Wheel of the Year: Lammas
The 2nd of August is the celebration of Lammas or Lughnasadh, the grain harvest and the first of three harvest festivals in the Wheel of the Year. Some authors will start this festival on August 1 because in the traditional Celtic calendar, days ran from sunset to sunset whereas the modern calendar counts days from sunrise.
Lammas is a contraction of “loaf mass,” a Christian celebration that probably continues an Anglo-Saxon pagan grain harvest festival or festival of first fruits. The name Lughnasadh comes from the Celtic god Lugh, who is said to have created this festival in honor of his foster mother, the goddess Tailtiu (herself said to have died of exhaustion after clearing the Irish plains for farming).
This festival marks the transition from the growing season to the harvest season. Although modern Pagans celebrate this holiday on a specific date, by their nature, the four transition, or Cross-Quarter, holidays are more fluid. They have no fixed date except as determined by the local environment and tradition. One of the clues that we are in a transition is that the days are noticeably shorter by early August, a signal to plants and animals that the growing season is coming to a close. Those with vegetable gardens will have to start thinking about how to preserve the crops that are coming.
Lughnasadh/Lammas means the relaxation of summer is drawing to an end and now the work of harvesting and preserving food for the winter starts. In that harvest, after a very hot summer, there is also the awareness that we and the plants must partner to ensure that we all survive the climate changes that are occurring.
There is also a metaphorical and spiritual meaning. What projects or plans did you start at Beltane; what spiritual practices, relationships, creative efforts? How did they develop? What can you harvest? What have you learned?
So Lammas is a metaphor for transformation. Grain is cut, ground, kneaded, and baked so that we can eat, and seed is stored to plant in the spring to continue the cycle. This first harvest celebration also invites us to gratitude, secular and spiritual, for what the land yields and for what we have cultivated physically and spiritually.
~ Leslie Peet