Gathering Day is a Welsh festival of the summer solstice, so called because it was the time when druids gathered mistletoe and other plants for use in winter.[1][better source needed] The energy of plants harvested at Midsummer was believed to be very potent, hence herbs were collected then for medicinal use; these herbs included mugwort and vervain.
This festival marks the first of the three harvests of the year 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]
- ^ Edain McCoy (1994). The Sabbats: A New Approach to Living the Old Ways. Llewellyn Worldwide. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-56718-663-5. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
- ^ Vikki Bramshaw (30 November 2009). Craft of the Wise: A Practical Guide to Paganism and Witchcraft. O Books. p. 249. ISBN 978-1-84694-232-7. Retrieved 9 September 2012.