Lammas (Lughnasadh)
With Gratitude, Comes Abundance.
Summer has reached it’s peak and in the midst of the heat, a whisper of autumn arrives. Lammas is the celebration of the First Harvest as we begin to see the seeds we planted come to fruition.
Also known as: Lughnasadh, Lughnasa, August Eve, Feast of Bread, Harvest Home, Gŵyl Awst, First Harvest
Celebrated August 1-2
It is also the great festival of Lugh, or Lug, the great Celtic Sun King and God of Light. August is His sacred month when He initiated great festivities in honour of His mother, Tailtiu. Feasting, market fairs, games and bonfire celebrations were the order of the day. Circle dancing, reflecting the movement of the sun in sympathetic magic, was popular, as were all community gatherings. August was considered an auspicious month for handfastings and weddings.
Lammas Correspondences:
Colors:
gold, yellow, orange, light brown, bronze, green
Incense:
Wood aloes, rose, rose hips, rosemary, chamomile, eucalyptus, safflower, corn, passionflower, frankincense, sandalwood
Herbs:
heather, goldenrod, peony, clover, yarrow, vervain, myrtle, rose, sunflower, poppy, mushrooms, garlic, onion, basil, apple leaf, hops, marigold, grape vine, ivy, rosemary, rose hips, blackthorn
Oils:
Basil, Frankincense, Rose, Sandlewood
Stones:
yellow aventurine, peridot, citrine, tiger’s eye, lodestone, golden topaz, moss agate, obsidian, marble, lodestone
Foods:
wheat, barley, rye, oats, grains, corn, bread, honey, nuts, berries (especially blackberries), cider, red wine, fresh fruits and vegetables, pies and cobblers, jam, potatoes, cornbread, ale, beer, whiskey, mead, grapes
Animals:
roosters, calves, griffins, phoenix, centaurs, pigs, Salmon
Symobls:
corn (fresh or dried), corn dolls, sunflowers, wheat stalks, threshing tools such as sickle and scythe, barley, oats, candles, cornucopias, gourds, sun wheels, bread, cauldrons
Trees:
Apple, Oak
Spells:
Home and Hearth, protection spells, cleanse the home, honor ancestors, and thank the Earth for her bountiful harvest.
Traditions:
Candle burning – Light a candle in any color that represents Lammas. You can also annoint the candle in oils/herbs that correspond. Allow this candle to burn and focus on the holiday and what you have to be grateful for. Meditate on the union of the God and Goddess and the bounty to come.
BonFires – Bonfires are great ways to celebrate many of the Sabbats. Throw in some fresh picked herbs to honor the first harvest.
Changing Altar – Change your altar a bit to include Lammas symbols and decorations such as sunflowers, gourds, sun wheels and cauldrons.
Bake Bread – The cutting of the grain is a time honored tradition. Making bread honors this tradition and allows you to be grateful for the harvest of the land.
Corn Dollies – Make corn dollies out of corn husks. You can also make “Grain Mothers” out of left over wheat, oats, barley and rye.
Feast and Gather – As always being with family and friends on the Sabbat is a great way to celebrate and enjoy one another and partake in group activities.
History:
The word Lammas derives from the Old English phrase hlaf-maesse, which translates to loaf mass. In early Christian times, the first loaves of the season were blessed by the Church. Stephen Batty says,
“In Wessex, during the Anglo Saxon period, bread made from the new crop would be brought to church and blessed and then the Lammas loaf was broken into four pieces and placed in the corners of a barn where it served as a symbol of protection over the garnered grain. Lammas was a ritual that recognized a community’s dependency on what Thomas Hardy once called ‘the ancient pulse of germ and birth.'”
By celebrating Lammas as a harvest holiday, we honor our ancestors and the hard work they must have had to do in order to survive. This is a good time to give thanks for the abundance we have in our lives, and to be grateful for the food on our tables. Lammas is a time of transformation, of rebirth and new beginnings.
Lore:
Wiccan mythology holds that the God’s power begins to wane at this time, as the days grow shorter and the crops are ready to be cut down. In some traditions, the Sun God actually infuses the grain with his power, and so is sacrificed, in a sense, when the grain is harvested. This grain is then used to bake the first bread from the year’s crop, which in earlier times would then be taken to a church and laid on the altar to be blessed. This custom is a good example of how pagan religions and Christianity were able to coexist and even commingle for a time.
It is also the great festival of Lugh, or Lug, the great Celtic Sun King and God of Light. August is His sacred month when He initiated great festivities in honour of His mother, Tailtiu. Feasting, market fairs, games and bonfire celebrations were the order of the day. Circle dancing, reflecting the movement of the sun in sympathetic magic, was popular, as were all community gatherings. August was considered an auspicious month for handfastings and weddings.
But underlying this is the knowledge that the bounty and energy of Lugh, of the Sun, is now beginning to wane. It is a time of change and shift. Active growth is slowing down and the darker days of winter and reflection are beckoning…
**The Grain Mother.**
At Lammas the Goddess is in Her aspect as Grain Mother, Harvest Mother, Harvest Queen, Earth Mother, Ceres and Demeter. Demeter, as Corn Mother, represents the ripe corn of this year’s harvest and Her daughter Kore/Persephone represents the grain – the seed which drops back deep into the dark earth, hidden throughout the winter, and re-appears in the spring as new growth. This is the deep core meaning of Lammas and comes in different guises. The fullness and fulfillment of the present harvest already holds at its very heart the seed of all future harvest. (It is a fact that a pregnant woman carrying her as yet unborn daughter is also already carrying the ovary containing all the eggs her daughter will ever release – she is already both mother, grandmother and beyond, embodying the great Motherline – pure magic and mystery.)
So as the grain harvest is gathered in, there is food to feed the community through the winter and within that harvest is the seed of next year’s rebirth, regeneration and harvest. The Grain Mother is ripe and full, heavily pregnant she carries the seed of the new year’s Sun God within her. There is tension here. For the Sun God, the God of the Harvest, the Green Man, or John Barleycorn, surrenders his life with the cutting of the corn.
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