New Worlds Isse: NW034
By: Natalie Harter
Lammas, also known as Lughnasadh or Lughnasa, is the harvest of the first fruits, and it�s right around the corner in the ritual year. The land is ripe with grain and grapes, just waiting to be transformed into bread and wine for feasting. It�s also a time for us to reflect while we indulge and to be thankful for the blessings of the land, as well as for all the projects we have begun this year that are now reaching fruition. Lammas celebrates both our physical and personal harvests.
Forgotten Festival
As Anna Franklin and Paul Mason point out in Lammas: Celebrating the Fruits of the First Harvest, Lughnasadh is one of the forgotten holidays of the Celtic Pagan year. Falling on the first of August, and honoring the god Lugh, Lammas and its spirit are still celebrated today (knowingly or not) with late summer holidays and the harvesting of grain. Like many of the Pagan festivals, its precise origins are hard to pin down. The name Lammas comes from the Anglo-Saxon hlaef-mass for �loaf mass.� The name Lughnasadh is Gaelic in origin and translates as �the games or assembly (nasad) of Lugh.�
Lugh is a sacred king and is associated with the color red. �Red is the color of completion and harvest. In Rome, redhaired puppies were sacrificed to influence the ripening of the corn, while in Egypt, red-haired men were buried alive as a sacrifice to the god of the corn and the dead, Osiris. Lugh�s red color was the mark of the sacred king doomed to die,� argue Franklin and Mason. In the Celtic mythos of the Wheel of the Year, Lugh represents the sacrificial king at his prime about to be cut down in the autumn before he is reborn in the deep of winter, ready to start the cycle anew.
Corn Customs
As the sacrificial god is a focus this time of year, so are corn and other grains, the fruits of the earth, which are potent symbols of the goddess. Corn dollies, wheat straw shaped into human images or representations of the corn spirit, are a traditional custom this time of year for honoring the harvest goddess. These dollies are meant to preserve the spirit of the corn until the next harvest, thereby ensuring successful growth in the coming year. Franklin and Mason provide simple instructions for crafting your own dolly within the pages of Lammas. These dollies make fitting altar decorations and serve as reminders of the fruits of good labor.
As corn is such an important symbol at this time, why not celebrate it with a little magically inspired cooking? Try out the following recipe for enjoyment under the corn moon from Karri Ann Allrich�s Cooking by Moonlight: A Witch�s Guide to Culinary Magic:
Chili Cornbread
1/4 cup light olive oil or corn oil
1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flower
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large free-range eggs, beaten
1 cup frozen corn kernels, drained well
1/4 cup chopped green chilies, drained
1 cup milk or buttermilk
1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese
1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes or chili powder, or to taste
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Oil a 9 by 9-inch square baking pan. Combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend lightly, keeping the mixture a bit lumpy. Pour the extra batter into the prepared baking pan and sprinkle extra red pepper flakes or chili powder on the top. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the center springs back when touched. Let the bread rest in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting, and enjoy!
Allrich suggests that the harvest season �is a time to concentrate keenly on your goals and determine what is productive and what is wasteful. Is your energy and time invested wisely? Do you need to reexamine your priorities with an unerring eye and reset your intentions? This is the perfect time for symbolically separating the wheat from the chaff.�
Food Magic
�July is called �the hungry month� in Ireland, because the harvest cannot begin until the first day of August,� assert Franklin and Mason. It was considered inauspicious to begin to reap the fruits before Lammas. Keeping that in mind, a little kitchen witchery and a lot of feasting are fabulous (not to mention enjoyable) ways in which to celebrate Lughnasadh and the summer days that follow.
We�ve already seen that corn plays an important role in this festival, but apples, basil, borage, chicory, fenugreek, fennel, grapes, honeysuckle, nasturtium flowers, poppy seeds, and vine leaves are also significant. Following is a recipe from Franklin and Mason that includes many of these seasonal ingredients and highlights the edible flowers nasturtium and borage, which make a lovely decoration. Both flowers are associated with the strength and bravery of the warrior god.
Lughnasa Salad
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 cups cooked corn
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup black olives, halved and pitted
1 large apple, diced
1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh herbs (basil, borage leaves, fennel)
1 pinch of black pepper
1/2 cucumber finely chopped
1 tbsp. nasturtium flowers
1 tbsp. borage flowers
Lightly toss all the ingredients in the olive oil, except the flowers. Pour into a bowl and decorate with the nasturtium and sprinkle with the borage. Both flowers are edible, and the nasturtiums have a peppery taste rather reminiscent of watercress.
If you�re anxious to try more seasonal recipes, check out Karri Ann Allrich�s Cooking by the Seasons. Within its pages you will find a complete festival menu for Lughnasadh, including Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Pesto, Southwestern Polenta, Fresh Summer Greens and Grapes in a Basil-Citrus Vinaigrette, and Amen Farm Apple Cake. You will also find some good advice from Allrich for celebrating this important holiday: �Fill an earthenware jug with sunflowers and light candles of orange and gold. Bake a loaf of bread and leave some outside at dawn, in offering to Lugh. Plant seeds today from fruit you have eaten, symbolizing your understanding of the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Burn a braid of dried sweetgrass to cleanse your home so that the Goddess might bring sweetness into your life.�
It�s time to bring back the forgotten holiday of Lammas. Bask in the sultry late summer evenings and enjoy a glass of rich red wine and a slice of hearty bread as you give thanks for the many gifts the earth has to offer you. Think about all that has taken root in you over the past winter and budded and grown through the recent spring. Think ahead to Mabon and Samhain and what you hope to harvest then. In the meantime, happy feasting!
