Lughnasadh

Lughnasadh is Irish Gaelic, and means Games or festival of Lugh. Who is one of the important Celtic deities and a local hero of the Irish people.
This was traditionally the day when the beginning of the harvest was celebrated, and school holidays were timed to begin so that more people would be available to help gather in the crops. The deity honoured was the corn goddess, Demeter (greek) Ceres (Roman), who dies with the cutting of the corn.
The traditional Lammas festivals lasted for anything up to three weeks, with harvesting during the day, and feasting, singing and dancing at night.
Once the Hay had been gathered, the cattle were put to graze on the stubble fields, and tenures for fields and rents due were also settled at this time. Sheep and cattles fairs were popularly held now too, as the young livestock was shown, and put up for sale at auction, along with open air markets to sell or trade surplus produce.
From the folklore that survives we know that the celebrations took place either on high ground or near a holy well, and as well as singing and dancing there were games and con-*test*-('")s, the sacrifice of a cow/bull for a feast, seasonal fruits and berries were picked and prepared into various dishes to accompany the meat, vegetables and grains already on the menu, and trial marriages were agreed to. Some of these were sexual unions that lasted for the duration of the festival only and the participants were known as Lammas brothers and sisters, but for those who wanted a slightly longer period of commitment there were the handfasting ceremonies which lasted for a year and a day. At the end of this period the couple could decide to extend the union permanently and a true marriage was arranged, or they could obtain a certificate of seperation and were then free to choose another partner if they wanted to.
Another marital custom was wife selling! This is where a man could 'divorce' his wife by placing a halter around her neck and leading her to the marketplace to be 'sold' on fair day. Sometimes this was an amicable agreement between the husband, the wife and her lover!! But often the wife was sold to a complete stranger by the disappointed husband. This kind of thing went until the mid nineteenth century, when in 1855 a woman was sold by her husband for £25, around $40. But this practice was no longer considered respectable by the townspeople and for three nights the purchaser and his new 'bride' were troubled by them shouting and calling outside the house. Until finally when, on the third night, a straw effigy of him was burned outside his window, the man paid the original husband to take back his wife. This was the last recorded instance of wife selling in the UK.

Visits to holy wells were popular at this time too, some have coins thrown in them for a 'wish', and some known as cloutie wells have a small rag or torn piece of fabric tied to an over hanging branch of a nearby bush as a token for good luck or healing. The idea being that the illness would gradually fade away as the rag rotted into the well.
Another form of sacrifice performed at these wells was a simple blood sacrifice. Those wishing good luck or good health would prick their finger with a pin and the pin would then be thrown into the well. In many English villages wells are still elaborately decorated with flowers in a custom known as well dressing. This is a practice that dates back thousands of years in one form or another, dying out and being revived over the years, well dressing was one of the Victorian's favourite celebration activities. Whilst original well dressing would have been a simple garland the Victorians raised it to the level of Folk Art, with a strong element of friendly competition between nearby villages that survives to this day.