Ah, autumn! My favorite season. And I am so ready for it. Of course, we don’t get a genuine autumn here in Florida. The leaves stay pretty green and the weather stays…well…hot until the end of October. Then the humidity drops and there’s the occasional cool breeze. I’ve lived in other states and experienced the joy of sweater weather and the beauty of autumn leaves. But there’s much more to autumn (or Fall, as many people in the U.S. call it) than weather or the color of leaves.
This week, I made a list. And I couldn’t stop thinking about how these things either have origins in Celtic folklore or are things that Celtic folklore says really cool stuff about. So, this week’s post is a Venn Diagram of the things that say “autumn” to an American and how those things are connected to Celtic tradition and folklore.
But first: when does autumn begin? The answer is more complicated than you might think. According to the Gregorian calendar, the official time-keeping device used by most of the world, the first day of autumn 2024 in the northern hemisphere is September 22, 2024 (in the southern hemisphere, it’s the beginning of spring). In the northern hemisphere, autumn always begins (again per the Gregorian calendar) on the Autumnal Equinox. (More about the equinox below). But, according to the Celtic calendar, autumn started back on August 1st on the fire festival of Lughnasa. So, if you’re in the mood to wear fall colors, put out the harvest decorations, and start cooking hearty stews and drinking apple cider—go for it!
Before I get into the Celtic folklore, I need to mention some things people in the U.S. associate with Fall. “Why?” I hear Americans asking. The simple answer is that people all over the world read this blog. That amazes me and touches me, so a big thank you to all of you. You are awesome!
Things People in the U.S. Associate with Fall
Another disclaimer: I cannot speak for every American. but the following is a non-comprehensive list of things most Americans associate with Fall. Are there non-Americans who associate at least some of these things (such as the harvest) with autumn too? Of course! Please let me know in the comment section if you agree or disagree with things on the list. I’d love to hear what you think.
My List of Things Americans Associate with Autumn
--Colors: red, orange, yellow / gold, brown / rust
--Clothes: Sweaters, sweater tops, pullovers, knits, scarves, boots
--Weather: chilly wind, fog, thunderstorms, jagged lightning
--Food: Hearty stews and soups, Apples (caramel, candied, baked, and regular), apple juice, apple cider, pork.
--Pumpkin pie spiced things: coffee, milkshakes, beer, cookies, cakes, pies, pumpkin, winter squashes, sweet potatoes, candles. (We like pumpkin pie spices. Can you tell?)
--Activities: football, hay rides, harvest fairs, harvest balls, sitting by the fire
--Decorations: Autumn-themed: full moon (especially an orange harvest moon) scarecrows, sheaves of wheat, Indian corn, autumn-colored leaves, hay bales, baskets of fall produce (apples, squashes, acorns, corn), pumpkins Halloween (or Samhain) Related: pumpkins, Jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, bones, boney hands, ghosts, witches, haunted houses, graveyards, tombstones, black cats, bats, crows, fog
Whew! That’s quite a list. I’m not going to try to connect everything on it to Celtic folklore and traditions. But let’s explore some of them.
Celtic Celebrations Associated with Autumn
There are three celebrations in Celtic culture that are autumn-related: a) Lughnasa, b) the autumnal solstice, and c) Samhain.
Lughnasa (pronounced loo-nah-sah): One of the four major holy days of the ancient Celts, this fire festival takes place on August 1st. Officially. Celtic days begin at sunset and go to sunset the next day, so Lughnasa actually is from sundown on July 31st to sunset on August 1st, but that can be confusing for the rest of us, so let’s just say August 1st. Or just August. In Gaeilge (Irish), the word Lúnasa refers to the entire month of August.
Like all fire festivals, Lughnasa marks the start of a season, in this case, autumn. Some people—accurately or inaccurately—refer to the entire season of autumn as Lughnasa. I’m not going to quibble with them.
In addition to marking the start of autumn, this festival also celebrates harvest time. According to Celtic folklore, the sun god Lugh established the celebration to honor his mother. She cleared all the land on the island of Eire so that the Irish could farm, grow food, and live. What a mom! Immediately afterward, she died. Thus, this fire festival is a harvest celebration.
But notice it’s named for the sun god. He was a golden boy who excelled at just about everything—sports, music, poetry. You name it, he could do it. So, on Lughnasa, people gather (to this day) to engage in competitions. Where do they gather? At harvest fairs. These often include horse racing, athletic contests, singing competitions, and lots of judging of who has the best cabbage, cucumber, rutabaga, or whatever.
Amid of the joyful abundance of the harvest and the fun of competitive games, Lughnasa has a serious side. It is the beginning of the end. The Celtic year consists of two halves: the dark and the light. Just as Celtic days begin at sundown, the year begins in the dark with the fire festival of Samhain. It ushers in the winter.
But the year moves towards the light. At Beltane (May 1st), the light half of the year begins. Light and life come to fullness at the summer solstice (sometime between June 20—22nd, depending on the year). Autumn is the final season in the Celtic year and its fading light ultimately will give way to the cold dark of winter.
Learn about the themes and folk practices associated with Lughnasa by clicking here.
The Autumnal Equinox: this astronomical event occurs every year sometime between September 21st and September 24th. As mentioned above, in modern culture it’s considered the start of autumn in the northern hemisphere. On the equinox, the amount of daylight and nighttime are approximately equal (hence equinox). After this, days become shorter (have fewer hours of daylight) and the nights longer. Actually, daylight begins decreasing at the summer solstice, but after this equinox, the change in light and warmth becomes more noticeable. Also, in most places, temperatures drop as autumn moves towards winter.
The ancient Celts definitely took notice of this. An agrarian society, they paid attention to nature in a way many of us don’t do today. For them, though, the autumnal equinox marked mid-autumn, the time for second harvest, and a reminder that there wasn’t much time left to store up food for winter. Thankfully, in the days immediately preceding or following the equinox, there is a special full moon—the harvest moon—which provides light for farmers to work by in the evening.
To find out more about the autumnal equinox from a Celtic folklore perspective, please read my post “Celtic Harvest and the Autumnal Equinox.”
Samhain: Another of the four fire festivals, Samhain (November 1st) marks the end of autumn and the start of winter. It can be argued that this is a winter celebration and not appropriate as part of this discussion but, keep in mind, the Celtic calendar is different than the one most of the rest of us use. On the Gregorian calendar, Samhain takes place in the autumn. And, of course, in the structure of a Celtic day, it begins at sundown on October 31st. So, All Hallows’ Eve has its origins in Samhain, and many of the decorations and symbols associated with it (especially the American version) come from Celtic folklore and this fire festival.
Autumn Symbols, Decorations, and Celtic Folklore.
If you glance back over the list of things Americans associate with fall, you’ll see that it’s easy to make connections between Lughnasa and many items on the list. Scarecrows, hay bales, wheat sheaves, and baskets of autumn fruits and vegetables all point to the main focus of Lughnasa: the celebration of the harvest. The full harvest moon has an association with the autumnal equinox.
Then there’s Samhain. In the U.S., the fall season brings with it a proliferation of Halloween-themed decorations. Not all of them are related to Samhain. Not directly anyway. Chainsaws, ax murderers, zombies, and mad scientists holding brains come from a modern U.S. misappropriation of both Samhain and All Hallows’ Eve. But many Halloween decorations do originate in folklore associated with Samhain.
Because the veil between this world and the Otherworld is at its thinnest on Samhain, inhabitants of the Otherworld can (and do) cross over into this one. Souls who have passed to the next world can come back for a visit—and that’s a main focus of Samhain: the return of the ancestors. Unfortunately, the Otherworld is inhabited by other beings too and they also flood into this world. That means, if you are foolish enough to go out on Samhain’s Eve, you run the risk of encountering ghosts (not all of them friendly), faeries, and other supernatural beings.
Here’s a non-comprehensive run-through of American Halloween iconic decorations that have their origins in Samhain:
1) Ghosts, skeletons, graveyards, haunted houses: all of these have to do with two Samhain
themes—a) the return of the ancestors (i.e. ghosts) and b) death.
2) Black cats: according to Celtic folklore, the Cat Sidhe (Irish) or the Cat Sith (Scottish) is a faerie who comes around on Samhain’s Eve in the form of a black cat. If a family has left out a bowl of cream for the faerie, they may receive its blessing. But woe betide the family who neglects this hospitality!
3) Bats: the faerie collective, the Sluagh Sidhe, fly out of the Otherworld through a cave on Samhain’s Eve and go in search of souls. They look like skeletons with large bat-like wings. In the night sky, they resemble bats or crows.
4) Fog: if you walk through a fog, you may find yourself lost in the Otherworld.
5) Jack-o-Lanterns: These pumpkin sculptures originate from the story of Stingy Jack, which you can read by clicking here. On All Hallows’ Eve, Irish and Scots people used carved and illuminated turnips to protect their homes from sinister beings. They brought that tradition to the U.S. but found that pumpkins were abundant and easier to clean out and carve.
I have written several posts about the elements of Samhain in the celebration of Halloween. You can read a fuller discussion of the folklore about the above and other Samhain-related symbols in my post, “No More Gore: Return Halloween to Its Samhain Roots.”
I’ve also written about the magic of pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and clove). Read what Celtic folklore says about them by clicking here.
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Slán go fóill
All artwork for this post (except for the Ukranian flag and the GIF) by Christine Dorman via Bing Image Creator.
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