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| Lammas is the first of the harvest festivals and they are a celebration of bounty and hard work. Fesitivities celebrate the bounty of our lives that have come from hard work and there is no shame for one�s cup overfilling. For in times of overabundance, there is sharing and enough for everyone. This is a time to share life lessons and achievements throughout the year. This is a time for abundance, but also of sacrifice for in sacrifice there is thanksgiving.
a.k.a. � Harvest Tide, August Eve, Lughnasadh, Cornucopia, Thingtide Herbs � All grains, Grapes, heather, Blackberries, Hollyhock, Sunflowers Incense � Sandalwood, Rose, Aloes, Frankincense Colour � Yellow, Orange, Green, Brown Decorations � Corn dollies, Any wheat weaving, Crafts, Shafts of grain, Cockscomb in red and yellow make great altar decorations, traditionally corn stalks or wheat sheaves can decorate ritual area now-a-days a bowl of corn is common Foods � Breads, Cider, Blackberries, Pies and Jellies, Rice, Teas, Berries, Corn, Potatoes, Pastas, Sweets for dessert Gemstones � Citrine, Amber, Tourmaline Tools � Sacred loaf of bread, Harvested herbs, Bonfires Goddess � Demeter, Ceres, Corn Mother God � Grain God, Lugh, John Barleycorn Goddess and God Aspect � The Goddess is still pregnant and the God is slowly dying Oak King vs Holly King � The Oak King is aging and dying. Celebrates � Time of bounty, celebration and hopes for abundant harvest season Traditions Festivites and Games Festival of Lugh � Lugh is the Irish God of All Skills and is known as the �Bright or Shining One�. Lugh is associated with both the Sun and agricultural fertility Athletic Games � These games are considered to be funeral games. They are sometimes played for Lugh�s mother as well who died while preparing the fields for planting. Canning begins Magickal cabinets are stocked Fall cleaning Spirit of the Grain � People believed that the spirit of the grain lived with in the fields. With each cut grain, the spirit would keep moving until the last sheaf of grain stood. People would take turns throwing sickles at the sheaf and the one person who cut through the sheaf would be nonoured at the feast as the one who gathered the magic of the grain. The last sheaf was formed in the shape of a woman and dressed and decorated and was place in a prominent place at the Lammas festival. Sacrifices � The best of the first crop was sacrificed in the Lammas fire. The �Corn God� would be made of wicker or other material and then filled with all the sacrifices of the villages. The Wicker Man would be tossed into the fire along with the wishes and desires of the village. Eventually our ancestors got a bit overzealous and began to throw people and animals into the fire thinking that this would increase their population and livestock. Actually what was really offered was pain and suffering and death and they learned the hard way that what you put in, you got in return. They soon found themselves being burned and tortured and killed for their religious beliefs. Now the Wicker Man is only filled with vegetable and mineral offerings and never anything that is of animal sources. Some common offerings are: grain, flowers, fruit, incense, herbs, stones, perfumes from plant origins and written desires. |
| Lammas Prosperity, Generosity, Continued Success 1 August |
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