The rites of Lughnassadh are named, unsurprisingly, after the Irish deity Lugh. Among Lugh's greatest deeds was his role in the overthrow of a tyrannical king named Bres, who had been chosen more for looking the part than being an effective leader. This led to a longstanding theme of Lughnassadh as the celebration of the sometimes necessary work of the warrior in protecting their people from the evils of the world, including those of would-be tyrants. That resistance to mis-rule can take on numerous forms, and becomes more effective the more people are involved. Any relevance of this theme to current events is left as an exercise for the reader.
Musically, this aimed for a march, which has military associations going back to antiquity. Simple, disciplined, and powerful is the idea here. None of this fancy modal business, weird rhythms, or any of that, just get organized into a group that has to be reckoned with. This seems like an appropriate approach for the sentiments being expressed here. The constant stomping feet were added specifically to emphasize this point, along with the growing chorus of support for the single verse that started this out.
All works are copyright by yours truly, but may be distributed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 4.0. That means, in short, you can use them yourself and your grove, and play the song to your heart's content both in private and in public, but must give credit where credit is due, and if you're planning on selling something involving this song we need to talk about that first.
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