Lughnasa Moon of the First Harvests
Today begins the first of the three harvest seasons, Lughnasa. This is the holiday of first fruits, the celebration of those beets, carrots, onions, garlic, chard, herbs, peas and the cherries, currants and pears already brought inside. In the Catholic tradition this was called Lammas, the feast of the first breads, baked from the first harvested wheat or other grains.
Lughnasa, Mabon (Fall Equinox) and Samhain (Summer’s End) celebrate the beginning, peak and end of the harvest. This is the time of year when the hard work of late spring and early summer produce results. In many agricultural societies these were the months that determined life or death over the fallow winter months beginning at Samhain.
There are many traditions and customs peculiar to these harvest times, not the least in our society, of course, the beginning of school. The State Fair and all the county fairs held in these months echo these traditions since the holiday itself, August 1st in this case, usually began a week long market fair where goods were exchanged, feasts held, dances and games held, new relationships begun or ended.
This year a new harvest. The first fruits of the broadening grasp of human diversity in Minnesota. Gay couples can and have already married here. Coming only days after the Pope’s who am I to judge, this may be a first harvest worthy of the history books.
Kona’s death was, too, a harvest, a life lived fully, ripened and now mature. Lughnasa 2013 will be remembered.
