Today is August first, which I learned last year was Lughnasadh, a celebration marking the beginning of the end of summer. (Love those Druidic holidays.) And while I won’t be doing anything Wiccan to celebrate, I do like to share:
Lughnasadh marked the beginning of the harvest season, the ripening of first fruits, and was traditionally a time of community gatherings, market festivals, horse races and reunions with distant family and friends. Among the Irish it was a favored time for handfastings – trial marriages that would generally last a year and a day, with the option of ending the contract before the new year, or later formalizing it as a more permanent marriage