Natalie Zaman
August ushers in the first of the year’s harvest festivals. Lughnasadh, also called Lammas (the names are used interchangeably), were, and still are, marked by festivals where games and competitions, as well as livestock dealing and other commerce take place. The fairness and trust required for these activities was symbolized by a little acknowledged article of clothing that one doesn’t usually associate with August and late summer. The must-have accessory for the first harvest was a pair of gloves.
For many rural villages, fairs—which revolved around the cycles of nature and, subsequently, the church holidays that were new expressions of older traditions—were rare opportunities to buy and sell. Sometimes whole livelihoods could depend on doing well at these fairs, particularly those held at the harvest. Fair dealing and justice were especially important. The presence of a glove guaranteed smooth and honest operations.
Chambers Book of Days describes the opening of a Lammas fair in Exeter beginning with the mayor reading a proclamation (dating to the 1300s) followed by the raising of the “white glove,” a large white leather glove stuffed to resemble a hand open in greeting. In Barnstable, the glove was bedecked with dahlias and suspended from a pole on the top of the “Quay Hall”—the oldest building in the town. At the end of the day the glove was taken down, and each day before it was put up again, it was exhibited in front of the town hall. Displayed this way, the glove not only welcomed revelers to the fair, but also ensured the protection of the king. An open hand is an age-old gesture of welcome, but also a sign of fair dealings and generosity—or justice and retribution when warranted.
Because they cover the hands, the most expressive part of the human body aside from the face, gloves conveyed messages. Like a magical tool, they became an extension of the person; what the hands did, so the glove expressed. To this day, a handshake conveys agreement and trust. To “throw down the gauntlet” means to pose a challenge. Gloves were worn when handling objects too precious to be touched by mere mortal flesh, and so express reverence. In the Middle Ages, knights wearing ladies’ gloves as a favor was a sign of love and devotion.
Being a harvest festival, Lammas was a time for expressing thanks. It was traditional to present servants with the gift of a pair of gloves for good services rendered over the previous year and in anticipation of the cold winter to come. These were tokens of gratitude or, depending on the servant, an acknowledgment of the authority and responsibility given to him or her. If gloves weren’t given outright, money earmarked for the specific purchase, called “glove silver,” was given. Considering the price (household accounts from the fourteenth century show two shillings paid for gloves for over a dozen servants) the gloves for servants were probably the practical, protective kind, rather than something bejeweled and costly.
Lughnasadh may be named for Lugh, but the festival itself originated (at his command) as a tribute to his stepmother the goddess Tailtiu, who died of exhaustion after making the fields of Ireland subtable for planting, thus ensuring the survival of its people. Teltown (named for her) is considered the site of the first Lughnasadh celebrations—and of what would be called “Teltown marriages.” The forerunner of betrothals, “troth-plights,” and our modern engagements, these unions were temporary with an eye to becoming permanent. Unions could last for the duration of the festival or, more commonly, the entire year until the next festival, after which the couple could go their separate ways (even if they cohabited) or cement the union permanently with a proper handfasting. Gloves were often exchanged as tokens of these semipermanent commitments.
In his nineteenth century treatise “Gloves: their annals and associations,” scholar William S. Beck suggests that the exchange of gloves for marriage (a pledge of trust) was an ancient custom, quoting, among others, the seventeenth century poet Robert Herrick who wrote:
What posies for our wedding rings,
What gloves we’ll give and Ribanings [ribbons]3
Even though white didn’t become a fashionable wedding color until the nineteenth century, it was, perhaps because of its association with purity and new beginnings, the color of choice for marriage gloves, although pale yellow was also worn by wooing couples:
Next march the Glovers, who with nicest care
Provide white kid for the new-married pair.
Or nicely stitch the lemon-colour’d glove
For hand of beau, to go and see his love.4
And what about Lugh, the Celtic god for which Lughnasadh is named? It’s possible that he had a hand in the making of these traditions. Pagan blogger Trina Roller offers an interesting theory that perhaps the glove is a nod to him: “The name Lugh-Lamhfhada means ‘Lugh of the Long Hand,’ and Llew-Law Gyffes, another name for the same God (Welsh), means ‘The Lion with the Steady Hand.’ It seems to us that the glove might simply be a symbol for Lugh, with whom the festival has often been associated (as in Lughnasadh).” Could the hand of justice be his?
Revive the Lammas-tide custom of glove giving. Select or make a pair and bless them, then give them as gifts of trust, gratitude, and love—all celebrated at the first harvest!
Additional Reading
Beck, William S. Gloves, Their Annals and Associations. London: Hamilton and Adams, 1883. (Reprint from the collection of the University of California Libraries.
Dickens, Charles (conductor). All the Year Round, A Weekly Journal. Vol. XXIII. London: Chapman and Hall, 1879.
Fergusson, Rosalind. Chambers Book of Days. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers, 2004.
Marquis, Melanie. Traditional Lughnasad with a Modern Twist. Llewellyn Journal, 2013. http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/2514
Roller, Trina. “Lammas, Traditions and Celebration.” Pagan Is Us, August 1, 2013. http://paganisus.blogspot.com/2013/08/lammas-traditions-and-celebration.html.