Funny, when I went to write this, the first option at the top of the list had to do with the Lion King. No, I'm not thinking of Disney. The Summer King was chosen to be the host for the god of the forest, of the wild. Cernunnos in some stories, Lugh in others. Lughnasad always occurs in leo, whether you go by the first of the month, or the full moon closest to it. The Gentry, loathesome sidhe, would find an unsuspecting young mortal man, and honor him with anything he could possibly desire. On the celebrated sabbat of Lughnasad, their favors would suddenly switch, as they would string him up to a tree, hoisting on his face the heavy mask of the Green Man. They would slaughter him in any manner of ways, in order to ensure the following year's harvest. Or maybe they just wanted their thirst for blood slaked.

Sometimes he was dressed as a lion, so as to be the king of beasts as well as king of man. Sometimes they placed horns on him to symbolize Cernunnos so as to let the King Stag know what host he could inhabit. Either way, the stories say it worked fairly well, and there seems to be a rather lot in common with this tradition and that of the Druids and their Wicker People. But that's Beltaine and another story all together.

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