2019 Lammas/Lughnasadh
The third of the four fire festivals held on the year's solstice and equinox midpoints. This one is at the Leo midpoint twixt Summer solstice (Cancer) and Fall equinox (Libra).
Lammas (Loaf Mass) or Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-nas-ah, Lugh is a sun deity and nasad suggests harvest festivals, fairs, and games). It celebrates the first harvest in the Northern Hemisphere (midwinter in the Southern Hemisphere). It is the third of the Celtic fire festivals which celebration begins on the eve of the day.
Lammas ritualists, students, and the curious might be interested in precise timing for the cross-quarter moment when the Sun reaches the Zodiac degree 15 degrees of the sign Leo, the precise moment between Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox.
Aug 7 2019 AD GC
19:12:57 PM GMT
08:12:57 PM BST
03:12:57 PM EDT
02:12:57 PM CDT
01:12:57 PM MDT
12:12:57 PM PDT
09:12:57 AM AHST +10
There’s been a bit of confusion about how the precise timing may not agree with conventional calendar dates. For most of history it was not possible to calculate the precise midpoint in time (above) that marks midsummer. Now it is possible to get that time to the second (I’d give the calculation a couple of seconds either way, regardless). It is not to say that honoring the moment must match the precise timing given. This timing is offered simply because it is possible to make the calculation. It is probable that in other eras, additional factors like a new or a full moon might be included in the decision as to when to light the festival fire. Personally, I often honor the precise time, just to see. Most often I mark the moment with a period of meditation. Please, do not think it wrong to celebrate, to recognize the cross-quarter, at another time.
Barley is among the grains harvested and celebrated at Lunasad (Scottish name). It is immortalized in a Robert Burns ballad, John Barleycorn. There is evidence that versions of the John Barleycorn ballad were sung well before the reign of Elizabeth I. Here’s how Robert Burns hae it in 1782.
There was three kings into the east,
three kings both great and high,
and they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn must die.
They took a plough and plough'd him down,
put clods upon his head,
and they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn was dead.
But the cheerful Spring came kindly on'
and show'rs began to fall.
John Barleycorn got up again,
and sore surprised them all.
The sultry suns of Summer came,
and he grew thick and strong;
his head well arm'd wi' pointed spears,
that no one should him wrong.
The sober Autumn enter'd mild,
when he grew wan and pale;
his bendin' joints and drooping head
show'd he began to fail.
His colour sicken'd more and more,
and he faded into age;
and then his enemies began
to show their deadly rage.
They took a weapon, long and sharp,
and cut him by the knee;
they ty'd him fast upon a cart,
like a rogue for forgerie.
They laid him down upon his back,
and cudgell'd him full sore.
they hung him up before the storm,
and turn'd him o'er and o'er.
They filled up a darksome pit
with water to the brim,
they heav'd in John Barleycorn.
There, let him sink or swim!
They laid him upon the floor,
to work him farther woe;
and still, as signs of life appear'd,
they toss'd him to and fro.
They wasted o'er a scorching flame
the marrow of his bones;
but a miller us'd him worst of all,
for he crush'd him between two stones.
And they hae taen his very hero blood
and drank it round and round;
and still the more and more they drank,
their joy did more abound.
John Barleycorn was a hero bold,
of noble enterprise;
for if you do but taste his blood,
'twill make your courage rise.
'Twill make a man forget his woe;
'twill heighten all his joy;
'twill make the widow's heart to sing,
tho the tear were in her eye.
Then let us toast John Barleycorn,
each man a glass in hand;
and may his great posterity
ne'er fail in old Scotland!
