Today I was listening to a podcast by Jon O’Sullivan from the Irish Pagan School entitled “Is Lughnasadh really about Lugh?” I had always heard that the day was meant to honor the sun god Lugh. However, O’Sullivan set the record straight.

It’s true that Lughnasa is the Irish word for August, and it also a refers to the Lughnasa games or the harvest period in Ireland’s ancient cycle of festivals. But according to O’Sullivan, the Lughnasa games were created by Lugh to honor the death of his foster mother, Tailtiu.

In one of the old Irish tales, Tailtiu takes Lugh into foster care. She herself was not of the Tuatha Dé Danann, like Lugh, but a Fir Bolg, married to the Fir Bolg chieftain Bregon.

Morgan Dailmer echoes O’Sullivan’s perspective in Pagan Portals: Gods and Goddesses of Ireland: “In Old Irish the word Lughnasadh means ‘funeral assembly of Lugh,’ named not for Lugh himself but but for his memorializing of Tailtiu. Later the word shifted to Lughnasa, and the meaning changed as well to ‘games or assembly of Lugh.'”

Similarly, Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials: Lughnasadh explains that the holiday is referred to as “Lugh’s funeral games held in honor of his stepmother Tailtiu. Tailtiu was the wife of the last king of the Fir Bolg. When the Fir Bolg were overthrown, Tailtiu remarried to one of the new ruling class, the Tuatha de Danann. According to legend Tailtiu died of exhaustion after cleaning the fields of Ireland for agriculture, and Lugh initiated the Fair of Tailtiu in her honor as a wake fair including feasting, games, and sports.”

So, I stand corrected. I went back and revised some of what I had previously written about Lughnasadh. I deeply appreciate the scholarship from the Irish Pagan School and highly recommend checking them out if you’re interested in accurate insights into Irish mythology and Irish Pagan spiritual practice.

Blessed Be, David Taliesin, http://www.sabbatsandsabbaths.com