lammas 2019
Lammas Goal: Have Fun, Give Thanks and Celebrate!

Lammas Day, is a holiday celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere, usually between 1 August and 1 September. It is a festival to mark the annual wheat harvest, and is the first harvest festival of the year.

  • 2019 Date: Thursday, August 1
  • Celebrations: Handfasting; Funeral Games; First Fruits
  • Observances: Loaves made from the grain collected at harvest
  • Observed by: Great Britain; Pagans; (Neopagans, Wiccans); Christians; (Catholics, Anglicans)

Lughnasadh (Lammas) is pronounced with just three syllables as “Loo-nus-uh”, which means the “commemoration of Lugh” [1]. As with the other Cross Quarter Days it is a Celtic festival, going under the name of Lunasdál in Scotland, and Laa Luanys in the Isle of Man.

Learn everything you need to know about Lammas, and how you can celebrate Lammas as a modern Pagan or Witch.

BASIC ENERGIES

A lot of the themes focus not only on the harvest but on underlying ideas such as renewal, giving thanks, making sacrifices. Mourning is also a theme that is highlighted, since Lughs games were an origin of the holiday.


Sacrifice
Harvest
Redemption
Renewal
Death
Mourning
Protection

Herbs and Plants of Lammas

Quick Summary: Grains, Grapes, Sloes, Pears, Heather, Blackberry, all Berries, Oat, Fenugreek, Frankincense, Heather, Hollyhock, Mistletoe, Oak, Sunflower, cornstalks, frankincense, Calendula, Myrtle, Oak Leaves, Rose, Sandalwood and wheat may be burned; acacia flowers, corn ears, myrtle, oak leaves, and wheat may be decorations.

All Grains

Wheat, barley, oats, rye etc

Meadowsweet

  • Also known as Queen-Of-The-Meadow, Bridewort and Bride of the Meadow.
  • One of the most sacred herbs of the Druids, this was often worn as a garland for Lammas celebrations and was a traditional herb for wedding circlets and bouquets at this time of year.
  • Also used for love spells and can be strewn to promote peace, and its heady scent cheers the heart.

Mint

  • Mint is another of the three most revered herbs of the Druids (vervain being the third, according to Grieve).
  • Its magical properties are both protection and healing, and at this stage in the year, its properties of drawing abundance and prosperity, are most appropriate.

Sunflower.

  • By this stage of the year the flower heads are full and heavy with that wonderful spiral of seeds and they spend the whole day gently turning their heads to gaze at the sun.
  • In the Aztec temples of the sun, priestesses carried sunflowers and wore them as crowns. They symbolize the fertility of the Solar Logos

Calendula.

  • Little suns, pure joy, in all their shades from deep orange to pale yellow.

Oils Of Lammas

Quick Summary: Dried Rose Petals, Aloe, Sandalwood, Barley, Basil, Wood aloes, rose hips, rosemary, chamomile, eucalyptus, safflower, corn, passionflower, frankincense, sandalwood

Colours of Lammas

Quick Summary: Gray, Yellow, Gold, Green. Colors usually associated with this time of year are earthy oranges, browns, yellows, and golds. The colors are used to symbolize the harvest and the sense of renewal that comes with it. Often, worshippers use these colors in every aspect of their celebration.

Other popular combinations:

  • Royal purple or heather purple
  • Gold and yellow (for the ripening Apple corn)
  • Brown (for the earth)
  • Red (for blood)

Gems

Quick Summary: Carnelian, Aventurine, citrine, peridot, sardonyx and yellow diamonds.

Lammas Altar

  • Wheat and all grains, corn dolly, bread, sunflowers and calendulas (pot marigolds), Corn, cornucopias, red, yellow flowers, sheaves of grain such as wheat, barley, oats, first fruits-vegetables of garden labor, baskets of bread, spear, cauldron, sickle, scythe, threshing tools, sacred loaf of bread, harvested herbs, bonfires, bilberries, God figures made of bread or cookie dough, phallic symbols  

Contribute

If you would like to contribute your ideas or photos of your Lammas celebrations, please email us!

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