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Showing posts from August, 2019

My First Lughnasadh

This is probably my least favorite time of year. It’s too hot and sticky outside, but summer is drawing to a close and everyone is obsessing over “back to school.” It’s apparently time to get serious about dismal autumn workloads, but delightful autumn weather is still months away. I get the August blues, and this year they struck extra hard: on July 23, I broke my foot and sprained my ankle, drastically reducing my mobility and locking me into a recovery process that won’t be complete until at least the end of October. I was prepared to challenge my August antipathy this year, but it turns out that’s extra hard to do on crutches. Here are the Lughnasadh facts. It’s the first of three Neopagan harvest festivals; the other two are Mabon on September 23 and Samhain on October 31. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and many modern Pagans, it’s the feast or harvest of first fruits. It’s held around August 1 in the northern hemisphere, although it’s sometimes celebrated closer to