Lughnasadh

Other Names: Lammas, Lughnasad, Lugnassad, Lunasa

Date: August 1 (Greater Sabbat/Cross Quarter)

Celebration of: A Festival of not only life and bounty, but of harvest and death, the complete cycle of life.

Colors: Gold and Bright Yellow

Symbols: Summer flowers, nuts and grains

Notes: Fire and light festival. First grain harvest. Feast dedicated to Earth Mother. Count your blessings.

 

LUGHNASADH, (say Loo-Nah-Suh, or Lah-Mass) the Festival of Sacrifice (also known as LAMMAS) is the first of the three Celtic harvest festivals; the grain (or corn) harvest. The union of the God and Goddess gave birth to the bounty of the earth. This is a time of great joy but no longer is the God the virile groom of Beltane nor the Goddess the young Bride. Now He is in the Autumn

of life and She the Great Mother who uses Her power to bring forth a bountiful harvest. Now is the time that we, too, reap the harvest our our own seeds that were sown at Imbolc. The God personifies the the Spirit of Nature that dies each Autumn, while the Goddess is the principle of Eternal Life. Now the God is the Spirit of the Grain; willingly cut down, he is a sacrifice for the sake of the living. His spirit descends into the Earth, the womb of the Goddess, waiting to be reborn at Yule. This is a bitter-sweet time. Death is incomprehensible but the God and Goddess speak to parts of us that are deeper and higher, helping us to feel peaceful and in harmony with this eternal process. Sacred symbols include the making of a corn wheel and the corn dolly, wheat, the loaf.