Gathering Day is a Welsh festival of thesummer solstice, so called because it was the time whendruids gathered mistletoe and other plants for use in winter.[1][better source needed] The energy of plants harvested atMidsummer was believed to be very potent, hence herbs were collected then for medicinal use; these herbs includedmugwort andvervain.
This festival marks the first of the three harvests of theyear and the time for collecting young tender vegetables such as peas, beans and early fruits. It is also the time for the collection of honey.[2]
In August 1402, the Gathering Day festival had to be postponed until September whenHenry IV faced a threat of invasion of the North from the Duke of Albany and the Earl of Douglas with a large army of Scots.[3]
It is believed that until 1917 the town ofKillorglin inCounty Kerry followed the tradition of thepuck or he-goat which was collected by the youth of the town,crowned as king, put on display for three days and then paraded in the town.[4][5] The goat's reputation as a randy creature may hint at the licentious behaviour common during this festival. Although believed by locals to be a very ancient festival, experts believe that it cannot be more than 300 years old due to the usage of the termpuck and the goat's lack of symbolic significance inCeltic culture.[5]
