Competitions
Art
Age categories: Under 14's / under 18's / adults
Closing
date: 21 st . July 2004.
Amateur photography
Age
categories: Under 14's / under 18's / adults
Closing
date: 21 st . July 2004.
All entries to rathangan community
library
Or
contact Ger clarke ( 086-1082646 )
or lynn buckle ( 087-7616667 )
Poetry
Age categories: Under 14's / under
18's / adults
Closing date: 21 st . July 2004.
All
entries & enquiries to Rathangan community
library
Short story
Age categories: Under 14's / under
18's / adults
Closing date: 21 st . July 2004.
All
entries & enquiries to Rathangan community
library
Busking
Busking competion
takes place saturday afternoon 31 st . July 2004. For
further details please contact: Paddy
o'loughlin ( 086-8945357)
Exhibitions
Arts & crafts,
photography & multimedia
During the festival the committee will be holding exhibitions for
arts, crafts, photography and multimedia.
Exhibitors of arts and crafts are cordially invited
to display their works during the festival weekend. Please contact
Ger Clarke or Lynn Buckle for further information.
Photographs and images, old and new, past and present, of the people
and places of Rathangan , as well as images of special occasions associated
with Rathangan are required. These will be exhibited during the festival.
Please leave all photographs, videos and images, with as much information
as possible into
Ryans Pharmacy Rathangan.
Please note that all originals will be copied and returned to their owners
within 10 days of receipt. Your support is appreciated.
Lughnasa
(pronounced 'loo-na-sa')
Lughnasa is one of the four Celtic fire festivals,
which are celebrated at points midway between the solstices and equinoxes.
Samhain, on november 1st, begins the celtic new year. This is followed
by Imbolc (february 1st), Bealtaine (may 1st), and Lughnasa (august
1st). The name is derived from the celtic deity Lugh , god
of all arts and crafts. Over the centuries, lugh's once mighty image
diminished to the point where he became a fairy craftsman and trickster
named lugh-chromain, which means 'little stooping lugh',
and was anglicised as leprechaun. It is an irony of history that London,
the capital of Ireland's ancient and long-term enemy, derives from Lugdunum ,
which means 'fortress of lugh'. This was latinised to Londinium, which
became London.
Contrary to the observation of the other fire festivals,
which were essentially family/homestead affairs, Lughnasa was celebrated
on a broad community scale. Major assemblies took place, often on the
top of highpoints in the landscape. Dancing and feasting were high
on the agenda. Until the 12th century, the tailltinn games
were held on august 1st. These were the equivalent of the olympic games
of classical Greece, and were named after tailtu , lugh's
foster mother, in who's honour the feast of Lughnasa was created by
her foster son.
Lughnasa is the beginning of the harvest season. Traditionally,
the first crop of potatoes (a major part of the staple diet since the
18th century) was never lifted before this day. To have done so would
have been to invite bad luck. In the past, it was not a simple matter
to keep oneself in food from one harvest to the next. The beginning
of the new harvest, of reaping the fruits of the previous month's hard
labours, was therefore a cause for celebration
