Traditions | How We Celebrate | Recipes | Correspondences

Lammas from the Anglo-Saxon meaning loaf mass, is the festival of first harvests and an observance of the fruitfulness of the land; first crops have been harvested and the hedgerows are full of rich berries and fruit. This is only the beginning of the harvest and we anticipate fruitfulness and look forward to the bounty of the earth.

The days are again beginning to grow shorter, as the sun, having passed its longest point at the Summer Solstice, marches steadily towards a time of equal light and dark again at the Fall Equinox. This celebration of harvest begins with the "chase of Lugh". Lugh is the name of the Celtic Sun God who rains energy down upon the crops, living within the golden fields.

A ceremonial highlight of such festivals was the 'Catherine wheel'. A large wagon wheel was taken to the top of a near-by hill, covered with tar, set aflame, and ceremoniously rolled down the hill. The flaming disk representing the sun-god in his decline. And just as the sun king has now reached the autumn of his years, his rival or dark self has just reached puberty.

The God & Goddess At Lammas The name of Lughnasadh means ‘the commemoration of Lugh’ who is the Celtic God of light and fire and God of crafts and skills. This is a fire festival at which the Goddess presides and where she will move from her fuller aspect of mother towards the darker wizened crone. The corn God has been given life by the Goddess and is sacrificed to be transformed to sustain us through the coming winter months; this is a festival of fullness and transformation and though Lugh is mourned, it is part of the natural self-sustaining cycle. This is also a time to acknowledge the turning of the seasons as we move from the fullness of the midsummer sun, to shortening days as the sun God looses strength and the nights lengthen. The Wiccan theme of the turning battle between the Oak and the Holly Kings is played out here, with the Oak King having been slain at Midsummer, Lughnasadh is the time for the sacrificial mating of the Holly King and Goddess, before he again succumbs to the Oak King at Yule. At Lammas we give thanks to the Earth for its bounty and beauty. It is from these harvests that we eat through the upcoming winter. Honouring the God Lugh, games and sports are played to celebrate strength and good health. The grain Goddesses Demeter and Ceres are also honoured. This is a time to harvest the dreams planted earlier in the year.

Lammas is a festival of regrets and farewells, of harvest and preserves. Reflect on these topics alone in the privacy of your journal or share them with others around a fire. Lughnasad is one of the great Celtic fire-festivals, so if at all possible, have your feast around a bonfire. While you're sitting around the fire, you might want to tell stories. Look up the myths of any of the grain Gods and Goddesses mentioned above and try re-telling them in your own words.

Regrets: Think of the things you meant to do this summer or this year that are not coming to fruition. You can project your regrets onto natural objects like pine cones and throw them into the fire, releasing them. Or you can write them on dried leaves or on a piece of paper and burn them.

Farewells: What is passing from your life? What is over? Say good-bye to it. As with regrets, you can find visual symbols and throw them into the fire, the lake or the ocean. You can also bury them in the ground, perhaps in the form of bulbs which will manifest in a new form in spring.

Harvest: What have you harvested this year? What seeds have your planted that are sprouting? Find a visual way to represent these, perhaps creating a decoration in your house or altar which represents the harvest to you. Or you could make a corn dolly or learn to weave wheat. Look for classes in your area which can teach you how to weave wheat into wall pieces, which were made by early grain farmers as a resting place for the harvest spirits.

Preserves: This is also a good time for making preserves, either literally or symbolically. As you turn the summer's fruit into jams, jellies and chutneys for winter, think about the fruits that you have gathered this year and how you can hold onto them.

My first attempt at Corn Dolly Making, Roll over the image to see the end result.

Making Corn Dollies: Another very popular tradition is the making of Corn Dollies. The term corn dolly refers to any number of simple or complex shapes created through the braiding of a harvest grain. Traditionally made from the last of the corn harvest, many cultures believed that the spirit of the corn resided in those final stalks, and they were typically made into a dolly or braid which was used to represent that spirit until the next growing season. These dollies can be used magically to great effect, allowing a witch to be reminded of the spirit of that which grows during the dark periods of the year, where growth does not happen with many plants, and the fields both without and within lay fallow, waiting for the cycle to start anew. When you make a corn dolly yourself, which you can do with the guide in this issue, you can infuse it with the growth of this season, and hang it in your kitchen as a reminder during those dark periods, burying it in the ground after use, or simply keeping it around as a constant reminder of the light growing periods to come.

Bake a loaf of bread: If you've never made bread before, this is a good time to start. Honour the source of the flour as you work with it: remember it was once a plant growing on Mother Earth. If you have a garden, add something you've harvested - herbs, seeds such as sunflower or poppy seeds or onion - to your bread. If you don't want to make wheat bread, make some gingerbread people. What's most important is intention. All that is necessary to have sacred time is an awareness of the meaning of your actions. Shape the dough in the figure of a man or a woman and give your grain-person a name and use it as part of your ritual feast.

Submitted by Moonshadow - Lammas always makes me recall school day harvest festivals, back then I used to take the obligatory tins and packets for the old folk hampers and sang the hymns and saw little point. Since becoming a Pagan my view on the harvest time of year has changed rather a lot. Around the time of Lammas a couple of years ago we went to a craft event at Donnington Le Heath and I tried my hand at making a corn dolly. It felt liked I'd done it before, even though I hadn't, you can see the pictures above.

Lammas here is a food fest, I spend the day making pickles and chutneys, harvesting herbs and we take a walk and pick berries or whatever is abundant so we can make wine for the following year. Last year we got a rather good amount of blackberries which we turned into wine and bramble jelly. This year I'll be asking the local farmer for a few corn stalks to make a new corn dolly with and for decorating the altar. During the walk I pick leaves, berries and other items to decorate the altar. I'll put some bread in to bake whilst we go for our walk, this bread will be served later with our ritual feast.

Our ritual is done in the evening, we first decorate the altar then light candles. During the ritual we give thanks for the things that have been granted to us during the year as well as for the abundance of nature. We also use this ritual to let go of any negativity or concerns, sacrificing them to a small fire that is lit in a cauldron. I write the things I'm letting go on leaves I've collected during the walk. After the ritual we have supper, I serve something like the Barley Corn Broth (recipe below) with crusty bread followed by fruit or carrot cake, we drink apple cider, if the eveing is particularly cold I mull the cider.

Other Things To Do

Harvest herbs in a sacred way for use in charms and rituals.

Take time to actually harvest fruits from your garden with your family. If you don’t have a garden, visit one of the pick-your-own farms in your area.

Make a corn dolly charm out of the first grain you harvest or acquire.

Sacrifice bad habits and unwanted things from your life by throwing symbols of them into the sabbat fire.

Kindle a Lammas fire with sacred wood and dried herbs.

If you live in or near a farming region, attend a public harvest festival, such as a corn or apple festival.

Lammas Recipes

Harvest Carrot Cake Serves 8 For the Cake: 285g carrot, peeled and finely grated 225g unsalted butter 285g soft brown sugar 4 large eggs, beaten 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom 1 teaspoon mixed spice 340g plain flour 1 level tablespoon baking powder grated zest and juice of 1 orange 225g finely ground almonds For the icing and garnish: 250g cream cheese 110g icing sugar, sifted grated zest and juice of 1 orange 55g chopped walnuts Half Walnuts for decoration

Method : Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. You will need 1 x 30cm (12 inch) cake tin or springform mould, lightly oiled. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs to the creamed mixture, beating well between each addition. Sift the spices, a little salt, flour and baking powder together; fold into the creamed cake mixture. Stir in the carrots, lemon zest and juice and ground almonds. Put the mixture into the prepared cake tin and spread flat with a knife. Bake for 1 hour, or until cooked; a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake will come out clean when the cake is ready. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Loosen from the tin and lift onto a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool completely. To make the icing: Put the cream cheese and icing sugar into a bowl and stir together until well combined. Add the orange zest and juice to taste. Spread it over the top of the cake and sprinkle the top with chopped walnuts. Keep refrigerated.

John Barleycorn Broth - Serves 4 This soup is delicious as part of your Lammas feast, serve with some homemade multigrain bread that's full of seeds and grains. 1Kg Boiling Beef (such as shin) 25g pearl barley 100g Sweetcorn Kernels, (tinned or fresh) 100g Peas, frozen 350g Carrots, diced 350g Swede, diced 1.5 Litres Water 2 Tomatoes, skinned & chopped 1 Onion, diced 1 Leek, sliced 1 Tbspn Parsley, chopped Salt and Pepper

Method : Blanch the barley by pouring on boiling water (seperate from the 1.5L for the broth). Leave it for a minute or two, then strain. Bring barley, beef and water to boil, skim and simmer for one hour. Add the prepared vegetables, seasoning and cook for a futher two hours. Add one tablespoon chopped parsley before serving, you can either make up some dumplings to go with this broth, add these 20 minutes before the end of cooking time. Or serve the broth with some fresh crusty multigrain bread.

NB: More Lammas recipes including one for incense can be found on the Sabbat recipes page.

Lammas Correspondences

Lammas Herbs: Acacia, All Grains, Blackberry, Elderberries, Marigold Petals, Rosemary, Grape (Fruit & Leaf), Heather, Mistletoe, Myrtle, Oak, Rose, Thyme, Sandalwood & Sunflower.

Lammas Incense: Frankincense, Rose, Sandalwood, Chamomile & Passionflower.

Lammas Colours: Orange, Green, Red, Corn Yellow, Brown & Tan.

Lammas Decorations: Corn Dollies or any item that involves wheat weaving, Sheaves of Corn or Wheat, Dried herbs, Sunflowers, Late Summer/Early Autumn Fruits, Bread and symbols evocative of abundance and the harvest.

Lammas Foods: Breads, Cornbread, Cider, Blackberry Pie, Rice, Meadowsweet tea, Late Summer Berries, Nuts, Oats, Elderberry wine, Oat cakes, Beer/mead and Rice Milk.

Spellwork appropriate for Lammas: Spells for Prosperity, Abundance, Honour & Thanks, Good fortune, Health and Financial Gain.