[Darkness]

Early Autumn and the Harvest Festivals

Lammas is an early harvest festival held in the beginning of August. It is meant to celebrate the bounties of the harvest at the end of summer. Lammas gets it's name "loaf feast" from old english, "hlaf maesse." It used to be that this was also the time the first cut of the harvest was made, with the sickle. The family would dress up in their best clothes and venture out into the fields. In some cultures it was customary to celebrate this as one of four main fire festivals. The fires were to help strengthen the waning Sun. The ashes from the fire were considered valuable for protection, healing, and fertility.

Lughnasad, is gaelic meaning to give in marriage or nasadh to Lugh. He can be viewed as an ancient unnamed deity, related to Mercury rather than as a Sun god. A deity of contracts, business transactions, an oath or bond, travels, the arts, and even a trickster. It is a popular time for handfasting or marriages. An August wedding. It was this time of year that Lugh wanted a feast to honor his foster mother, a lady of the Fir Bolg, and older race than the Tuatha de Dannan gods. It reminded me a little of the Vanir and the Aesir. Her name was Tailtiu, the last Queen of the Fir Bolg, and when the younger gods had defeated the older, she was tasked to clear all the fields for the purpose of planting the grain. This caused her to die from exhaustion. Games are celebrated in her honor as well as the feast, so in addition to it's acceptance in handfasting it's also popular in celebrating a funeral or wake.

Modern Wiccan's celebrate Lammas and Lugh as a Sun-God and his death as the Grain God at this time.

There really are a lot of different stories and celebrations that go along with this season. They are fascinating to me and I wish I could research and write much more about it. One day, I'll probably do this at length and share them here. There's so much to discover. You could pick just one thing, like handfasting, and spend hours learning about why it's done and what the different variations meant to our ancestors. Why grain was so important and the common links it has to the gods in many cultures. The legend of John Barleycorn. Folk magic. Creating your witch bottles. The corn dollies and fertility.

Some of you are interested in fairies in relation to Lughnasad. This time of year they're supposedly in preparation of winter and can often be seen twinkling in the twilight in the hills. When baking your loafs, it was customary to ask your house brownie or fairy to help with the rising. You would leave some of the crumbs for them outside.

[Innanna]

After every ceremony I perform, we always offer cakes and wine to the Goddess, God and the Little People.

[Holiday]

I left bits of a whole wheat tortilla out for the faeries. I mean... it was whole wheat, anyway.

I also gave away a pair of gloves.

And some other stuff.

This was fun!