Blessed Lammas!

Today we celebrate Lughnasadh, or Lammas, a Greater Sabbat on the Wheel of the Year.  Lammas celebrates the beginning of the harvest season.  While it is usually one of the hottest parts of the summer, hints of autumn can also be noted with grains being harvested, trees dropping fruits, and the days getting shorter.  We celebrate bountiful harvests, gather the fruits of our labor from our gardens, and welcome the autumn weather.  Indeed, many of are seeing the fruits of a labor in our own gardens.

Lughnasadh has Celtic origins, and is named after Lugh, the god of light and son of the sun.  It was a pre-Christian religious ceremony that had ritual athletic contests.  Lugh was believed to transfer his energy to the crops to make them grow, and offerings to him include corn, bread, and grains.

The Christian term “Loaf-mass” was later used to celebrate when newly-baked loaves of bread from the first wheat harvest were placed on altars in churches.  By placing the fresh bread on the altar, it shows the connection we had with Divine, and likely indicated a time when Pagans and Christians were able to come together in harmony.  In the medieval period, the celebration of Lammas coincided with the payment of rent, local elections, and local fairs.  Echoes of this practice can still be throughout North America today in state and county fairs, many of which revolve around agriculture.

Some witches differentiate between the holidays, with Lammas being August 2^nd and Lughnasadh on August 7^th.  No matter what it is called or when it is celebrated, Lammas is undoubtedly a harvest festival.  Nearly every area has something that’s harvested in early August, and no matter what it is, it is worth celebrating!

Today, these names do not hold as much definite meaning.  But we can take this time to reconnect with nature and the Gods and Goddesses that govern it.  We thank these deities of Nature for the harvest we are about to collect and wish for another bountiful year to come in exchange for honoring the nature Deities.  We can spend time in nature, walk through a forest, sit by a natural water spot, or go to an orchard to pick fruit.  The more time you spend outdoors, the more you show Nature that you appreciate it and all it has to offer.