Show Notes
As the year draws to a close, there is a stretch of winter when time feels suspended. The space after holiday celebrations have ended, but before the light truly begins to return. In this episode of Wild Kin, we step into that liminal time, when spirits were once believed to roam freely, and the wild came knocking at the door.
Resources: *National Museum Wales: Christmas Traditions: The Mari Lwyd *English Heritage: Uffington White Horse *Journal of the Royal Anthropoligical Institute: Rethinking ritual: how rituals made our world and how they could save it
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More from Wild Kin: A Celtic Podcast
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He's remembered as a warrior, a poet, a healer, and a craftsman all at once, and an entire Celtic harvest festival still carries his name three thousand years later. In our Lughnasadh season finale, we're meeting Lugh- the many-skilled god behind it all. We'll trace his rise from a prophecy to one of the most well-documented festivals in the ancient Celtic world. For more Celtic-inspired stories and resources, subscribe to Wild Kin on Substack
At the height of the Lughnasadh fair, families gathered from across the land to trade, to settle disputes, and, some say, for matchmaking. This episode traces what we actually know about marriage at the ancient festival, and the surprisingly practical unions recognized under Brehon law. For more Celtic-inspired stories, subscribe to Wild Kin Studio on Substack Sources - Eska, Charlene M. Cáin Lánamna: An Old Irish Tract on Marriage and Divorce Law. Leiden: Brill, 2010. - MacNeill, Máire. The Festival of Lughnasa: A Study of the Survival of the Celtic Festival of the Beginning of Harvest. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962. - Howard Goldbaum, "Teltown (Tailteann)," Voices from the Dawn, July 25, 2010. - L. Winifred Faraday (trans.), "The Cattle Raid of Cualnge," sacred-texts.com, 1904. - Pádraig Bambury and Stephen Beechinor (eds.), "The Annals of Ulster," CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, University College Cork, 2008.
Every August 1st, people across the Celtic world gathered for Lughnasadh—one of the best-documented festivals of the ancient calendar. In this episode, we step onto the fairground itself: the games, the legal proceedings, the matchmaking, and the truce that made all of it possible. We'll also look at what modern archaeoastronomy has revealed about just how far this tradition traveled, and how a Celtic harvest festival ended up shaping a Roman political calendar. Subscribe to Wild Kin Studio on Substack
Before the festival, there was Tailtiu. A defeated queen clearing a forest by hand so her people could eat, she gave everything to the effort. The festival we now call Lughnasadh was born from the grief and gratitude that followed. In this episode, we trace her story from the earliest surviving Irish texts to how her legacy continues to live on today.