Lughnasadh | Te Waru

Juliet Batten ('Celebrating The Southern Seasons') has this to say about Lughnasadh/Te Waru:

"The theme of this season is the ageing of the year as the Corn Mother becomes the Crone and the warrior Sun, King Lugh, is soon to be felled. At this season we are faced with divergent meanings, depending on which cultural tradition we look at."

In the European grain cycle of wheat and barley, it is the beginning of harvest, and the first loaves of bread are offered to the Great Mother. In the Maori cycle of the kumara, it is not yet harvest; in fact far from being a time of plenty it is te waru patote the lean month, when the staple crop is at its scarcest. We can allow the discrepancy to speak to us. While the European ovens are full, the Maori rua (storage pits) are empty. It is not harvest for everyone in our land; economic discrepancies are a reality.