Gods and Goddesses for Lughnasadh

[mellowitch]

With Lughnasadh coming up this weekend, I'm wondering if there are a set of deities that are honored for the harvest. I feel pretty strongly about Demeter and want to see if anybody has any feedback? Is there maybe a deity better suited to this holiday? If you celebrate Lughnasadh, what Gods or Goddesses do you honor?

[stephyjh]

With Lughnasadh coming up this weekend, I'm wondering if there are a set of deities that are honored for the harvest. I feel pretty strongly about Demeter and want to see if anybody has any feedback? Is there maybe a deity better suited to this holiday? If you celebrate Lughnasadh, what Gods or Goddesses do you honor?

The name Lughnasadh refers to the god Lugh, who instituted the feast in honor of his foster mother, Tailtiu. If you're honoring someone else, it's Lammas.

[mellowitch]

The name Lughnasadh refers to the god Lugh, who instituted the feast in honor of his foster mother, Tailtiu. If you're honoring someone else, it's Lammas.

That's a very good point and I appreciate you pointing that out! I'm still a little new to the Wheel and learning, lol.

I guess I should rephrase the question: if you celebrate Lammas, what deities do you choose to honor?

[starlilica]

That's a very good point and I appreciate you pointing that out! I'm still a little new to the Wheel and learning, lol.

I guess I should rephrase the question: if you celebrate Lammas, what deities do you choose to honor?

For me, I am honoring Demeter and Persephone, with emphasis on Demeter. It's my first year doing this (actually my "first pagan holiday") and I'm baking bread for family and for the Goddesses. I haven't worked out an actual prayer/ritual yet though...

[Vermillion]

With Lughnasadh coming up this weekend, I'm wondering if there are a set of deities that are honored for the harvest. I feel pretty strongly about Demeter and want to see if anybody has any feedback? Is there maybe a deity better suited to this holiday? If you celebrate Lughnasadh, what Gods or Goddesses do you honor?

Lammas is a harvest feast, for me. I don't really view it from any other perspective. Since it's a harvest feast, one that revolves around bread "loaves" and the hearth or domestic situation in preparation for the coming winter, I usually just honor hearth deities for it. This year, I'm taking a Kemetic approach, so Bes will be honored during my feast. And also, Renenutet, the Egyptian Goddess of the harvest and fertility and Sobek, connected with the Nile River (flooding of the Nile helped in abundant harvests).

Usually it was Vesta or Hestia, Brigid. Sometimes Lugh.

[Micheál]

If you celebrate Lughnasadh, what Gods or Goddesses do you honor?

Obviously Lugh since he is the God Lughnasadh is in reverence of, and Lúnasa is still the modern Irish name for the month of August, however harvest festivals occur in many cultures, so any deity related to it will do.

Lughnasash corresponded with the Aedrinios month on the Gaulish Coligny calender, that related to the summer heat. The theme of the "new defeating the old" as in Lugh's mythic slaying of Balar occurs in many cultures, being mentioned in the Babylonian Sargon inscriptions, with the Greek Perseus, Persian Cyros, e.t.c. It was likely that the Celts in southern Gaul encountered this theme at the trading port in the Greek colony of Marseilles, and applied it to their own harvest lore with Lugus.

From Ishtar&Tammuz, Isis, Ceres, Demeter, a lot of deities with harvest&fertility myth can be acknowledged at this time, coincidently linked to Virgo, the sign of the harvest.