounty Mother Nature gives humans, in other traditions there are several celebrations, marking the beginning and the end of the harvest season.

To maintain the coherence with my other essays about seasonal celebrations, I will refer to the first harvest festival as Lughnasadh which is an Irish name of the ancient pagan feast. The name is widely used by modern-day Neopagans and is marked on the Celtic Wheel of the Year.

Lughnasadh celebration

Lughnasadh – pronounced as loo-nuh-suh – is the feast of the first Grain Harvest and it marks the beginning of the harvesting season which starts when the first ripe grains are taken in from the fields, and ends by November when all the fieldwork is done and the season is closed with another celebration – nowadays known as Halloween.

The ancient roots of Halloween

Due to its connection to the first harvest, Lughasadh’s calendar date is more floating than that of other Seasonal Celebrations. For a European city-dweller it can be helpful to choose the “standard” or fixed date which is usually the eve of the 1^st of August because living far away from the actual fields and farmers makes it rather hard to determine when the harvesting season starts. For those living in smaller towns or even rural areas, it can feel right to celebrate at the time of the first local grain harvest, which will be somewhere in August, at a different date each year.

Traditionally, the first and the last grains of the first crop harvest were treated with special respect. The Harvest Bread was made out of the first wheat and was then shared within the community with gratitude. Not surprisingly, the Christian version of this ancient festival is called Lammas, the name deriving from “Loaf Mass” – which once again stresses the importance of the first grains and the bread made from the new harvest. Similarly, the freshly gathered barley was often brewed into beer which was then drank on Samhain/Halloween, at the end of the harvest season.

The last grains of the first harvest were customarily saved to be planted when the next spring comes. In this way, today’s harvest already contains the future harvests too, just like a woman carrying a baby girl is also carrying the eggs that may one day become her grandchildren.

A seed contains future seeds. Our deeds and thoughts of today contain our tomorrow.

Essentially, what is honoured at this time is the summer’s waning and its gifts which come through a sacrifice: crops and fruits are giving their life so that humans may be fed through the winter months, while the plants disappear under the ground until the next spring.

I would like to explore the dynamics, patterns and underlying meaning of this seasonal shift through the story of Demeter, the Greek Goddess of the Harvest, and her daughter Persephone.

Yes, it’s story time! Before we start, you might want to pour yourself a cup of tea ☕️ and find a cozy nook to read the story and to feel into that which is said between the lines.

The myth of Persephone’s abduction (my retelling)

A long, long time ago, when the Gods could often be seen mingling with the human crowds, Persephone lived with her mother Demeter and together they made the crops, fruits and vegetables grow. The fields yielded under their gazes and people sang their names, praising the Goddesses for the plentiful harvests.

One day, beautiful Persephone who inherited her mother's adornment for nature, was playing with other youth from Naiads and Nereids at a river’s bank. In the midst of laughter, Persephone noticed a bright narcissus with many blooms in the nearby meadow. She never saw one of such a beautiful golden shade. Mesmerized, the young Goddess asked her friends to go see it together. Unable to leave the side of the river, water nymphs had to stay. Persephone left her companions, promising to pick the flower and swiftly return to show it to them.

New growth of freshly green weeds and fragrant flowers appeared in her wake as Persephone made her way through the meadow, her eyes fixed on the yellow blooms. Truly, there was no barren land that would not come back to life in her presence.

The young Goddess kneeled before the narcissus, admiring its golden colour and inhaling the intoxicating aroma of its many blooms. When she reached to pluck the flower, wishing to show it to her water-bound friends, the ground in front of her gaped open and Hades, riding his golden chariot, sped from it. The God of the Underworld, who had planned Persephone’s abduction with Zeus’s approval, seized the life-giving Goddess and turned his chariot back, towards his gloomy domain. Struggling to break free from Hades’ hold, Persephone screamed her mother’s name for as long as she could still see the sunlight. But the chasm in the ground closed as fast as it appeared, drowning her terrified cries.

Alarmed by her daughter’s yells, Demeter came rushing from the faraway crop fields she was supervising. The mother was swift as a bird, yet even her divine speed did not suffice: the meadow looked peaceful and intact, holding no trace of her daughter. When the Goddess of the Harvest asked Naiads and Nereids what had happened, the nymphs only cried, unable to tell what had occurred just minutes before. Enraged, Demeter cursed them all to be heinous women with scaly fishtails – that was how sirens came to be.

Only one water nymph called Cyane, who, from her despair, had cried herself into a river, brought Persephone’s belt to Demeter’s feet, confirming that something grave had happened to the young Goddess.

Demeter turned into a human woman and set off to search for her daughter. She did not drink and did not eat for nine long days and nine long nights, roaming the Earth with flaming torches in her hands, calling Persephone’s name.

On the morning of the tenth day, exhausted by her futile quest, Demeter meets Hekate at a crossroads. Being the Goddess of magic, transitions, and darkness, Hekate knows how to listen and so of course she had heard Persephone’s cries. Pitying the desperate mother, she advised Demeter to go to Helios, the Sun-God, and ask if he saw what had happened to Persephone.

Helios, who rides in his chariot across the sky, sees everyone and everything, everywhere. He told Demeter about the agreement between her brothers, Zeus and Hades, and that her daughter was kidnapped by the King of the Underworld, who wanted her for his wife. The Sun-God tried to reassure the mother that Hades was a worthy husband for Persephone but Demeter was inconsolable.

Furious at her brothers, Demeter abandoned Olympus to live with mortals disguised as an old woman. In her grief, she made the whole land barren, which led to a great famine. Zeus, afraid that soon there would be no human left to offer sacrifices to the Gods, tried to convince Demeter to rejuvenate the fields. One by one, Gods and Goddesses came to Demeter with gifts, pleading her to return, but she refused to set foot on Olympus or to make the fields yield until she saw her daughter again.

Left without any other choice, Zeus ordered Hermes to go to the Underworld and fetch Demeter’s daughter. Knowing what was coming, sly Hades had secretly made Persephone eat one single seed of a pomegranate before she left his realm. She did not know it then, but by eating the food of her captor, she was bound to return to him.

When Demeter saw her beloved daughter in the chariot with Hermes, she rushed out in joy to meet them. Persephone leaped down and ran straight into her mother’s warm embrace. The happy reunion was blighted by the realization of what Hades’ sneaky move meant. However, there was not much to do about it for there are rules even Gods and Goddesses must abide by.

There are rules even Gods and Goddesses must abide by.

Ever since then, Persephone spends most of the year with her mother, above the ground, bringing forth fresh vegetation and allowing the land to yield. When the harvests are collected, the young Goddess descends to the Underworld to spend four months there as the Queen of the realm and Hades’ beloved wife. Even though this has been happening yearly for thousands of thousands of years, Demeter still mourns her daughter’s absence every time: that is when the vegetation dies out and the winter comes.

This is the story of how Persephone grew to embody not only the youthfulness and aliveness of spring but also the cycle of death and regeneration. She is the seed that lives in the dark belly of the Earth through the winter months and is awoken in spring when it can finally grow and make its way above the ground.

It might be the truth, it might be a lie. You are the one to recognize.

Tell me, what did the story of Persephone make you feel, think about, realise? Have you heard it before or was it new?

And if we part here, I wish you a happy beginning of the harvest season!
For the paid subscribers’ community – below you can find suggestions for the celebration of Lughnasadh 😉

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WHAT’S BEHIND THE PAYWALL:

• The astrological date of Lughasadh (so in total you have 3 dates to choose from),

• Prompts for journaling or simply questions to ponder on,

• Practical, grounded ideas for Lughasadh’s celebration,

• And a simple at-home ritual to help you attune to this seasonal shift and the old ways (no magical skills needed;),

• The comments section and our community chat to ask questions or share how you are celebrating Lughasadh <3

My heartfelt wish is to see more people attuning to the natural cycles around them by grounding the theory of Seasonal Celebrations through these simple yet potent actions.

Your clear intention matters the most. The rest is a beautiful bonus.