Lughnasadh

Mid-Summer - August 1st

Animals: Calves, Roosters, and Stags.
Colors: Gold, Orange, Purple, and Yellow.
Deities: Adonis, Aine, Baal, Ceres, Cerridwen, Demeter, Dumuzi, Inanna, Ishtar, Kore, Loki, Lugh, Odin, and Persephone.
Foods: Apples, Berries, Breads, Grains, Honey, Pears, Vegetables, and Wine.
Flowers: Acacia, Hollyhock, and Sunflower.
Herbs: All Grains, Aloes, Blackberries, Calendula, Cyclamen, Fenugreek, Frankincense, Grapes, Heather, Myrtle, Oak Leaves, Rose Hips, Sloe, and Vervain.
Incense: Aloes, Chamomile, Frankincense, Rose, Passionflower, Rosemary, Sandalwood.
Special Activities: Beak Bread, Collect The Seeds of Future Harvest, Lammas Charm for Gathering in Abundance, and Make A Grain Mother.
Spell-workings: Bread Wish Spell, Courage, Financial Gain, Protection, Use the Golden Rays of the Sun in spell-casting, and Wishing Power.
Stones: Aventurine, Carnelian, Citrine, Peridot, Sardonyx, and Yellow Diamonds.
Symbolism: The Cycle of Birth, Life, Death and Rebirth, and The Grain God Dies, but will be reborn in the Spring.
Symbols: Corn, Corn Dolls, Fall Flowers, Fruits, Grapes, Honey Breads, Iron Tools, Onion Garlands, Scythes, Sickles, Straw Braids, Vegetables, and Wine.
Trees: Gorse, Hazel, and Oak.

At Lammas, sometimes called Lughnasadh, it's time to celebrate the first harvest of the year and recognize that the hot summer days will soon come to an end. The plants of spring wither and drop seeds to ensure future crops. Grains are ready to be harvested and the fruits are ripe for picking. We can give thanks for the food on our tables.

Lammas celebrates the harvesting of grain, the first sheaf is ceremonially baked into a loaf and eaten by the people. The God of Grain gives up his life so that the people may live. Eating the bread of the Gods gives us life. This is the Wiccan Mystery of the slain God who sacrifices himself for the good of his people and is reborn later in the year. Grain has always been associated with Gods who are killed and dismembered and then resurrected from the Underworld. The story of Demeter and Persephone is a story about the cycle of death and rebirth associated with grain. Demeter, the fertility Goddess, will not allow anything to grow until she finds her daughter who has been carried off to the Underworld. The Eleusinian Mysteries, celebrated around the Autumn Equinox, culminated in the revelation of a single ear of corn, a symbol to the initiate of the cyclical nature of life, for the corn is both seed and fruit, promise and fulfillment.

The Celtic Lughnasadh is named after the God Lugh. It is the wake of Lugh the Sun King whose light begins to dwindle after Litha. The Summer King is weakening, the Winter King grows in strength. The Winter King strikes His first killing blow to the crops, bringing us the First Harvest. The Celtic people held a tribal gathering around August 1 where they held games and contests, feasts and trial marriages were formalized. At this time of the year flocks and herds were rounded up before being slaughtered at Samhain. The grape harvest also begins at Lughnasadh. Bread is the body of the God; wine is His blood.

As summer passes, many Pagans celebrate this time to remember its warmth and bounty in a celebrated feast shared with family or Coven members. Save and plant the seeds from the fruits consumed during the feast or ritual. If they sprout, grow the plant or tree with love and as a symbol of your connection with the Lord and Lady. Walk through the fields and orchards or spend time along springs, creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes reflecting on the bounty and love of the Lord and Lady.