Lammas/ Lughnasadh Activities

Celebrating Lammas today- Honoring the past. In our modern world, it is often easy to forget the trials and tribulations our ancestors had to endure. For us, if we need a loaf of bread, we simply drive over to the local grocery and buy a few bags of prepackaged bread. If we run out, it’s no big deal and we just go and get more. When our ancestors lived, thousands of years ago, the harvesting and processing of grain was crucial. If crops were left in the fields too long, or the bread not baked in time, families could starve. Taking care of one’s crops meant the difference between life and death. By celebrating Lammas as a harvest holiday, we honor our ancestors and the hard work they must have had to do in order to survive. This is a good time to give thanks for the abundance we have in our lives, and to be grateful for the food on our tables. Lammas is a time of transformation, of rebirth, and new beginnings.

Honor the sovereignty of the land: the land is all important this time of year. It gives us sustenance and brings us so much. Honor the spirit of the land where you live and recommit to being a servant of the earth. Walk lightly, honor the spirits, and remember where you fit in the scheme of things.

Attend a craft fair: Lugh was the god of craftsmen and many festivals, fairs, and renaissance fairs appear around this time. Honor Lugh by attending one of these festivals.

Lammas Spell of Courage:

6 inch square of orange cloth
Red thread or ribbon
Pinch of dried thyme
Pinch of dried basil
A few black peppercorns
A few drops of orange oil

Lay out the cloth and sprinkle the herbs onto it saying:

“strength of the bull, daring of the boar,
Grant me courage, now and more.
Grant me bravery in my life each day
To follow my path and have my say.”

Tie the sachet with the red thread or ribbon and keep it near you, in your bag or pocket, or place it beneath your pillow when you sleep. Every full moon, replace the herbs and oil. When the sachet has served its purpose, untie the knot and bury it.

Lammas Ritual: It is best to do this ritual outside.

Apple
Athame
Candle
Incense
Small hand trowel

Cast your circle and then light your candle. Light your incense and then slice the apple into 2 pieces. All things born must come to their end. In sacrifice we see the death in winter to be born again in the spring. I entreat you to bless this harvest of the land and of the mind, in my body and soul in the path I walk physically and spiritually. Please accept this offering of the apple that while it is consumed and returned to the earth, nothing is dead forever. All return in the great wheel of life. Eat ½ the apple and then bury the second ½ . Close the circle.

Offer a portion of your harvest: if you have a garden with things coming ripe, this is an excellent time to offer a portion of your harvest to the spirits. Offer the first fruits or the last cut to give back to the earth. If you don’t garden, take the fruits of your work and make an offering of a portion of that work.

Lammas Wishing Powder: In a mortar and pestle, grind together vervain, rose petals, and calendula. Add rose, frankincense, and sandalwood essential oil. You could even add yellow, gold, and orange glitter. On Lammas morning, hold the wishing powder in your hand. While thinking of your wish, face the sun and allow the powder to slip through your fingers and onto the bare ground so your wishes can take root.

Lammas Meditation Ritual: Light a white, yellow, or gold candle. Meditate on the flame, focusing on both the blessings in your life and the sacrifices you need to or should make. The other aspect of Lammas is one of sacrifice since it does mark the coming barrenness of winter and the ‘sacrifice’ of the harvest to sustain the village, family, or individual. This combination of blessing and sacrifice can often easily be found in our own lives.

Take a bite of bread and a sip of wine. Handwrite a blessing for continued and positive abundance. Lay a snipped leaf from your garden and a few heads of wheat or a piece of corn husk on the blessing and tie the bundle with a piece of twine. Burn the bundle while meditating on the year to come. Finally, when finished you will blow out the candle.

Segmented Wheel: Gather wheat, stones in colors of the harvest (think oranges, reds, browns), and create a segmented wheel on a round plate or table. As you place each item, give thanks for what lies ahead. Include one offering to represent what you need to leave behind.

Bake bread and share it: An easy way to honor the feast is to bake a loaf of bread or a biscuit and share it with a friend or your family. It doesn’t have to be from scratch, and it doesn’t have to be fancy, but it is a good way to interact with the harvested grains.

Breaking Bread: The most traditional Lammas practice is the breaking of bread (the name Lammas comes from the old English Hlafmaesse or Loaf-Mass) Baking bread is a gesture of gratitude for nature’s sacred gifts. Bake bread, pies, and have a feast.

Preserves: This time of year is the most prevalent for making preserves. Gather together some dandelion blooms for making dandelion wine or jelly. You are harvesting and making something that will remind you of sun and greens in the dead of winter ahead.

Summer Picnic: Cutting the corn used to involve the whole community, only stopping to socialize for an outdoor meal. Continue the tradition by organizing a picnic with friends at the loval park. Youc an all bring seasonal foods: fresh, ripe tomatoes and a sald of green beans and bright yellow flowers as the centerpiece for the tablecloth. Bring a Lammas loaf and enjoy the butter. Treat yourselves to a glass of beer to commemorate John Barleycorn, the grain god.

Candle Lighting: Since Lammas is also a festival of light, celebrating the last long days of the year, your ritual can be as simple as lighting a candle. Choose one in shades of yellow, wheat, and white. Let the candle burn until the sun goes down.

Wheel Wreath: The wreath is perfect to adorn your door or home, you can eve use this in rituals as decoration. The wreath is designed to represent all 8 of the witch’s celebrations of the year. During Lammas, we begin to take in our first fruits of the years planting. We take part in that which we have built to create in our lives and begin to seek wisdom and planning of the future as we see how well the crops have done, or how poorly. We can begin to judge the future and make our plans for the remainder of the year. And so this wreath reminds us of this past and future mentality without forgetting the present.

Grain Bunch: To make a lovely Lammas gift, gather up some ears of harvest wheat and tie them into a bunch with red thread or ribbon. This also serves as a charm to hang over your hearth, inviting in abundance for the coming winter.

The Corn Mother: Find a local grain (corn, wheat, barley, etc.) and create a doll that represents the harvest in your mind. Keep it on your altar year around for protection and blessings, and it will help bring things to fruition for you. The last sheaf of corn cut was traditionally made into a Lammas corn dolly. You can continue this ritual by making your own corn dolly to pay homage to the corn mother and the spirits of the land. You can find local wheat bundles in your craft store. You may choose to dress her too. Some attach her on a pole and place her in the south side of the circle in appreciation of her sacrifice and the sun god that gave her life to bring us the harvest we have. Be sure to keep the seeds on the doll as after you may throw them in your garden next year for abundant blessings or jar them and keep them on your altar.

Wheat Weaving: Use stalks of wheat to weave into crafts. There are hundreds of designs you can do. Hang them in your kitchen when finished.

Kitchen Altar: Create a kitchen altar where you can place seeds, offerings, light a candle, and place your corn dolly.

Plant seeds: It is appropriate to plant the seeds from the fruit consumed in ritual. If they sprout, grow the plant with love and as a symbol of your connection with the Goddess and God.

Scatter Grains: Go outside and scatter some grains upon the earth. This release will bring the return of the Green Man and Goddess when the time is right.

Finish a project: This is a feast of completion and the first harvest. Let the spirit of the feast carry a project through to completion. This is the time to begin wrapping up loose ends so that the winter will not be so hard.

Lammas fire ashes: Ashes from your Lammas fire are said to have properties of protection, healing & fertility. Use them in sachets, spread them around the outside of your home, or place them on your altar.

The Final Sheaf: In many societies, the cutting of the final sheaf of grain was indeed cause for celebration.

From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,