dianaandpansson:

From Tairis: http://www.tairis.co.uk/celebrations/celebrating-lunastal/

“A lot of Gaelic Polytheists tend to wait until the fruits are
ready for harvesting as a signal that it is time to celebrate Lùnastal.
If you are able to grow your own vegetables then now is a good time to
aim for them to be ready for harvesting – something to bear in mind when
you start growing.

• In the run-up to Lùnastal, clean and tidy the house so everything is
  in order. Return any items borrowed and make sure you have food in your
  cupboards.
• Decorate the house (or just your shrine area, if you prefer) with
  seasonally appropriate greenery. You could make some garlands or flowers
  and ribbons (traditionally made by unmarried girls) if you like, “to
  mark the end of summer.”
• You’ll need to plan out a few things in advance – a feast (or a
  special meal) is traditional so you’ll want to decide what you’re having
  and make sure you have everything beforehand. You’ll also want to
  decide what kind of offerings you’re going to give; if you’re making a bonnach Lùnastain (or
  several) then you’ll need to make it/them ready for the evening. You’ll
  also want to make sure you have any candles and other necessary items
  at the ready.
• Try finding some wild fruits to pick, or ones grown in your garden –
  bilberries/blueberries are most traditional but gooseberries,
  strawberries, wild raspberries, and all types of currants can also be
  picked (often served freshly mashed with fresh cream and sweetened with
  sugar). Sometimes it’s a little too early in the season for blackberries
  in Ireland, Scotland, and Man (depending on how good or bad the
  summer’s been), but these are good for picking, too.
• Now is the time to dig up some potatoes, if you’ve grown some of
  your own, and whatever else is ready. Don’t forget to leave aside some
  for offerings.
• Try making butter and crowdie cheese.
• Make the bonnach Lunastain – the traditional oatcake type
  works well, and these can be eaten with freshly made crowdie cheese
  spread generously over them. Alternatively you could crumble the
  oatcakes and mix in with plenty of melted butter to make Butter
  Brughtins to serve at the feast.
• Prepare a feast of traditional seasonal foods, with the emphasis
  being on potatoes or (as is felt to have been the original dish before
  potatoes came to be the staple food) bread or porridge made from the
  freshly harvested crop. Cabbage, onions, fish, chicken, beef, lamb and
  bacon are all appropriate to serve, too, so mashed potatoes or colcannon
  are a good dish to make, nice and buttery with plenty of garlic, along
  with a roast. Try making some Fraughan cakes with the bilberries you have picked (or bought, if necessary). Offerings should be set aside for the beloved dead.
• Light a bonfire for the feast, if possible, or else light a candle
  on your central hearth/shrine. Make your opening offerings and prayers.
  It is especially approptiate to address Lugh and Tailltiu, and/or
  perhaps Macha.
• Dance, sing and be merry, with lots of music. Fortunes can be told
  at this time too, friendly competitions – like races – can be held.
• Ideally it would be appropriate to celebrate on a hilltop or near a
  lake (though a bonfire may not be possible here), or at least make an
  outing to such a place to leave offerings. Bear in mind the words: “I
  leave corn and milk in your land, and mast in your woods, and increase
  in your soil.”
• Sain the house and the boundaries of your properties, and those within it.
• Also on the eve, if you prefer to make rowan crosses for warding
  each quarter (rather than annually, every Bealltainn), make and then
  hang the crosses at the thresholds and move any old ones to different
  places – to rooms that are not yet warded, or up into the roof-space,
  the car, the garage etc.”

dianaandpansson:

“The first, the children or subjects of Danu, were the Irish pantheon, a divine society of beings associated with each other and dwelling in a parallel world with its own politics and customs. They had individual functions, such as healer, smith, wheelwright, metalworker, harper and poet, suggesting that they may have functioned as patrons of people engaged in these activities. But there were also two who were multi-talented and occupy a higher status in the stories. One was Lugh, known as ‘the many-skilled’, ‘the long-armed’ or ‘of the long spear’. The first epithet gives away his nature. He was the sophisticated, inventive, brilliantly clever and handsome god, the favourite deity in the stories. He was the particular patron of heroes, and gave his name to the most joyous Irish festival, Lughnasadh. He seems to have been a very widespread deity in the Celtic world. His name appears in a Welsh tale, as Lleu Llaw Gyffes, ‘The Bright One of the Skilful Hand’, although the character concerned is not a god…It would be easy to imagine how such an attractive divine personality could have a very widespread appeal, but we do not know whether he had exactly the same identity upon the Continent as in Ireland…

…In the seventeenth century a myth was concoted that the so-called Teltown marriages’, trial weddings transacted for a set period at the fair of that name in County Meath, were originally ceremonies held at Lughnasadh and associated with the goddess Tailtu. In the 1950s this was disproved, it seems conclusively, and it looks as if ‘Queen Tailtu, foster-mother of Lugh’ was herself an early medieval poetic invention…

Marie MacNiell [has a] famous book upon Lughnasadh. She established that in the early medieval texts it was regarded as the celebration of the beginning of the harvest. She then located 195 sites, usually on heights or beside water, at which Irish villagers had celebration. She discovered that many of these places were associated with a local myth in which a heroic newcomer (normally St Patrick) had defeated an established and unpleasant lord (normally Chrom Dubh). She found memories of similar gatherings at this time in the Isle of Man, Wales and Cornwall. From all this she argued that Lughnasadh had been a festival held all over the British Isles, at which people assembled to mark the safe arrival of the time of harvest and the season of plenty. She further suggested that these gatherings had enjoyed a ritual performance, a story or a piece of drama in which the god Lugh defeated Chrom Dubh, symbolizing the conquest of the old god of the earth and his surrender of the harvest. Now, one firm conclusion which can be drawn from this marvellous work is that popular assemblies were indeed held in pagan Celtic times all over Island and Western Britain, and perhaps elsewhere in Britain, to celebrate Lughnasadh. The rest of the author’s reasoning is speculative, though legitimate and fascinating…

Lughnasadh, as already pointed out, has left copious traces of outdoor gatherings in Ireland, and some along western Britian, though the latter are few compared with those of Samhain. the problem here is that the Anglo-Saxons had their own festival to open the harvest, Loaf-mass or Lammas, which fell on the same day and was celebrated with fairs and gatherings which sometimes make it very hard to distinguish from the Celtic feast.”

From The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy by Ronald Hutton

Here is a fragmented poem for Lugus at Lughnasad, written and translated by Logodaedalus in Romano-Brythonic and English: 

Nu garyū menwanē,  I now call to mind,
saneston rosenon,    an ancient tale,
Nowiyū ad·wēdū       Told anew,    
sugaryūs suwreχtūs. with well-wrought words. 

Ro·cuclowa cantlā,     I have heard songs,    
ambi clowos Lugous. of Lugus’ fame.
Dercon daweti·yo,      His eye that burns,    
dīgalī nemesos.          with heaven’s vengeance. 

Wlidubi wlaticon         At the feasts of kings,    
Ro·wāta cowidwā,     I have told tales,
Ganon are glanon,     Of his birth by the shore,    
gabaglan wogaisī,      his weapon-winning. 

Nu·c canū calmiyon,     I sing of the skilful one,    
cailācos altiyos.            the foretold fosterling,
Com·yo berte messun, When the harvest was taken,    
braton en magesi.         treachery in the fields.

Here are some tips on celebrating this Iron-Age Celtic and Medieval Celtic festival from Land, Sea, and Sky by Francine Nicholson:

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