The (Neo?) Celtic festival Lughnasadh took place on Friday, August 14 at the new moon. Significantly, this was the last hot day of summer in our latitudes. Lugh, the sun god, comes down to earth and unites with it. He fertilizes it, so to speak, in order to create the conditions for new growth next year. It is a dying and a rebirth. This custom goes back a long way in history. In earlier times, human sacrifices were probably also made. An unimaginable, abhorrent scenario for us today. Back in prehistoric times, this corresponded to the world view of people in many cultures.
The festival mainly has to do with the harvest. Especially in times of climate change, we can experience first-hand the effects of an extremely hot, dry summer on our nature and therefore also on agriculture and natural animal husbandry. Back then, people did not have the possibility of global networking to compensate for crop failures with expensive imports from other regions of the world. When water was scarce, no tankers from the fire department brought them drinking water. These people were completely dependent on the success and yield of their harvest. Winter was approaching and if the harvest failed completely, this meant certain death for many over the winter.
This festival was therefore celebrated by the Celts in honor of the sun god Lugh. Like the Germanic god Odin/Wotan, he has shamanic traits. Dying and being reborn is part of shamanic culture. This festival was therefore about the death of a powerful youth, the creation of the world and the immortality of life. Lugh, the shining one, is the god of light, craftsmanship and war.
At that time, people were supposedly ordained as kings who were allowed to lead a life of abundance for a few years. These "volunteers" were then ritually sacrificed when the time came. However, death was not a sign of the end. On the contrary. It stands for the transition to a new existence, to transformation. Everything reappears anew. It is about wisdom and redemption. It is a cause for joy, confidence and hope. Fear was not appropriate. Liberation through surrender, of the limited person, leading to transcendence. The unfolding of a new consciousness. With this, immortality is also realized.
