Blessed Lughnasadh

Whew, I had a rough couple of days... I am at that PMS/hormonal stage that comes a few days before my period... and not too gross, but have you ever heard the expression, "shit, or get off the pot?" Well, I haven't been able to get off that pot.

I have lost weight but mostly from dehydration and not eating much from 2 days of a seriously upset stomach and major back cramps... which don't mix well with my lower spine injury from the accident a few years ago... and I haven't even been to the gym because at this point my stomach is so sore it's just recouperating.

I have also been working... working... working.

I've had to pick up a lot of work for this month because

1) It's anniversary/birthday month... in August, my son turns 12, I turn 41, my husband turns 40 and it's our wedding anniversary.

2) I need a new bed, like seriously. It's long been killing my back, but it's now starting to creak. I want a platform bed with drawers underneath. And of course a really good mattress

3) My husband wants to start trade school at either the end of August classes or the beginning of November classes... depending on if he is ready for his entrance test... and if it's August we will need to put some fees up front.


So I'm starting to feel better but I am going to take a break from blogging for a few more days because I have to work like crazy this weekend so I can take a couple days off for my holiday.

Monday/Tuesday (sunset to sunset) is a holiday in our religion: Lughnasadh. We're having it at my house. We've got some friends coming in and my daughter is supposed to come in.

So aside from work we also have to clean the house this weekend, prepare for guests, decorate for the holiday, get the altar set up, do some shopping/cooking, baking, etc.


Here are my digital scrapbook pages I did for Lughnasadh last year-- which ended up just being us, and I think the kids were sick and my daughter was in the midsts of moving out so we were moving furniture around and painting, so everything was a bit of a mess and we just had a very casual indoor celebration:

But as you can see from the photos, Lughnasadh is one of those holidays that is all about the food.

It marks the beginning of fall (in our Pagan tradition, the calender is different. While on the secular calender the solstices and equinoxes are considered the beginnings of the new season, in our Pagan tradition, it marks the zenith of the season-- so Autumn begins with the harvest season in August, the high point is the equinox on circa Sept 21st, and the end of the season is the end of October, Samhain).

It is the first of 3 harvest festivals for the year so we are thankful for Mother Earth and her bounty. One tradition in our house is baking bread in the shape of the dying Sun God, and sacrificing the "head" of the bread man as a symbolic gesture for giving back to the land/earth to bring back the return of the Sun God and bring back the return of the grain next year.

We honor the God, Lugh, who is the man-skilled God by piling our tools for the year (or representations of the, such as a pen for  my writing or a school book for the kids studies) and ask Lugh for blessings on them and for a fruitful year.

We write down on paper the things we want to "get rid of," like bad habits or negative emotions that have been overwhelming us, and we ask for strength and guidance in letting them go at this time.

It's also traditionally a time to celebrate games and feats of strength, enjoying the last of the hazy-lazy days of Summer, and it's always fun to do seasonal enactments of myths and stories fitting of this time of year.

So, we've decided to allow ourselves a little leeway on the food because it is a holiday, but we are keeping white carbs off the table, uI have found a 100% whole wheat/whole grain bread recipe. se sparkling water with splashes of fruit juice instead of alcoholic beverages or soda, and lots and lots of grilled veggies. So while I will not overdo it, I'll enjoy myself, and it will be low-cal or healthy foods anyway ;-)

And I usually bake pie for dessert, but instead I think I'm going to make a low-fat grilled peach crisp (sprinkle halved peaches with a bit of brown sugar, some cinnamon & spices, and a sprinkling of oatmeal for crispness and broil them), a recipe from one of my Cook Yourself Thin books and put it out with vanilla ice cream.

And, to celebrate the "games"-- we've decided to go outside in the afternoon and combine an American tradition with this holiday-- a bit of baseball. We dug out some old gloves and we're just going to go out and play a game before the rituals and prayers and feasting... and then probably do some swimming...  and in the evening after ritual and feast, I'll tell the story of the God Lugh approaching the Feast of Tara from Celtic mythology and we'll just chill out. Then Tuesday morning, we're planning to go to a nature preserve that is not far from our house and has hiking trails and we'll go hike through and come home and have some leftover roasted/grilled veggies for lunch, in tortilla wraps with hummus.

Wednesday morning I'll probably have a lot of cleaning to do and I know I have to take my boys for their homeschooling evaluation, however I will try to get on Wednesday night, Thursday morning at the very latest, ready to post the photo of the month. 

Happy Lughnasadh to all my Pagan friends, and to the rest of you just enjoy your weekend!