hello friends my name is Arith Härger and today I'm going to talk about Lammas and
Freyfaxi so let's just say that this is a sort of introductory video for those
who are taking the first steps into the path of paganism and want to know about
the pagan celebrations throughout the year so today I'm going to talk about
Lammas or Lughnasadh and throughout this video I will refer to this celebration
as Lughnasadh and then I will talk about Freyfaxi so let's get started
so Lughnasadh is the Irish Gaelic celebration in honor to the god Lugh the
god associated with the Sun fire and agriculture this term derives from the
junction of two different words Lugh - the deity - and "násad" which apparently means
assembly now we know our Assessors used to make gatherings moots to settle all
kinds of disputes and also to discuss the activities and the problems of the
community but this assembly means a gathering of people to make a festivity
a celebration in honor to something so Lughnasadh is the celebration in honor
to the God Lugh and this celebration in the northern hemisphere is held at the 1st
of August or somewhere between the summer solstice and autumn equinox and this is
also a celebration- the celebration of the first harvest of the year
in mythology it is said that this celebration was created by the god Lugh
himself to honor the death of his mother or his foster-mother in some accounts a
goddess associated with agriculture now myths are not just fantasy they are
ethnicity code trying to explain - through metaphors and using a religious
understanding - trying to explain the historical and cultural background of a
society so it seems to our ancestors it was very common to make funeral games in
honor for instance a deceased chieftain someone of importance in their community
or in their society so this shows that this festivity began with sporting
contests and probably even music and dancing and all sorts of recreational
activities with a ceremonial pretext so it's also possible that even marriages
were held during this time during this celebration and quite possibly
initiation rites and I could give you a couple of examples but I don't want to
extend this too much in the video so we can talk about that in the comments below
like candlemas this is the festivity to celebrate the Sun the light and the
warm weather; at the first days of February the first seeds are thrown into
the fertile soils and in August comes the first harvest the wheat reflects the
bright colors of the Sun so Lughnasadh is not just a celebration in honor to
the God Lugh but also a celebration of the first harvest and as I've told you
before this is the first harvest of the year and the next harvest is at the end
of October in the celebration of Samhain so Lugh is the the God associated with
fire light and the Sun in the Celtic Pantheon but for instance in old
Lusitania a province- a Roman province in nowadays Portugal and parts of Spain and
of course to a variety of Celtic-like tribes throughout the Iberian Peninsula
this God was known as Lugus the god of music metallurgy poetry and also dancing
reporting to a time when agriculture wasn't that- that important to our
ancestors, reporting to a time of initiation rites and a celebration to
fire light and the Sun
to the ancient pagan tribes of Europe harvesting was
the main source of food production so it was really important to succeed when it
comes to planting and harvesting in the end all the efforts all the hard work
bear fruit so the family the tribe the community could live and survive for
another year for another winter so all the hard work in the end really paid off
so this is also a time to celebrate with the family and to praise the importance
of each member of the family in how their hard work kept the family safe and sound
now let's talk about the celebration of Freyfaxi like the
Celtic celebration of Lughnasadh to the northern countries of Europe and
their people there was a similar celebration called Freyfaxi or Loaffest
and to our our Anglo Saxon ancestors this celebration will be called
Hláfmæst so this this celebration this harvest
celebration traditionally occurred at the end of July or at the beginning of
August or with the coming of the full moon of August as you know to our Norse
ancestors a full moon marked the end of a month so if there are 13 full moons
there are or there were thirteen months the name Freyfaxi comes from Freyr's
horse which has an interesting background story that I will sum up for
you further ahead in this video
well Freyr is the god of fertility just like his sister the goddess Freyja but not
just fertility when it comes to sexual interactions also fertility of the soil
because Freyr and Freyja are the gods associated with agriculture
at this time of the year during this celebration people tend to make offerings to the God
Freyr due to his connection with fertility and agriculture since this is
the time for harvesting but in truth people can make offerings to whoever
they want because this is not just planting the seeds but also the love we
give to the soils and the- all the hard work so it so the soils can give us food
- sustenance - so this is also a time to celebrate with the family and to make
offerings to the Landvættir the spirits of the land that can help us in
growing fruits and vegetables and also making of course offerings to the gods
and all the gods associated with fertility and also to make offerings to
our ancestors who still watch over us and they can take action in the harvesting
fields in the plantations of each family taking care of the family even after death
now let's make a little pause and I will summarize for you the story of
Freyrfaxi so you can have a glimpse of what this celebration is about not not
just celebrating the first harvest and fertility and celebrating fire the Sun
and light there is more to it let's go
this celebration it's not just turned to
the family and to the harvests but also to the values and virtues of each one
that lead us to a better life so there is a story behind the
celebration the story of Hrafnkel this story is about a man which was a
clan-chief called Hrafnkell Freysgodi he had a farm and lots of sheep he also had a
beautiful blue stallion that lived and roamed in the mountains near Hrafnkel's
farm with a herd of mares like the last name of Hrafnkel suggests "Freysgodi"
he was a man of Freyr and he had a lot of faith in the god of Agriculture and
fertility so he gave his stallion to the God making of it an offering and also an
oath in the process that if any other man than Hrafnkel
himself rode his horse he would kill him and the horse could only be mounted by a
Hrafnkell and by Freyr - oaths were not to be taken lightly at these times if a
man made an oath you would have to fulfill it
so the horse was called Freyfaxi - Freyr - after the name of his new owner the god
ryerF and faxi meaning"eye-catching mane" Hrafnkel hired the oldest son of his
neighbor his name was Einar and his work would be to take
Hrafnkel's sheep to a pasture every day and delivered them every evening to
their place in the mountain-cabin he would also have to cut the firewood that
was needed in a farm he was also tasked to look after Freyfaxi
and the twelve mares of course Hrafnkel told Einar about his oath so Einar
could use any of the other horses for whatever he needed whenever he needed
except Freyfaxi and Einar thought that this was a very fair deal
Einar worked hard and well for the entire summer but one day some sheep were
missing and he couldn't find him anywhere he searched for an entire week
so in despair he went to the mares hoping to ride one to go into more
distant sites but when he arrived all the mares ran away only Freyfaxi stood
there motionless as a stone Einar thought that his only way to find the
sheep was getting into Freyfaxi's back and ride; Hrafnkel would never know
about this so Einar went with Freyfaxi and
actually found the Sheep turning all of them to their rightful place doing his
job as always Freyfaxi galloped all the way down the
mountain till he was near Hrafnkel's farm the horse was all wet from sweat so it
was leaking from heavy hair he was very muddy and panting from the previous
riding with Einar so rough Hrafnkel knew that someone had mounted Freyfaxi and
it wasn't Freyr so Hrafnkel went in
searching for Einar with an axe and after a long conversation asked Einar if
he had mounted Freyfaxi, Einar said that he couldn't deny that so he told him the
truth and why he had to do so Hrafnkel said to Einar that he
had done well in telling the truth and he would have forgiven Einar but he
was bound to- to that dire oath and when oaths are made they have to be fulfilled
so Hrafnkel gave a fatal blow to Einar killing the young man
later Hrafnkel made a respectable gravesite for Einar
Einar's father was of course not
happy about this and this is just the beginning of long and tragic saga
Hrafnkel in this story is always bound to his oaths and ends up with a tragic
life making a lot of enemies he would have to fight all his life because of
his deeds he couldn't break his promise to the god
Freyr even if this gave him so much pain and suffering
this is a story that
shows us the importance of oaths and that we mustn't take them lightly
we can't take oaths when our mind isn't clear we only take oaths when we know we
will fulfill them otherwise if we break them it will be very hard for other
people to trust us and we will lose our honor this story also shows us that
during this time of the year during this celebration - Freyfaxi - people probably
will take oaths as I have told you before in another video for our Norse
ancestors oaths would not last a lifetime at the beginning of the year people
would retake their oaths over and over again so probably during this time of
the year during this celebration this was a perfect time to make oaths in a
ceremony with the god Freyr being the witness and probably the God Ullr
who is a god- Norse God associated with oaths but about Ullr for another time
in another video
all right friends thank you so much for watching all the links
to my social media are down below at the description see you on the next video
and as always
tack för idag! (thank you for today!)
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