Thomas Buttesthorn

Last year about this time, an article appeared in the Gull on the August holiday of Lammas, a Christian holiday. Although it was a nice article, it didn't mention a fact which few outside of the SCA realize; the Lammas, like many other "Christian" holidays, has its beginnings in an older religion.

There were four major Celtic holidays which were based around the concept that the year was divided into two halves. For half the year, the sun and light ruled the world and for half the year, the evil forces of Winter and darkness ruled.

Beltane, which survives as May Day, with its May Pole was the beginning of the year ' when the sun began to take the worked away from winter. Midsummer Day in June celebrated the triumph of sunshine and vegetation. Lughnassad, the feast of Lugh Lamhtada (the long handed) the Celtic Sun God, on August 1, marked the turning point of the suns power and the beginning of the declined toward winter. Samhain was the point at which the sun god surrendered the Earth to winter and survives as Halloween.

Lughnassad, the feast of Lugh, which was altered by the early missionaries in Ireland to Lammas, was named after the Celtic god of the Gaelic Pantheron, Known as the Tuatha de Danaan (people of the Goddess Dana) who in legend seized 1reland long before the time of the Romans. Each god had a particular skill for which he was known, which was possessed by no other god. Lugh was the exception.

An anecdote told about him is that when he came of age, Lugh, the son of Manamman Mac Lir, the sea god, and a Formorian woman ( a people who lived under the seas and with whom the Tuatha constantly fought) came to Tara, the east of the High King, to seek a place there. He found his way blocked by the doorkeeper.The King had decreed that no one could be admitted as a member of his court unless e were a master of a craft or skill not already represented there.

When the door keeper demanded to know on what ground he should be admitted, Lugh replied that he was a carpenter, they already had a carpenter. Then he said that he was a good smith. They already had a smith. He was a skillful warrior, a champion. They had one. He was a harper, a poet, and Antiquarian, a magician, a physician, a cupbearer. They had nine. A goldsmith. They had all these. "Then", Lugh said, "go to your King and ask him if has in his court any man who is at once master of all these arts and professesions. If he has, I shall not ask admittance to Tara." He was swiftly admitted, and give the seat of "Ard ollam', the chief of all Arts and Sciences. He was give the name "Sam Ildanach", The Stem of all Arts.

So remember when you eat your Lammas loaf that a richer tradition lies behind it that you suspected. And don't forget to light your bonfire Lughnassad eve. Slainte.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Story of the Irish Race, 1921, Seumas Mac Manns, 29th printing August 1978. The Devin Adair Company, Old Greenwich Connecticut.

Celtic Myth and Legend, 1905, Charles Squire, Copyright 1975. Newcastle Publishing Company, Inc. P.O. Box 7589, Van Nuys, CA. 91409. P.P. 84, 277, 406-410.

See "Lammas Day” by Lady Aislinn Gildara Breemore. The Gull Vol. IV Issue IV Sept. XVIII page 12.