Lughnasadh is the most ancient of these names; in Old Irish, it meant “the Lugh Gathering”. A fire festival celebrated midway between the summer solstice and the fall equinox, it was a time of gathering together for trade and exchange of goods and ideas. As such, it wasn’t primarily a harvest festival, though according to legend it was established by Lugh, king of the gods, in tribute to his mother Tailtiu, who died readying the fields of Ireland for agriculture. The festival is known to have been celebrated throughout western Europe prior to the Roman occupation.

In ancient times, Lughnasadh was pronounced much as it is spelled, with the “gh” pronounced as a gentle voiced velar sound (not found in modern English) and “dh” a voiced interdental, like the “th” in then and those. Phonosemantically, Lugh is the primary syllable, and it is similar to the name Luke and Latin lux in sound and meaning: a light, volume-filling energy is gathered with speedy, fluid motion into a grounded container — or, put more simply, embodied, flowing light.

Lunasa is the spelling used in Ireland today, since Irish underwent spelling reform in 1948, and reflects the way Lughnasadh is pronounced in modern times. The primary syllable is now “lun”, pronounced like loon; the meaning is still flowing light, but instead of embodiment, the energy is channeled and directed toward a goal. The “a-a” vowels in the second and third syllables may indicate that the goal is balance and equanimity.

The word Lammas has an entirely different origin, although the festival itself may well be related to Lughnasadh. Lammas is from Old English hlafmæsse, “loaf mass”, the Bread Mass (as in a Catholic mass, not a big hunk of bread), and as such is definitely focused on the early harvest. It was customary to bring a loaf of bread from the first wheat crop to church for this Mass. Certainly the festival was very popular from the earliest Old English times, so it is not at all inconceivable that it was originally a “Christianized” version of Lughnasadh, though there is no evidence for this that I am aware of. The sound of the word Lammas indicates a light-like energy that is balanced and even, and results in manifestation.

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