13 August 2019

Lúnasa 2019, in English y Castellano

Lúnasa 2019... Castellano


Lúnasa es uno de los festivales más antiguos que tenemos en las Islas. En la ortografía gaélica moderna, es Lúnasa, la ortografía gaélica más antigua es Lúghnasa, en gaélico escocés, lùnastal y en luanistino gaélico manés. El festival marca el final de la temporada de crecimiento y la llegada del otoño. Lugh está presente para bendecir la cosecha y garantizar su protección.

 
Lugh

El festival se observa en Irlanda, Escocia, la Isla de Man y en toda la diáspora del pueblo gaélico. La etimología de Lúnasa es del antiguo gaélico Lug (el dios) y násad (asamblea). Lúnasa es el comienzo de la temporada de cosecha. Lúnasa se ha celebrado durante más de tres mil años. Tradicionalmente, se celebra el 1 de agosto y los días circundantes. Este es el tiempo entre el solsticio de verano y el equinoccio de otoño. Lúnasa es uno de los cuatro festivales de temporada gaélicos, junto con Samhain, Imbolc y Lá Bealtaine.
 
Cuervos y cuervos tótem animales de Lugh

Lúnasa se menciona en la literatura gaélica más antigua y era antigua incluso en los primeros tiempos cristianos. El festival lleva el nombre del dios Lugh, quien es uno de los antiguos dioses del Gael. Lúnasa incluye ceremonias religiosas, concursos deportivos, emparejamientos, visitas a pozos sagrados y árboles de hadas, y días especiales de mercado. En la antigüedad, el festival incluía la degustación de los 'primeros frutos' y las elaboradas fiestas, el sacrificio de un toro, las porciones de arándanos y un juego ritual y baile donde Lugh toma y protege la cosecha para la gente de las tribus.
 
Una imagen precristiana de Lugh de Francia

Lúnasa disfrutó de una gran popularidad hasta bien entrado el siglo XX, pero se desvaneció a mediados de siglo, ya que la modernidad y su materialismo asesino de almas pusieron énfasis en estas viejas costumbres ... pero, afortunadamente, Lúnasa ha visto un gran renacimiento en los últimos años. Los festivales, ferias y actividades de Lúnasa están creciendo en popularidad. El festival y los eventos relacionados sobreviven bajo diferentes nombres, como Crom Dubh Sunday, Garland Sunday, Bilberry Sunday, Mountain Sunday. Lúnasa se ha incorporado al ritual cristiano con San Patricio reemplazando a Crom, en la peregrinación a la cima de Croagh Patrick el último domingo de julio. Crom Dubh y Crom Cruach son denominaciones post cristianas, dos de las muchas nominaciones de Dagda. En parte de la tradición, Dagda también está presente en Lúnasa.




En el mito irlandés, Lúnasa comenzó como una fiesta fúnebre y una competencia atlética para conmemorar la muerte de Tailtiu, la madre adoptiva de Lugh. Las leyendas nos dicen que murió de agotamiento después de limpiar los campos de Irlanda para la agricultura. Tailtiu era la esposa del último rey Fir Bolg de Irlanda, antes de la llegada del Tuatha Dé Danann.




Disfrute de su Lúnasa ... Es el momento de comer un plato de carne y algunas de las frutas y verduras de la nueva cosecha, cocinar un pan y verter la cerveza. Este es un buen momento para tener un pequeño incendio en el pozo de fuego esta noche. Recordamos a nuestros antepasados ​​en tales ocasiones. Y vierta el primer sorbo de su libación en el suelo para honrar al viejo Lugh. Siempre es algo bueno que hacer.

Enlace: Encontrando a los McCains


© Barry R McCain 2019

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Lúnasa 2019

Advertisement Logo Lúnasa 2019


Here we are again, another year and the return of Lúnasa.  Lúnasa is one of the oldest festivals we have in the Isles.  In modern Gaelic spelling, it is Lúnasa, the older Gaelic spelling is Lúghnasa, in Scots Gaelic, Lùnastal, and in Manx Gaelic Luanistyn. The festival marks the end of the growing season and the coming of Autumn. Lugh is present to bless the harvest and ensure its protection. 

The festival is observed in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and throughout the Diaspora of the Gaelic people. The etymology of Lúnasa is from the old Gaelic Lug (the god) and násad (assembly). Lúnasa is the start of the harvest season. Lúnasa has been celebrated over three thousand years. Traditionally, it is held on 1 August and the surrounding days. This is the time between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. Lúnasa is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Samhain, Imbolc, and Lá Bealtaine.      


Ravens and Crows totem animals of Lugh

Lúnasa is mentioned in the earliest Gaelic literature and was ancient even by early Christian times.  The festival is named from the god Lugh, who is one of the ancient gods of the Gael.  Lúnasa includes religious ceremonies, sporting contests, matchmaking, visits to holy wells and Faery trees,  and special market days. In ancient times, the festival included the tasting of the ‘first fruits' and elaborate feasts, the sacrifice of a bull, servings of bilberries, and a ritual play and dance where Lugh takes and protects the harvest for the people of the tribes. 
A pre Christian image of Lugh from France
Lúnasa enjoyed great popularity well into the 20th century, but waned in mid-century, as modernity and its soul killing materialism, put stress upon these old customs... but, fortunately, Lúnasa has seen a great revival in the last few years.  Lúnasa  festivals, fairs, and activities are growing in popularity.  The festival and related events survive under different names, such as Crom Dubh Sunday, Garland Sunday, Bilberry Sunday, Mountain Sunday.  Lúnasa has been incorporated in Christian ritual with Saint Patrick filling in for Crom, in the pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday in July. Crom Dubh and Crom Cruach are post Christian appellations, two of the many nomina of the Dagda. In some of the lore, Dagda also is present at Lúnasa.

In Irish myth Lúnasa began as a funeral feast and athletic competition to commemorate the death of Tailtiu,  the foster mother of Lugh.  The legends tell us that she died of exhaustion after clearing the fields of Ireland for agriculture. Tailtiu was the wife of the last Fir Bolg king of Ireland, before the coming of the Tuath Dé Danann.


Enjoy your Lúnasa... It is the time to have a plate of beef and some of the new harvest's fruits and vegetable, to cook a loaf, and pour the beer. This is a good time to have a wee fire out in the fire pit tonight. We remember our ancestors on such occasions. And do pour the first sip of your libation on the ground to honour the old guy Lugh. Always a good thing to do

Link:  Finding the McCains

© Barry R McCain 2019 

01 February 2019

Imbolc, the Day of Bríd

Imbolc, the Day of Bríd

Bríd (artist unknow)



Imbolc... also called Lá Fhéile Bríde. A Gaelic festival that marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox. Celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man; Imbolc is one of the four seasonal festivals along with Beltane, Lughnasa, and Samhain.  Bríd (anglized as Bridget) was incorporated in the early Christian faith as Saint Bríd. Bríd governed moral guidance, virginity, purity, the household, and livestock, and she was a patroness of crafts, such as smithing, and grain farming. 
Saint Bríd with the her cross icon
Her symbols are the Bríd’s Cross and the Brídeóg, which was a corn (grain) doll or effigy, that was paraded from house to house by girls, often with the strawboys joining the procession. 
Food and drink was left out for Bríd on this day and she was asked to protect the home, family, and livestock and a scared fire was lit. Holy wells were visited on this day and seers practiced divination at this time. 
Statue of Bríd, 2nd Century BC in Brittany France
We know of Bríd as a Gaelic goddess, but she was known throughout the Celtic world from Ireland in the west and across much of western Europe.  Part of our heritage and a lovely thing to celebrate on this cold day.

18 January 2019

Cultural Continuum II

Cultural Continuum II

Walking up to the summit of Loughcrew
This photo taken on the same day as I had the strange experience at Loughcrew in County Meath, at Sliabh na Callí, which is the main hill at the site. It is the abode of Béara, who is a Bean Sí (faerie woman) and one of the Tuatha Dé.  There is a passage tomb on top, in which at the equinox sunrise, the rays of the sun shine down and illuminate the inner chamber.  There are the graves of extremely ancient dead kings, queens, and warriors there.  I give a full account of my strange and singular experience at Loughcrew in my book 'Finding the McCains.'

These Celtic faeries are not your wee, cute type, of the Victorian era children's books.  They are not small, and do not have wings, and are not cute. They are tall, fair, powerful beings of light, that are dangerous to be around.  Mysterious beings from another world of existence, who occasionally, still have interaction with our world.  There are several interesting theories about their existence. I will go into these matters in my next book in some detail where I explore the phenomenon of Faeries from a perspective of quantum physics and morhpic resonance and self organising fields of existence.    

Béara is remembered throughout Ireland and Scotland, in the old Gaelic homelands. She is, or has become in legend, a primordial nature spirit and Queen of Winter.  She can appear as an old woman or as a beautiful young maiden, tall and fair.

Cailleach Béara is called Cally Berry in Ulster English and has other names in other regions.  You will also hear Gentle Annie, Old Woman of the Mountains, and she is known as Caill Bhuere in Argyll.  Cailleach is often translated as the Hag or Witch, but Cailleach really just means the Veiled One.  The word Cailleach is used in several Irish terms.  A Cailleach Phráta is a shrivelled potato and a Cailleach Oiche is an owl.  A Cailleach Feasa is a wise woman or fortune teller and a Cailleach Dhubh is the term for a nun.

The mystery of Loughcrew and my experience there added to my understanding of the people and culture from which my family originated.  Béara is still remembered in Kilmichael Glassary where the McCain family originated.  Stories of her were told around the McCain hearths for centuries.  These stories of the Old Faith did not please everyone however.  

In 1560s, Seon Carsuel, Bishop and pastor to the fifth Earl of Argyll, complained about the Gaels in mid Argyll, where my family lived, just a short couple of miles from the Bishop's residence.  In his writings, Bishop Carsuel cited the stories of the Tuatha Dé Danann as the survival of paganism among the Gaels there.  Bishop Carsuel lived at Carnasserie Castle, and he could literally look out to the smoke from the hearth fires of McCain homes where the stories of Béara and the other Tuatha Dé Danann were being told.  The Bishop was not please with the survival of Gaelic pagan lore .

To quote Bishop Carsuel, ... darkness of sin and ignorance and design of those who teach and write and cultivate Gaelic, that they are more designed, and more accustomed, to compose vain, seductive, lying and worldly tales about the Tuatha Dé Danann and the sons of Mil and the heroes and Fionn Mac Cumhail and his warriors and to cultivated and piece together much else which I will not enumerate of tell here, for the purpose of winning for themselves the vain rewards of the world.

Bishop Carsuel wrote that in 1567.  Two short years later my own family left mid Argyll and moved to Donegal.  They were part of the the Gaelic military build up connected with Iníon Dubh and her marriage to the chief of the Ó Dónaill clan.


Myrddin (Merlin) the Druid of the Old Faith
Carsuel, in his writings on the beliefs of the Gaels, was describing a cultural continuum that was still alive in the 1500s and had it roots in the Bronze Age (or earlier).   At Loughcrew, I had experienced something that would have been familiar to my McCain ancestors that lived near him.  What would the good Bishop think if he knew centuries later that at least some Gaels still enjoyed the 'vain, seductive, lying and worldly tales' of the Tuatha Dé Danann?  No offense meant to the good Bishop, but it is reassuring to know that tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann still live and I had been fortunate enough to participate in one.  

Placing an 'intention' on a Faerie Tree
I have loved Celtic myths since I was a young boy.  It is not only my McCain family that I have this love, the other lines in my family are also from Ireland on my paternal side and from Wales on my maternal side.  My father's mother's father's line, the Tweedy family, has the Second Sight. I have been aware of the Second Sight since I was a young boy.  I am researching the Second Sight now for upcoming writing projects.  As many know I had a stroke back in late September, which laid me low for six months.  I am back writing and researching now and I have another personal experience to include in my research.  A Tweedy cousin of mine had a Second Sight experience last summer.  The vision was a portent about me and related to my health... and a month or so later, the event happened.  This gets into the topic of morphic resonance, i.e. the nuts and bolts of how Second Sight works.

Old beliefs, our tales of our people, our tribes, etc., it still lives after all this time.   We are our ancestors.  

© 2018 Barry R McCain

Barry R McCain on Amazon

02 June 2018

McCain's Corner: Cultural Continuum II

McCain's Corner: Cultural Continuum II: Walking up to the summit of Loughcrew This photo taken on the same day as I had the strange experience at Loughcrew in County Meath,...

19 July 2017

Fairies and the Old Faith

Walking up to the summit of Loughcrew
This photo taken on the same day as we had the strange experience at Loughcrew in County Meath, at Slieve na Callí, which is the main hill at the site. It is the abode of Béara, who is a Bean Sí (fairy woman) and one of the Tuatha Dé.  There is a passage tomb on top, in which at the equinox sunrise, the rays of the sun shine down and illuminate the inner chamber.  There are the graves of extremely ancient dead kings, queens, and warriors there.  I give a full account of my strange and singular experience at Loughcrew in my book 'Finding the McCains.'  These Celtic fairies are not your wee, cute type, of the Victorian era children's books.  They are tall, fair, powerful beings of light, that are dangerous to be around.  Béara is remembered throughout Ireland and Scotland, in the old Gaelic homelands. She is, or has become in legend, a primordial nature spirit and Queen of Winter.  She can appear as an old woman or as a beautiful young maiden, tall and fair.     

Placing an 'intention' on a Faerie Tree
The practice of leaving 'wishes' or intentions, on Fairy trees goes back to pre Christian times.  A Fairy Tree is often located near a holy well, and a spiritual place of worship for pagans.  Many travel, a pilgrimage of sorts, to the Fairy trees, to leave prayers or intentions, to ask a blessing or a favour, from those mysterious, unseen but felt, aspects of nature and the Old Faith that still manage to survive at these locations. When you visit a Fairy Tree you will see an array of objects left in the branches or at the base of the tree.  You will see ribbons, messages written on paper, colouful pieces of cloth or foil, photographs, toys, small figurines, and even strips of fabric torn from a visitor's clothing. 

A Fairy Tree near a Holy Well

A Fairy Tree is often a Hawthorn tree, but not always.  A lone hawthorn standing in the middle of a field or pasture garners both respect and some suspicion by the local communities.  A Fairy Tree is thought to bring good fortune, but it is also known to belong to the Otherworld and is part of the Sidhe.  For this reason, it was the tradition to never cut nor harm the tree for fear of retribution of the old gods and their allies.  The Fairy Tree was, and to some still is, seen as a gateway into the Fairy realms.     


With my old son, Donovan, on Tara Hill at Lia Fáil. 
This photo taken at Tara.  My older son, Donovan, and I are standing by the Lia Fáil, a stone of power that was a gift to Ireland from the Tuatha Dé.  It is one of the four legendary treasures of Ireland brought to Ireland from the Northern Isles by the Tuatha Dé.   The treasures are the Claíomh Solais (sword of light), the Sleá Bua (victory spear of Lugh), the Coire Dagdae (cauldron of Dagda), and the last, the Lia Fáil (stone of Ireland).  


© 2017 Barry R McCain

20 June 2017

Summer Solstice 2017


 The Summer Solstice, aka St John's Day, but, in the Old Faith, the Day of An Dagda (the good god). Feasting and dancing, and bonfires were lit in celebration. So today, raise a glass to An Dagda, if you are lucky enough to have a bonfire, it is tradition to jump it, suggest this be done before taking in ale. Happy Solstice!!!

09 June 2017

Tuatha Dé Danann

Danu

Tuatha Dé Danann (tribe of Danu) is the name of the Gaelic ancestral gods.  They are also known by the earlier name of Tuath Dé (tribe of gods).

The Tuatha Dé are also called the Aos Sí and are the Faeries of later Gaelic folklore.  However, they are not the diminutive creatures of the popular Victorian children stories or of modern Hollywood portrayals. They are described in the earliest primary sources as being tall, with red or blonde hair, blue or green eyes, and very fair skin. They are luminous beings of great power and strength... and very dangerous to those unfortunate enough to become their enemy.

Sightings of the Tuatha Dé were common in older times, but have become less frequent in modern times, though there are several eyewitness accounts from the 20th Century.   These sightings take place in their traditional homeland of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, however one of the Tuatha Dé, Manannan Mac Lír, was sighted in Canada on Nova Scotia in the early 1900s.

Our knowledge of them comes to us from the filter of the Christian monks who first recorded the stories and history of the Tuatha Dé.   The stories were embellished and at times given comic aspects to enhance the tale. Some of the Tuatha Dé are obvious cognates with gods in other Indo European deity pantheons. Nuada is a cognate with the Noden, Lugh is a pan Celtic god, Bríd is a cognate to Brigantian, Tuireann with Taran (Taranis), Ogma with Ogmios, and Badbh with Catubodua.


As I develop this blog, I will enumerate the Tuatha Dé, discuss their cognates with other Indo-European pantheons, and discuss late examples of, if not worship, at least acknowledgement of, the Tuatha Dé in modern times.  


     

Lúnasa 2019, in English y Castellano

Lúnasa 2019... Castellano Lúnasa es uno de los festivales más antiguos que tenemos en las Islas. En la ortografía gaélica mode...