Fáilte Lughnasa - Celtic Festival of the Harvest

Welcome to August! Summer begins to wind down and the fruits of our gardening labors are ready for picking. In Ireland and the Celtic nations of old, this was a great festival time - the end of summer growing, the start of the harvest.

As with most Celtic festivals of old, there was a lot of celebrating going on. Lughnasa was a day to honor Lugh, a Tuatha De Dannan king who is often referred to as an ancient god of light. There is some wonderful information about the Irish and Scottish celebrations of Lughnasa - both ancient and modern - at the All Saints Parish website.

This is a wonderful time of year to enjoy the fruits of your labors and cherish the

warmth of summer. I'll spend Lughnasa baking some bread, making yummy tomatoe sandwiches, and visiting our local farmers markets.

With the harvest comes lots of work - putting up fruits and herbs into jams and jellies, drying herbs, making herb vinegars and tinctures, freezing fruits and veggies. After the dog days of July, August begins the flurry of activity that leads to the cool of Autumn.

So Happy Lughnasa everyone! Let the celebrations begin.

Heavenly Heather

Although it was a blustery, rainy, chilly weekend here in New Jersey, there were some lovely spots of sunshine. I took the time to get out in the yard and take inventory of all the things I have to do as the weather warms its way into spring. As I walked the yard making my voluminous list, I froze in my tracks. My heather was blooming! What a treat and delight to see those pretty pink blossoms in such profusion! March and heather - what a great combination!

When I was but a wee lass, I was lucky enough to go to Ireland. My Dear Old Sainted Grandmother, my grandfather, my grandmother's friend Mary, and I took at 15 day trip to England and Ireland. It was on this trip that I fell in love with heather.


It grows all over - in fields and along roadways, and in stately gardens. Heathers folk lore states that it can be worn for protection. And it can also used in beer! And this wild growing plant served as food for cattle that would nibble on the tender plant tips as they peaked through the snow. I think I still have a spring of heather from Connemara pressed into my travel journal.

It wasn't until a few years ago I found out that heather was not the national flower, but of Norway, that it's really more closely associated with Scotland, and is native to Canada. But to me, heather is still Ireland.

So, after the discovery of my blooming heather, I ran inside and got a cup and collected several handfuls of blossoms. We at Celtic Chairde use heather in several of our products, including our Mela Tae Bright Eye Refreshers (tea bags filled with cucumber, heather and eyebright - a refreshing and soothing treat to tired eyes!) and in our face toner. It's slightly astringent quality is one reason we use it, but I think it adds a little touch of heavenly Irish magic.