Celebrate Lughnassadh with a Druid Bride

Lughnassadh, pronounced LOO-nahs-ah, is the Celtic Harvest festival, celebrated July 31 or August but it’s also a great time for romance. For one, it was named after the sun god Lugh, a tall, muscular warrior with sky blue eyes and a hallo of golden light which blazed around his thick flaxen hair. He was also known as Lugh of the long arm because of his magic spear, which never missed its mark. That brings quite an image to mind, doesn’t it. The earth goddess (Tailtiu in Ireland and Blodeuwedd in Wales) was an important part of Lughnassadh as it celebrates the marriage of the earth to the sky, so hand fasting marriages were celebrated at this time. Also as fruit gathering was part of Lughnassadh, young men and women paired off to pick sweet, ripe bilberries and didn’t return until nightfall.

Here’s an excerpt of that from my latest release, Druid Bride:
Lughnasa, one of her favorite festivals. She and Brude would pick bilberries together and stay out until dark. He would thread the dark berries they plucked together into a bracelet for her to wear that day. At least, he should. She imagined his lips on hers, pressing down, hot and wet, kissing her beneath the light of the white moon, his mouth and breath tasting of sweet, juicy bilberries.
Of my nine Celtic/Romances, many have Lughnassadh excerpts. Here’s another from Druid Bride:
Tribesman blew bronze horns and blared their pipes as Tanwen moved toward a large, spoked wagon wheel coated with black, gooey tar. From the hill, she gazed down at the fertile fields below.
Brude, the chieftains, and the crowd joined her as she chanted, “The sun burns, yet winter nears. The season turns. Summer comes to an end. Sun and earth, Lugh and Macha. Life to death, the wheel turns, Lughnassahd, Lughnassahd.”

Brude handed her a firebrand, and she lit the wheel aflame. My life has turned in a new direction like a wheel on a wagon, rolling from one street to go down another. Will my life with Brude be as passionate as the fiery wheel? Her mind filled with the memory of wild, blinding pleasure and of his firm, muscular body taking her over the crest until she’d screamed in ecstasy. With an iron rod, she rolled the fiery wheel down the hill. “The end of Lugh’s reign, god of the sun.” She gasped air as she ran with the rolling symbol of the sun. She glanced at Brude, who kept pace with her on the other side of the burning wheel, garbed in a red tunic interwoven with gold and draped with a plaid bratt of blue, green, purple, gray, white, and black. Tanwen’s gaze fell to his eyes, which smoldered with heat and enflamed her with desire. Smoke rose, as flames ate the wood. The flaming wheel reached its end and crumbled into pieces of burning wood. The crowd stopped in their tracks and encircled the dying Lugh. She spread her arms into the air and focused on the gods.
“The sun begins its journey into dark winter. The season turns, sun and earth, Lugh and Macha, life to death. Winter nears, Lughnassahd, Lughnassahd.”

I’m part of the turning season. Soon I’ll transform from maiden to wife, and then to mother.
With the fire nothing more than smoldering embers, the wheel no more than ashes, and with Brude at her side, she led the crowd back up the hill.
That’s the last excerpt for today but some ways you can celebrate Lughnassadh at your home are:
Make a centerpiece of dried wheat sheaves, whole grain breads, acorns, hazel nuts, and grapes. Get the whole family involved in baking homemade bread.
Say a prayer of thanksgiving for the harvest or the bounty of food you have year round. Or to send a free E-card of Druid Bride’s cover art to a friend as a Happy Lughnassadh greeting drop by http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/greetings/index.php?step=sendcard&ec_id=604
Also for more excerpts ,visit my website anytime at http://CelticRomanceQueen.com

CONTEST TIME:
I will draw one winner from the comments so please post questions or comments below. The winner gets an Original theatre Movie Poster of Dancing at Lughnasa (the fantastic movie with Meryl Streep) dimensions: 27 x 41 inches – so please post comments or questions below – contest open to all countries