#tailteann

[hearthandheathenry]

All About Lughnasadh

Lughnasadh, also known as Lughnasa or Lúnasa, is the name given to the Gaelic festival that represents the beginning of the harvest season, which traditionally falls on August 1st in the northern hemisphere. The holiday is about halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox, and is one of the 4 Gaelic seasonal festivals. Although it is traditionally Irish, many neopagans celebrate the holiday as well.

Traditionally named after the Irish God Lugh, Lughnasadh has been documented to be celebrated since at least the middle ages and involved great gatherings, ceremonies, athletic games like the Tailteann Games, feasting, horse racing, matchmaking, trading, and more, and were traditionally celebrated on top of hills and mountains. The festival remained widely celebrated until about the 20th century, where it seemed to be replaced by Christian counterparts.

Lugh, the God the festival is named after, is said to have founded the holiday as a funeral feast and funeral games to commemorate the death of an earth goddess. The Irish stories vary throughout regions and times, but it usually involves a woman who is stolen away or held against her will and dies of grief, shame, exhaustion, or unspecified causes. There is notable similarities to the Greek Persephone tale. According to a tale about the Lughnasadh festival site Tailtin, it is said to be a funeral for his foster-mother, Tailtiu, who was said to have died from exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture. A tale about the Lughnasadh site Naas, says the festival was founded in the memory of his two wives, Nás and Bói. Another theory states it was a mourning for the end of summer.

Máire MacNeill, a folklorist, studied the later lore of the holiday and claims it is about a struggle for the harvest between Lugh and another god, often named Crom Dubh. In some stories Lugh must seize Crom Dubh's treasure of grain to give to all of mankind. In other stories, it's over a woman named Eithne who represents grain. Othertimes, its a battle of Lugh defeating a figure representing blight. There doesn't seem to be one agreed upon legend, other than it's revolving around the God Lugh.

As for ancient customs and traditions, they can vary region to region and have morphed throughout time. However, a big tradition was the gathering at Óenach Tailten, a type of olympic style games and gathering where kings declared truces during the entire festival in order to partake and compete against eachother. It included ritual athletic and sporting competitions, horse racing, music and storytelling, trading, law-making and settling legal disputes, creating contracts, and even matchmaking. A common matchmaking tradition was allowing couples to enter a trial marriage that lasted a year and a day by joining hands through a wooden door, after of which they could make permanent or break without consequences once the trial marriage was up. One gathering, called the Óenach Carmain, also consisted of a food and livestock market along with a market for foreign traders.

Other traditions also included a solemn cutting of the first corn to be offered to the deity by bringing it to a high place and burying it, a meal for everyone consisting of the new food and blueberries, a sacrifice and rituals involving a sacred bull, a ritual dance-play, reenactment of the lore, and closing ceremonies. Climbing hills and mountains were also a popular tradition, but has been rebranded overtime as Christian pilgrimages. At some gatherings, everyone wore flowers and climbed a hill, where they buried said flowers at the top to signify the ending of summer. At other gatherings, the first sheaf of harvest was buried instead.

A popular tradition up until about the 18th century were faction fights where young men fought eachother with sticks. One such game consisted of building towers of sod topped with a flag to defend from the other team's sabotaging. Bull sacrifices were also recorded into the 18th century, being used as offerings to various deities, along with special meals made from the first harvest. A special cake called the lunastain was also recorded. Visiting holy wells was also a very prominent tradition, just like during the other yearly festivals. Although bonfires were associated with Lughnasadh and the other main Celtic festivals, they were considered rare for this holiday, most likely due to the very warm summer temperatures.

Some traditions are still celebrated today in Ireland, with festivals being held in honor of Lughnasadh and re-enactors and historians reviving and teaching new generations old lore. There are still markets, traditional dancing, traditional storytelling, arts and craft workshops, feasting, and much more during these modern gatherings, keeping the traditions alive and well, even if they differ region to region. Some pagans and Wiccans also celebrate Lughnasadh, usually differing in their practices, but still using it as a signifier of the first harvest and summer's ending.

Lughnasadh Associations

Colors - yellow, orange, red, brown, green, gold, bronze

Food - blueberries, blackberries, grains, fruit, vegetables, bread, corn, beef, stews, lamb, wine, beer, cider, fruit drinks

Animals - bulls/cows, roosters, sheep

Items - scythes and harvest tools, grain/corn stalks

Crystals - citrine, aventurine, tigers eye, carnelian, topaz

Other - sporting/athletic competitive games, storytelling, matchmaking, cycle of life, harvest

Ways to celebrate:

gather blueberries or blackberries

enjoy grains or breads

make homemade bread

have a feast

climb a hill/take a pilgrimage

offer food to your deity(ies)

commit or recommit to your partner

harvest fresh food from your garden

visit a farmers market

complete a craft or make art

participate in an athletic competition or game

[blackcrowing]

Important Facts about Lughnasadh from an Irish Celtic Reconstructionist

Spelling and Pronunciation

OI. Lughnasadh (Loo-na-sa), sometimes spelled Lughnasa or Modern Irish Lúnasa. Not to be confused with other harvest festivals like Lammas.

Dates

Most reconstructionists celebrate Lughnasadh on July 31st - August 1st from sundown to sundown by the Gregorian calendar, while others choose to celebrate the transitional period between the months as they would have been by the Julian calendar (about 13 days later by the Gregorian calendar).

Traditionally this festival likely would have happened as the grains were ready for harvesting or possibly even when the wild bilberries were ripe (as some scholars mention that if the grains were not ripe they would still preform a ritualized ‘first harvesting’ but it is possible this tradition came after the festival was firmly tied to a calendar date.)

Importance in the Mythos

In the mythologies it is well documented that this festival coincides with Lugh’s funeral games in honor of his foster-mother Tailtiu, known as Aonach Tailteann. In the mythologies she is said to have died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agricultural needs. The first documented instance of Lughnasadh in the mythologies was in the Wooing of Emer, Tochmarc Emire, which makes sense given the importance of marriages at this time of the year. It is not known specifically but widely speculated that the curse of the Ulstermen by Macha took place at a horse race for this festival.

In later time periods it is common to see a form of struggle, normally between the ‘protective’ forces and ‘destructive’ forces. The modern equivalent being the struggle between Saint Patrick and Crom Dubh but this is likely a reflection of an early struggle between Lugh and Balor (which I previously mentioned in my info-dump on Bealtaine).

Celebration Traditions

Aonachs, funeral games, have (to the best of our knowledge) been a custom in Ireland since the bronze age and were practiced on and off into the middle ages. They had both personal and community functions and occurred in three stages. Stage one was the funeral proceedings themselves. They would last one to three days, likely depending on the importance of the individual in question. Mourning songs and chants were participated in by both the attendees and the Druids. The second stage was for proclaiming of laws. Aonachs were a time when universal peace between túaths was declared. The third stage was that of Cuiteach Fuait, games that tested mental and physical abilities. These games included the well known horse and chariot races, wrestling games, boxing, high jumps but also competitions in strategy, singing, story telling and between various skilled craftsmen.

It was incredibly common for marriages to be arranged and preformed during this festival. More well known ‘trial marriages’ (lasting a year and a day) were still preformed at this festival up until the 13th century. It is likely that the coupling occurring at this time of year had an effect on the relationship to births seen at Imbolg (which falls 9 months later).

MacNeill, a leading scholarly expert on the festival, notes that a ritualistic bull sacrifice was made at this festival and the bull would then be eaten. I could not find any definitive evidence to support the idea, but I think it was likely that bulls in general would be culled from the herd at this point in the year to supply the feast.

Art credit @ire-ethereal

My Kofi

[child-of-avalon]

Honouring Tailitu. Part One: Who is She?

Ophelia by John William Waterhouse

During the time of Lughnasadh a lot of focus is placed on the golden boy, Lugh. Which is fair enough, I mean the festival is named for him after all!

Unfortunately, by lavishing Him with all the attention it's easy to neglect the *reason* for the festival- Tailitiu.

Not much is known about Her, but the basic story is more or less agreed upon.

According to the Book of Invasions, Tailitu was the wife of the last Fir Bolg king, Eochaid mac Eirc. Like many others of the time, this marriage was a short lived on. The Tuatha Dé Dannan invaded and his life was lost in the ensuing struggle. However, She was allowed to keep Her land. How nice of them! One good thing did came out of the invasion, the relationship between Lugh and Tailitu. The latter becoming a surrogate mother to the young sun god.

So why is She the reason for the festival?

In order to feed more people, She took it upon herself to clear an area in order to create working arable land. Being an overachiever, She decided to take this on all Herself. Naturally this was all too much. With the tilling of the last field completed She collapsed with exhaustion and sadly passed away.

Once buried, Lugh created a mound over Her grave and ordered fires be lit. In Her honour, He also established the Tailteann Games. A time for honouring the dead, proclaiming new laws and celebrating the harvest. This would commence in the latter part of July and conclude on the 1st or 2nd of August. This became 'Lughnasadh' - the 'assembly of Lugh'. Naturally, She is associated with the land, particularly the area Teltown and the Plain of Brega. Where Her burial mound is said to be and where She is said of plowed the land, respectively.

Stay tuned for Part 2: How to Honour Her!

[grogusmum]

wip poll tag game

rules: make a 24-hour poll with the names of your wips, let it run, then write one sentence for every vote the winner got.

I got tagged a bunch of times, which made me blush to have my dance card so full! 💚

@ezrasbirdie @katareyoudrilling @radiowallet @thewayofthemandalorian

🗳 🗳 🗳 🗳 🗳 🗳 🗳 🗳

Tagging:

@miraclesabound @something-tofightfor @dawn-petrichor-world @wardenparker @ezras-channel-rat @toomanystoriessolittletime @mandoblowmybackout @bunniesofsteel @magpie-to-the-morning @oonajaeadira @writeforfandoms @insomniamamma @honestly-shite @firstofficerwiggles

[etymology-of-the-emblem]

Tailtiu / ティルテュ and Ethnia / エスニア

Tailtiu is the middle child of Duke Reptor of Friege and self-proclaimed bodyguard of Father Claud in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. She is named after Tailtiu, an Irish goddess and wife of the Fir Bolg's final king. After the Fir Bolg were defeated by the Tuatha Dé Danann in the First Battle of Maige Tuired, some sources like the Book of Invasions claim that Tailtiu became the foster mother of the god Lugh. She died of exhaustion after clearing the fields of Ireland for agricultural purposes; her foster son memorialized her by holding the Tailteann Games, an Olympics-esque event held in Teltown - named after the goddess by her husband. This ceremony would evolve into what is now known as Lughnasadh, a Gaelic harvest festival. In Fire Emblem, Tailtiu being on the losing side of history may have been a loose interpretation of the Fir Bolg's loss against the Tuatha Dé Danann. Additionally, her death - her body giving out after years of abuse at the hands of her aunt - seems to have a loose parallel to the goddess dying by pushing her body to her limits. Tailtiu's character also reflects both aspects of the Tailteann Games: her bubbly and energetic personality can be interpreted as a reflection of the celebration and the atheltics of the event. However, the Tailteann Games also mourned not just the death of Tailtiu, but honored all of the fallen. This may have been adapted not just in her own tragic death but in her much more dour mindset following her joining Sigurd's army.

In Japanese, Tailtiu's name is ティルテュ (rōmaji: tirutyu), officially romanized as Tailto. There doesn't seem to be a most common rendering of the name Tailtiu in Japanese, but the two most common forms I've seen are ティルテュ, as seen here, or タルトゥ (rōmaji: tarutu).

Ethnia (JP: エスニア; rōmaji: esunia) is Tailtiu's younger sister and mother of Amid and Linda. Her Japanese name is but one of numerous renderings of Ethniu, also called Ethlinn, the daughter of the Fomorian King Balor kept at the top of a tower to keep her from birthing a prophecized son. Eventually Cían - a member of the tribal rival of the Tuatha Dé Danann - makes his way into the tower, and the two fall in love, though they cannot stay together. Upon the birth of their son Lugh, the child is cast out to sea but manages to survive. The name primarily serves as forming a parallel to Tailtiu, making these sisters named after both Lugh's biological and adoptive mothers. Ethniu also experienced a much more direct tragedy, having to part from her beloved and having her child taken from her and presumed to be dead.

[alchemisland]

SubDublin

A wild hunt rides out tonight

Hate is sallied forth

Troubles now are here again

What did we learn up North?

Send them all underground like the Poddle

“Send them all back” its backing breaking bottles

The ill-thought glow of a public bus in flames

Tear chairs out and carry them up the Gaol

Execute the Gael, upon them seat James.

Ana Livia I live here and could more make

Of breaks spent refusing requests for change

The Green goes red, the red is green, easter egg 1916

Skyline laws and peeling frontages, Blessing basins by ton, and Burgesses

Dublin’s not one for change

The change is never spare.

To do for Dublin, to be its Blake

Garda bike the Liffey takes

Clandestine as a married man’s Fetlife username

Print it all, Ashley Madison, immortalised on Traitor’s Gate

Leon jumped into the Liffey, on its bridge the youth getting lippy

In Garda’s face, he returns the lean projecting strength 

Hoping comrades will invade the scene.

The sound of Irish rebellion is a wailed air from a keening woman

The anguished wail of a beauty-leched crone

A blood-bloated battle God whose icon is a crow

The Dwarven rhythm of iron working stone

Rebellion here has a distinctive air

A smell you’d know, an old one, a vintage rare

Wolfe Tones escaping the stout-stripped cheeks of the men who’re there.

Liars light the beacon fires inciting false rebellion

Aren't your countrymen frightened inside? You are, all of you, Trevelyan

No foreign man on Irish shores will loot thy corn for thy family’s stores

Meanwhile on every wall a pale-eyed Eastern gentleman crowned in thorns

Forgiver of forgivers, Enoch that Cain built, Enoch that spoke of rivers, Gods with horns

Riots relish, the city hellish again recalling old destructions; upriver, approaching forms

Drakeprowed viking vessels and direct invited Norman settlers

Arnott’s gutted and cameras culprits spy, what you’d imagine: spides, idlers and should-be-spayeds

We have taken up our hod and spade and ensured that public transport is yonks delayed

We left behind our God and said ‘sure, let’s have something that’s worse instead’

We have always been a mongrel breed, loam bed that rejects no seed.

A country of tall tales, tale tellers talking their tones tuning and tales talling transcendentally

Tall men up north, not quite hyperborean or Pictish but a breed apart, Giant seed

At war their well whetted bodies in violent supremacy the battle ballet, at sport their breathstealing speed

An island of ancient sports and good humoured rough stuff, Tailteann games which bring earthly fames

Men who drain drams and etch out dire dreams, Doirbh agus Draiocht and Craic agus Ceoil

Men who express disbelief through their anuses: “it is in me hole.”

Out with hatemongers down Winetavern street

Into the Liffey, we’ll observe ye all sink

The river that stinks with your blood flows sweet

The soul of the nation is suffering now, I think.

A wild hunt rides out tonight

Hate is sallied forth

Troubles now are here again

What did we learn up North?

[ncfan-1]

Been thinking more about some details of my head canon world-building in To the Limits of Your Choice as I continue outlining it, and I’ve gotten to be a little obsessed with the idea of Crests in their function as blood alien to normal human bodies and anatomy, something that doesn’t always function in a way that is to the physical benefit of their bearer, but that perhaps a little bit of the originating Nabatean’s consciousness is still alive within that blood, within that Crest, and that the way things work out is dependent on the circumstances by which the human forebearer first received the blood and the Crest to begin with.

Cethleann, I head canon as having widely propagated her own Crest throughout the War of Heroes by giving doses of her blood to dying soldiers in order to heal them. It was a gift freely given for no reason other than altruism, and thus the bearers of her Crest rarely experience anything truly detrimental, but there are still certain… effects that make themselves known from time to time. And as Cethleann spent roughly a thousand years in a deathlike sleep as she recovered both from the injuries she suffered at the Battle of Tailteann and from the effects of giving away far, far too much of her blood in that same battle. As her strength waned and she edged closer and closer to the abyss of deathlike sleep, so too did the blood she offered to dying soldiers change in character.

Linhardt is descended from one of those she saved with her blood at Tailteann, and it shows on him sometimes. Being inclined towards healing magic makes him well-suited for Cethleann’s Crest, but he does have certain… symptoms from time to time when the Crest’s power manifests while he’s using healing magic. He can get to be a bit disoriented or it can go as far as him having a bit of an out-of-body experience and feeling mentally untethered from his surroundings, but it rarely lasts longer than a moment, and it’s never painful: the most it does is break his concentration, and deeply unsettle him.

Indech granted his blood to champions who could successfully pass his trials. It was blood willingly given, but always given to warriors, with the assumption that its bearers will often be in battle. Meanwhile, in the present-day, though Bernadetta is certainly jittery as a result of the abuse heaped upon her by her father, but some of her anxiety is due to her Crest at work in her blood, making her hyper-aware of her surroundings, hyper-aware of potential threats—and the anxiety from all of that childhood trauma makes her interpret damn near everything as a threat, and some of the speed with which she runs is due to the Crest at work in her blood, speeding her away from what her mind perceives as a threat. Hanneman, a scholar who is rarely on the battlefield, sometimes has to spend hours at a time pacing in his office to work out ridiculous amounts of excess energy—but when he does take to the battlefield, he never grows tired, and is never weary after battle: indeed, the first few days after a battle are the only times he never finds himself afflicted with that excess energy. And Linhardt’s mother, whom I head canon as possessing a Minor Crest of Indech, who never takes to the battlefield, and never provides the Crest in her blood with any outlet, finds her hands often afflicted with painful spasms when she tries to write.

And then there’s Ingrid with the Crest of Daphnel, the Crest of Daphnel which was obtained by Daphnel by way of murdering the Nabatean originator and defiling their corpse for their blood and the bone which made Lúin. Like all of those who bear the Elites’ Crests, when Ingrid feels the power of her Crest flow through her, it’s not a pleasant experience. Just as I head canon Dimitri’s struggles not to break things thanks to the monstrous strength that is part of his inheritance of the Crest of Blaiddyd as the defiled Nabatean blood in his veins rebelling against his flesh, I head canon Ingrid experiencing more than a small amount of pain whenever the Crest of Daphnel manifests its power. At best, it’s moderately painful, and at worst it’s agony of a kind that makes her feel as though her very blood is on fire within her veins—and yet, she can still think clearly, even in the midst of this agony.

The pain the descendants of the Elites experience in some greater or lesser degree whenever their Crests manifest is not a secret to the nobility. Rhea spun the story that it is a reminder from the Goddess that the descendants of the Elites must wield their power responsibly after the Elites fell to warring in the wake of Nemesis’s death (again, her cover story to explain why all of the Elites died not too long after the war), but she is privately pleased to know that the descendants of those who drank the defiled blood of her dead kin will never be entirely comfortable with that blood running through their veins. There’s the idea that this pain is holy, sanctified, when it’s spoken of at all, anyways—for the most part, it’s become background noise to the nobility, and they rarely speak of it at all.

-

Like a lot of people (at least, I think), I head canon Flayn as being half-human. I think it plays a part in why the Agarthans abducted her in particular; because she is half-human, her Crest is much more easily transmissible than that of her full-blooded Nabatean kindred, and takes hold in human bodies with ease. I head canon her Crest as running extremely true in her descendants, using Hanneman’s assertion that there are others beside her who bear the Major variant of her Crest (Major Crests seem to be extremely rare in Fódlan these days, so for there to be several people who bear the Major Crest of Cethleann that Hanneman can think of just off the top of his head feels significant) as a support, and it has a reputation as being a “devourer” of other Crests. If someone who bears another Crest marries someone who has the Crest of Cethleann, their children will almost always inherit Cethleann’s Crest, rather than the other parent’s, or the Crest of an ancestor further up in the family tree. This, too, may be Cethleann’s will at work within her blood, at least the will that was hers when she gave her blood to those she would—to heal those who are descended from those who received her blood by purging their bloodlines of other Crests, especially those of the Elites.

-

A lot of people have pointed out the significance of Ingrid’s surname being Galatea, and the parallels between her story and that of the Galatea of Greek myth, but something I don’t see discussed quite so often is the potential etymological significance of the name ‘Daphnel,’ whose Crest she bears. Daphnel, I think, most likely ultimately derives from Daphne, who in Greek myth was a naiad who was unwillingly pursued by Apollo, and persuaded her father to turn her into a laurel tree in a bid to escape Apollo’s advances.

In To the Limits of Your Choice, Ingrid has her canonical backstory of having been engaged to Glenn at a very young age, and spending the intervening years between the engagement and Glenn’s death being told that her greatest purpose in life was to love him and become his wife. And as we know, Ingrid’s paralogue involves her only narrowly avoiding being abducted by a man who intended to forcibly marry her. In the post-game sections of the fic, she has escaped all possibility of being married against her will by estranging herself from her family and becoming a knight, a typically masculine role. As Daphne altered her nature in order to avoid unwanted advances, Ingrid has discarded the role society intended her to play to avoid an unwanted marriage. It’s not as extreme as Daphne’s transformation, but it is still a transformation.

Ingrid is someone I consider as having an alienated, downright wounded relationship with her femininity. Forcing herself into traditional femininity doesn’t make her happy—and neither does trying to force herself into traditional masculinity. A clean transformation, one clean choice on either side of the (false) dichotomy, is not something that can ultimately make her happy.

[unseelie-grimalkin]

Hello hi do you have a Maeve conspiracy board? I haven't seen many theories about her and I want to hear them 👀👀👀👀

I have So Many Maeve thoughts. They are not organized at all beyond loose theming, BUT HERE YOU GO:

The Morrigan-Based Ones

Maeve has two sisters she doesn't know about. This is based on the fact that in some traditions, the Morrigan is a trio of goddesses (similar to the Norni and the Moirai). I like this one for AUs because it means magical girl trio of death and guardianship, each representing a different angle of the Morrigan (Maeve: darkness/the void, Sister 1: blood, Sister 2: fire). I also like this a lot because the subversion of each archetype from simply weapons of war and violence to being used to care for others is Extremely Fun.

So one of the things about the Morrigan that we don't really see discussed or really portrayed is that she's a tutelary character: war and fate aren't necessarily her spheres of influence but more her tools in the guardianship of the land, with the shapeshifting being more about her connection to nature over simply being spooky. She has this connection to livestock in particular, leading this thought in my brain about how just like how Maeve is followed around by crows, I want cows to drift towards her like they know she'll protect them.

There's this sort of trope I've noticed, digging around, where you'll see a figure (who is heavily implied to be the Morrigan) in the distance in a scene washing bloody clothes, and it's a sign of a character about to die. I want a scene in Maeve's route where the MC sees that and have the option to help the Morrigan launder their own bloody clothes, with that act of acceptance and kindness being what leads to the MC being told by the Morrigan how to avoid a fateful death and live happily with her chosen.

Another thing that I've noticed: the Morrigan hates kings who don't perform their duties and take care of their people. It's part of her being a tutelary character: you fuck with her people, betray her trust, she will fuck with you. In the fight against the Fir Bolg, she is so angry at the Fir Bolg King for his greed (because the Tuatha Dé offered them half of Ireland to just let them settle peacefully, but the King and his council wanted the whole of it at the cost of his people's lives) that she purposefully targets him and exclusively him in the fight, which Bres takes credit for the victory (and the Morrigan never corrects him, notably). This thread makes me question and ponder if Maeve was empowered and chosen by the Morrigan (if such is true) because the original King (before Lugaid rebelled) was neglecting his people in a way that made her so mad that she chose a champion...and I almost wonder if that champion, someone who was purposefully chosen among a population of not-Seelie, not-Unseelie, but independent bandits, could have been turned towards Lugaid as well (you can also see some of this reflected in how Maeve gets excited about how Flan is, in many respects in her opinion, an upgrade to his father). So uh, Maeve might've had ample divine cause to kill Lugaid on top of her existing moral judgments.

Vibes Alone, No Scholarly Nonsense

I think Maeve's route will be where we see a lot of monsters (in all shapes) and a lot of interaction with land spirits and appealing to them.

I think Maeve and Finn had a friendly relationship (this is solely based on her wanting the Fianna to come back and Finn being named after the main character involved with the Fianna IRL).

I think Maeve kicked Flan's ass in their first meeting (maybe at an Unseelie version of the Tailteann Games).

I think Maeve and Flan's friendship is not only founded on that ass-kicking, but they also remember it largely fondly. It pushes both of them to be better, though albeit in different ways.

[nebris]

Lughnasadh, Lughnasa or Lúnasa (/ˈluːnəsə/ LOO-nə-sə, Irish: [ˈl̪ˠuːnˠəsˠə]) is an Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the harvest season, and an official holiday in Ireland. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Modern Irish it is called Lúnasa, in Scottish Gaelic: Lùnastal, and in Manx: Luanistyn. Traditionally it is held on 1 August, or about halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. In recent centuries some of the celebrations have been shifted to the Sunday nearest this date.

Lughnasadh is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Samhain, Imbolc and Beltane. It corresponds to other European harvest festivals such as the Welsh Gŵyl Awst and the English Lammas. Lughnasadh is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and has pagan origins. The festival itself is named after the god Lugh.

It inspired great gatherings that included religious ceremonies, ritual athletic contests (most notably the Tailteann Games), feasting, matchmaking, and trading. Lughnasadh occurred during a very poor time of the year for the farming community when the old crops were done and the new ones not yet ready for harvest.[1] Traditionally there were also visits to holy wells. According to folklorist Máire MacNeill, evidence shows that the religious rites included an offering of the First Fruits, a feast of the new food and of bilberries, the sacrifice of a bull, and a ritual dance-play in which Lugh seizes the harvest for mankind and defeats the powers of blight. Many of the activities would have taken place on top of hills and mountains.

Lughnasadh customs persisted widely until the 20th century, with the event being variously named 'Garland Sunday', 'Bilberry Sunday', 'Mountain Sunday' and 'Crom Dubh Sunday'. The custom of climbing hills and mountains at Lughnasadh has survived in some areas, although it has been re-cast as a Christian pilgrimage. The best known is the 'Reek Sunday' pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday in July. A number of fairs are also believed to be survivals of Lughnasadh, for example, the Puck Fair.

Since the late 20th century, Celtic neopagans have observed Lughnasadh, or something based on it, as a religious holiday. In some places, elements of the festival have been revived as a cultural event.

[ladyniniane]

Cichol et Liath observaient la plaine de Tailteann, espérant y verser demain le sang de Némésis. Cheveux teints en blond par sécurité, ils portaient tous les deux les insignes d’officiers impériaux. — Cethleann restera à l’arrière pour soigner, annonça le père. Leur fille avait insisté pour venir, même s’ils auraient préféré qu’elle ne participe pas à cette campagne. — Elle y sera le plus utile et puis…si nous pouvons éviter qu’elle ait à se battre, alors c’est le mieux, murmura douloureusement Liath.  L’ennemi qui avait transformé leur paradis en cauchemar était tout proche. Seule leur absence leur avait permis d'échapper au massacre. À leur retour, ils s’étaient vus apatrides et orphelins.  Liath agrippa la main de son mari. Déterminé, celui-ci la rassura : — Nous allons les vaincre et mettre un terme à cette folie.

[scion8161]

The war map in three hopes actually gives up an exact location for conand tower, you fight a skirmish against Bandits in Mid Southern Fraldarius territory who are based there. But we do also know that ALL of that peninsula was controlled by Sreng at one point, so there must have been a prior war that saw it annexed. Whether it was Adrestia who did it or Faerghus is unknown. however, I think it I possible that Faerghus did it, likely which ever king was between Loog and Klaus. Seeing as Fhirdiad is on the peninsula, if Faerghus started out without the Peninsula, its capital would have originally been somewhere else. Camulus would be my guess. its in the northern tailteann plains (in fact, its probably the city Dimitri is standing in front of in CF in that mission and the city Rhea is fighting in front of in GW), and due to being a church holy site, has a lot of clout. Furthermore, due to it being a holy site in the tailteann plains, I'm inclined to believe that it was built on top of where nemesis died. If Faerghus was the one to begin the conquest of the Peninsula, I can imagine it being similar to Russia expanding in the 17th/18th century, going out shopping for a new place to build its capital, with Fhirdiad being a Saint Petersburg parallel (with some Moscow mixed in, what with Rhea burning it to the ground when the Imperial Army approaches). Furthermore, we know the Danu river basin, located in the south of the peninsula, is the most fertile land in the eastern kingdom, so the invasion was likely initially done to seize that fertile land so that faerghus would starve less than it is already, only for a new capital to be built as well.

I May Have Been Wrong About Lambert and Sreng

Previously I've accused Lambert of being responsible for the conquest and ethnic cleansing of southern Sreng. After reviewing the relevant information however, I believe that may have been an erroneous assumption (one which, in my defense, both Fire Emblem wikis also make). Instead it seems the annexation happened no later than 896, during the reign of King Banfig.

From the in-game book Military History of the Partholon, which is found in Chapter 10 of Azure Gleam:

Great Tree Moon, Year 896 Banfig confers the northern part of his territory on Laetita [Gautier]. She is given the title of margrave and tasked with defending Faerghus's border. Laetita sets to work strengthening defenses in the north, constructing strongholds throughout the Ruska Mountains on the border with Sreng, and reclaiming the Lance of Ruin from the Church of Seiros.

It's not clear where the border was before the conflict in which Laetita distinguished herself. The book seems to offer conflicting information

Harpstring Moon, Year 892 The Sreng people launched a large scale invasion. They crossed the Ruska Mountains in the north and descended south into Faerghus. King Banfig built a string of strongholds along the north of his domain, from Blaiddyd to Fraldarius, including Conand Tower.

The first paragraph would seem to imply that the border was already at the Ruska Mountains when Sreng invaded. However, the placement of Conand Tower in the north of Banfig's domain seems to dispute that. The phrasing "along the north of his domain, from Blaiddyd to Fraldarius" seems to imply that "[Banfig's] domain" is referring to the whole Kingdom, not just Blaiddyd territory. Conand Tower is located in the southern part of modern Fraldarius territory, far to the south of the Ruska Mountains, which would seem to imply that Faerghus had not yet annexed most of the peninsula.

Here's a map for reference:

Red: Approximate Location of Conand Tower Green: Ruska Mountains (Modern Faerghus/Sreng Border) Blue: Speculated Former Faerghus/Sreng Border

Of course none of this changes that Lambert launched another invasion of Sreng; nor that Itha, Gautier, and most of Fraldarius territory are sitting on land that once belonged to Sreng and is now devoid of its native inhabitants. It would simply mean that Lambert is not the king who annexed the southern part of the peninsula.

It's also possible that it's explicitly stated somewhere that Lambert is responsible for the annexation. I'm not going to subject myself to Azure Gleam again just to find out. For now I'm agnostic on the matter.

[paganimagevault]

Lugh, of the Light, by Forest Rogers 2020

"Lughnasadh or Lughnasa is a Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the harvest season. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Modern Irish it is called Lúnasa, in Scottish Gaelic: Lùnastal, and in Manx: Luanistyn. Traditionally it is held on 1 August, or about halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. In recent centuries some of the celebrations have been shifted to the Sunday nearest this date.

Lughnasadh is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Samhain, Imbolc and Beltane. It corresponds to other European harvest festivals such as the Welsh Gŵyl Awst and the English Lammas.

In Irish mythology, the Lughnasadh festival is said to have begun by the God Lugh (modern spelling: Lú) as a funeral feast and athletic competition (see funeral games) in commemoration of his mother or foster-mother Tailtiu. She was said to have died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture. Tailtiu may have been an Earth Goddess who represented the dying vegetation that fed mankind. The funeral games in her honour were called the Óenach Tailten or Áenach Tailten (modern spelling: Aonach Tailteann) and were held each Lughnasadh at Tailtin in what is now County Meath."

-taken from wikipedia

[mabiclassic]

Tailteann, Mabinogi

[streetsofdublin]

BLACKROCK DART STATION AND NEARBY

The Blackrock baths were provided for by the railway company in 1839 and were built beside the Blackrock train station.

[phantom-of-the-memes]

Oh interesting thanks for adding on!

Just a reminder, since Halloween came from Ireland, there is no “Sam Hain” in Irish mythology.

Samhain (pronounced sow-in), the word for November is Irish, is also the name of the holiday Samhain, celebrated on November 1st. This is the holiday from which Halloween (oíche shamhna in Irish) was born.

The idea of “the veil” between worlds thinning is actually a Victorian idea. Yes, it is believed that loved ones spirits return, and other creatures roam, but nothing about a “thinning veil”. Some say that they come through portals that appear in certain places like holy monuments and tombs.

Basically it was a festival for the dead. People would set and extra place at the dinner table, or leave food out for spirits. They’d light candles in the windows so dead relatives would know where to go and that their relatives were home.

Bonfires were lit and cattle sacrificed for various gods. The first Jack o lanterns were carved turnips made to ward off unwanted spirits and travellers. People wore costumes to trick evil spirits into thinking they were one of them.

Now a days Halloween in Ireland is pretty much the same as everywhere else. Although it still consists of bonfires and a LOT of fireworks. Like good luck trying to sleep the whole month of October.

Anyways, happy Halloween!/ Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh!