Lughnasadh - Lammas

Lughnasadh - Lammas

Lughnasadh(pronounced loo-na-sa), is one of the four main festivals of the medieval Irish calendar. August 1st is Lammas Day (loaf-mass day), the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. On this day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop. In many parts of England, tenants were bound to present freshly harvested wheat to their landlords on or before the first day of August. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it is referred to regularly, it is called "the feast of first fruits".

In Wicca, it is the first of the three autumn harvest fests, the others are Mabon and Samhain, along the Wheel of the Year.

The festival of Lammas (comes from "loaf mass"), celebrated Aug 1st, marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall. It commemorates the sacrifice and death of the Wiccan Corn God, celebrating the cycle of death, nurturing the people, and rebirth, The corn is considered an aspect of the Sun God, symbolizing Lugh. Some Wiccans mark the holiday by baking a figure of the god in bread, and then symbolically sacrificing and eating it. It is prophesied that, as long as the custom shall be maintained, there will be corn and milk in every house, peace and fine weather for the feast.

At Lammas, a couple could decide to continue the Year and a day handfasting arrangement if it pleased them, or to stand back to back and walk away from one another, thus bringing their Tailltean marriage to a formal close.

People in the Southern Hemisphere that celebrate Lammas do so February 1, to reflect the 6 month offset of seasons on the other side of the planet.

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