KATHERINE NEVILLE’S
Lammas Newsletter
August 1, 2016
Lammas-Lughnassadh
Today, August 1, is the Eighth and last station of the Celtic calendar. It is called in northern lands Lammas (‘Loaf-Mass,’ baking bread from the first crop) or Lunasa (Lughnassadh, Festival of Lugh, the great Irish warrior and leader, for whom the later Roman town Lugdunum was named, “fortress or hill of Lugh,” later Lyon.) One of the 8 Celtic Fire Festivals, Lammas celebrates bringing in the year’s first great harvest of corn and grain.
Lammas falls between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox. The grain festival was still celebrated today, along with grape celebrations. But in ancient times it was associated with the Greek goddess Demeter (Roman Ceres, the grain goddess), her daughter Persephone (Roman Proserpina) and the all-important Eleusinian Mysteries regarding the mysteries of plowing, planting, nurturing and harvesting of crops.
The story of the goddess is discussed in The Fire, the sequel to The Eight.
THE FIRE (2008) is launched thirty years after the events of The Eight, when the Black Queen of the Montglane Service shockingly resurfaces in Russia. The children of the previous characters know nothing of the quest of their parents, but are drawn into it nonetheless — and “The Game” is afoot again.
For more about Lammas Day – see my previous Lammas newsletter.
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