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Welcome to Fascinating Facts and Tantalizing Trivia

A Hartson Dowd Column

August 12, 2006

Bilberry Sunday, a Festival of Food and Courtship

One of the four great fire festivals of the Celtic year, Lughnasadh takes place on August 1^st. to the 15^th, and marks the beginning of autumn as well as the harvest.

The mythological beginnings of Lughnasah stretch back to Ireland’s earliest inhabitants, to the last queen of the Fir Bolg who gave her name, Tailtiu, to the land she guarded and which became her place of burial.

To the Irish, Scottish and Manx, Lughnasah is also known as Lammas, Garland Sunday, Bilberry Sunday, Fraughan Sunday, Chrom Dubh Sunday and Black Stoop Sunday. The date of Lughnasah shifts in the Celtic world from late July to September 29 when it is Christianized as Michaelmas.

Today, few in Ireland remember combing the heather for a sweet treat on Bilberry Sunday

Bilberry Sunday is a charming old festival that lives only in Ireland’s distant memory. Celebrated in mid-summer, it was once a day when people went to hillsides and peat lands in groups to collect bilberries, and sometimes find a spouse.

These tiny, intensely dark blue berries, are related to the blueberry though they’re only about half as large. They thrive in acidic soils, have a sweet/sour flavor, and when you squash them up, the insides are yellow.

Finding bilberries in the thick heather bushes where they grow was so difficult that collecting them took the better part of a day. With young men and women spending long hours outside hunting for the berries together, Bilberry Sunday became known as a time for courting. Many a lad was said to have met his wife on this day. In some areas, the girls would bake a bilberry cake and present it to the boy of their fancy at a Bilberry Sunday dance. Others used the berries to make tarts and even, occasionally, bilberry wine.

Bilberry Sunday occurs in mid-summer because this is when the berries ripen. Like other Irish festivals, however, the custom may be related to other Christian and pre-Christian celebrations at the same time of year. A major Celtic festival that was celebrated on August 1st is “Lugnasa,” devoted to the deity Lugh. On Lugnasa, devotees would make expeditions to mountain peaks and hilltops and, in some cases, light fires there. Picking as they climbed Bilberries. Blaeberries, Blueberries, Whortleberries, fraochain – which they might wear as special garlands or gather in baskets to take home for jam, they make bracelets of them for the girls of their choice. In Cashel Planting' in County Armagh, these strung berries were brought home as presents and kept around the house for luck.

In County Mayo, people wore garlands made from the stalks of corn. In other places, the garlands were fashioned from flowers and left on mountain tops, along with other offerings such as wheat. At Gainmhe in County Donegal, everyone wore a flower going up hill and at the summit all the flowers were put into a hole and covered over, as a sign that summer was over.

This was also an occasion for hand fasting, or trial marriages. Young men and women lined up on either side of a wooden gate in a high wall, in which a hole was carved, large enough for a hand. One by one, girl and boy would grasp a hand in the hole, without being able to see who was on the other side. They were now married, and could live together for year and day to see if it worked out. If not, the couple returned to next year’s gathering and officially separated by standing back to back and walking away from each other.

Lugnasa has survived in a “Christianized” version as the popular practice of climbing Croagh Patrick, in County Mayo. The climb of Croagh Patrick, done by some 25,000 pilgrims (some barefoot) takes place on the last Sunday in July.

Since many scholars believe Lugh was a sun-god, it makes sense that people would climb mountains and leave offerings for him in high places. But some believe the offerings were left for the fairies, who would be extraordinarily active on quarter days.  Many believe the practice of standing on a peak overlooking the landscape, keeps alive a passion for the land and its history.

Many of the customs of Lughnasa have slowly faded away over the centuries, but some traditions are still honored. It's said to be lucky to harvest new potatoes on Lughnasa and unlucky to dig them up earlier. The farmers of Ballinrobe, County Mayo, said there were three things a good farmer should have left on Garlic Sunday: a stack of unthreshed oats, a stack of old turf, and a pit of old potatoes (thus showing his ability to properly allocate his resources).

It’s also traditional to have the potatoes for dinner on Lughnasa, often with bacon and cabbage, or in Colcannon (a dish of potatoes, mixed with butter or milk and seasoned with garlic, onion or cabbage).

And pilgrims still climb Mount Brandon on the last Sunday in July, cirambulating the ruined medieval church and the nearby well, under the watchful eyes of a sculpture of Crom Dubh, the Celtic god of harvest.

If you want to honor this ancient holiday, incorporate these Lughnasa traditions into your celebrations:

Hike to a mountaintop where you can overlook the land

Gather flowers and leave them as an offering to the sun god, or the fairies. You could also bury them or burn them as a sign that summer has passed

Go berry picking

Enjoy new potatoes, or whatever you harvest from your garden

Dance and sing around a bonfire"

You could also make Blaeberry Jam

Here’s a recipe for traditional blaeberry jam that comes from Ireland or Scotland.  Wild blaeberries (vaccinium myrtillus) are much smaller and tarter than the commercial blueberry, but the rhubarb in this recipe adds sharpness and texture.

2 lb blaeberries,
1/2 lb rhubarb,
2 lb preserving sugar,
(Makes 3 lb.)

Wash, trim and roughly chop the rhubarb, put it into a pan and cook gently until it starts to soften. Stir in the sugar and when it has dissolved add the blaeberries and bring the jam to the boil. Boil it rapidly for up to 20 minutes to setting point. Cool slightly then pour into clean warm jars, cover, label and store.

Note:- (Test for setting point: test the jam by placing a spoonful on a plate, letting it cool and then pushing the surface with your finger: if it wrinkles the jam is ready)

Colcannon (cally, poundy)
In some parts of Ireland, the Feast of Lughnasadh came to be called Colcannon Sunday, after a dish made from the first digging of potatoes. The cook put on a special white apron kept for the occasion, boiled a huge pot of potatoes over the fire, and mashed them with a wooden mallet. Often, they were seasoned with onions, garlic or cabbage. The cooked vegetables were then turned out onto a platter, and a well hollowed out in the middle for plenty of butter and hot milk. The family sat round and ate, while the cook ate hers from the pot itself—a special privilege. In more well-to-do households, the meal would be accompanied by meat: a flitch of bacon, newly-slaughtered sheep or roast chicken, and followed by seasonal fruits such as gooseberries and blackcurrants.

It was thought to be unlucky not to eat Colcannon on this day, so people often made sure to share theirs with less fortunate neighors.

Here’s a more modern recipe for you to try.

Colcannon
6 servings:
1 medium cabbage, quartered and core removed
2 lb potatoes, scrubbed and sliced with skins left on
2 medium leeks, thoroughly washed and sliced
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoons each mace, salt, pepper
2 garlic cloves
8 tablespoons unsalted butter

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and boil the cabbage until tender, about 12-15 minutes. Drain off the water and chop the cabbage. Set aside.

Bring another pot of water to a boil and boil the potatoes until tender. Drain off the water and set aside.

Put the leeks in a saucepan, cover with the milk, bring close to boiling and then turn down to a simmer until tender. Set aside.

Add the mace, salt and pepper, and garlic to the pot with the potatoes and mash well with a hand masher. Now add the leeks and their milk and mix in with the potatoes, taking care not to break down the leeks too much. Add a little more milk if necessary to make it smooth. Now mash in the cabbage and lastly the butter. The texture that you want to achieve is smooth-buttery-potato with interesting pieces of leek and cabbage well distributed in it.

Transfer the whole mixture to an ovenproof dish, make a pattern on the surface and place under the broiler to brown.

After the first mouthful, Irish families might call out, "Destruction to the Red-haired Hag!"  The red-haired hag is a personification of hunger.

Lammas Curds
In the Scottish Highlands, when the cattle were brought down to the strath, (valley) from their summer pastures on the hills, mothers gave their children and all others returned from the sheilings a small cheese of curds made from that day’s milk, for luck and good-will. More curds and butter were specially prepared for the high feast later that day. The Lammas cheese was probably a kind of crowdie. Caraway seeds can be added to the recipe below to give it the authentic flavoring.

Crowdie
Put two pints (40 fl.oz.) of freshly sour or thick milk into a pan and place on a slow heat and watch until it curdles. Do not allow the milk to simmer or boil otherwise the curds will harden. When the curd sets let it cool before you attempt draining the whey.

Line a colander with a clean muslin cloth and transfer the curds into it and leave until most of the whey has drained before squeezing the last of the whey out by hand. Mix the crowdie with a little salt until it has a smooth texture. Now blend the crowdie with a little cream and place the mixture in a dish and allow to rest in a refrigerator.

The Lammas Bannock
In Scotland, the first fruits were celebrated by the making of a 'bonnach lunastain' or Lunasd?l bannock, or cake. In later times, the bannock was dedicated to Mary, whose feastday, La Feill Moire, falls on August 15th, two days later than the date of Lammas according to the old reckoning. A beautiful ceremony, which, no doubt, had pagan origins, attended the cutting of the grain (usually oats or bere.) In the early morning, the whole family, dressed in their best, went out to the fields to gather the grain for the ‘Moilean Moire,’ the ‘fatling of Mary.’ They laid the ears on a sunny rock to dry, husked them by hand, winnowed them in a fan, ground them in a quern, kneaded them on a sheepskin, and formed them into a bannock. A fire was kindled of rowan or another sacred wood to toast the bannock, then it was divided amongst the family, who sang a beautiful paean to Mother Mary while they circled the fire in a sunwise direction.
Here is a modern recipe you can try:

Pitcaithly Bannock
8 oz flour
4 oz butter
2 oz caster sugar
1oz chopped almonds
1oz mixed candied peel

Set oven to 325F/Gas 3. Grease a baking sheet. Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the sugar and butter and rub in to form a dough. Add the almonds and mix in the peel, making sure they are evenly distributed. Form into a thick round on a lightly floured surface and prick all over with a fork. Place on the sheet and bake for about 45-60 minutes. Allow to cool and serve sliced thinly and buttered.

Hartson Sager Dowd

hsdowd@telus.net