Tan Hill Fair. 427 



The earliest account we have of these celebrations was given by 

 Cormac, Archbishop of Cashel, in the tenth century. He tells us 

 that at that time four great fires were lighted in Ireland on the 

 four great festivals of the Druids, in February, May, August, and 

 November.! Tliese were the four quarters of the Celtic or May 

 year, and they still determine the Scotch Law quarter-days : — 

 Candlemas = February 2nd, 

 Whitsun tide = May 15th, 

 Lammas = August 1st, 

 Martinmas =]Srovember 11th, 

 as also the agricultural rent year in parts of Ireland. 



Tan means Fire, and tlie date of the fair falls at the very time 

 of year when Fire worshippers are known to have celebrated their 

 rites on hills. The night before, all the fires in the country were 

 extinguished and next morning the materials for exciting the 

 sacred fire were prepared and set alight by friction of wood, and 

 the resulting fire was attributed to heaven and esteemed a pre- 

 servative against witchcraft and disease.^ 



Fires lit upon Tan Hill could be seen for miles round, thus 

 rendering it a peculiarly suitable place for those heathen cere- 

 monies ; and where crowds assembled regularly at certain seasons, 

 commerce followed as a matter of course. 



Professor Rhys tells us, in his Hihbert Lectures and Celtic Folk- 



Lore : — 



" the Celtic year was more thermometric than astronomical," and "the longest 

 day (as far as I have been able to discover) was of no special account, the 

 August festival its Summer Solstice." " The Lammas (August 1st) fairs and 

 meetings forming the ' Ltiffnassad' in ancient Ireland, marked the close of 

 the sun's contest with the powers of darkness, when after routing the cold, 

 the crops were fast coming to maturity, — " it was the great event of the 

 summer half of the year and associated with Lug (a sun god) and called 

 Lugnassad after him." 



" It may be inferred that the Irish Lugnassad had its counterpart in 



one at least of the Lugduna of the continent, the city of that name (Lyons) 

 on the Ehone, and it is not improbable that the festival held there every first 

 of August, in honour of the deified Augustus simply superseded — in name 



' Hazlitt's Dictionary of Faiths and FolJc-Lore. 

 ^ Frazer, Golden Bough. 



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