lammas how do u celebrat it? iam new and this will be my first sabbet to celebrat. so if any one can help me please do cause iam trying to teach my self the craft.
lammas how do u celebrat it? iam new and this will be my first sabbet to celebrat. so if any one can help me please do cause iam trying to teach my self the craft.
Lammas or Lughnasadh (or the modern Irish spelling, Lúnasa), the festival of the First Fruits of the Harvest, is the first festival of the Waning Year, halfway between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox, comes the ancient Celtic pagan festival. It is celebrated on July 31 or August 1st, while the climate (in the United States) is essentially still Summer.
Lammas comes from Old English hlaf maesse, meaning ‘loaf mass’, the Christian holy repast at which bread baked from the first wheat of the season was blessed.
Many cultures have the ceremony of the first of the harvest being sacrificially given to the gods, or god; the ancient Hebrews offered their ‘first fruits’ to Jehovah, just as the Bemanti clan of Swaziland offer theirs to their king during December’s full moon, in the Ncwala ceremony. When Christianity came to the Celtic lands, most ancient festivals such as Lughnasadh were imbued by the Church with Christian symbolism, so loaves of bread were baked from the first of the harvested grain and consecrated on the church altar on the first Sunday of August, a tradition still enacted in many churches.
The God Lugh was the God of Light or the harvest who is celebrated at this time. He was known as Ildánach which means master of all arts and crafts. When he first went to the palace of the King Nuada he was stopped at the door by the sentry who said only those with a skill may pass. Lugh said he was a wright but he got the reply that they had one already and so Lugh named all his professions in turn: smith, champion, harper, poet-historian, sorcerer, physician, cupbearer, craftsman in metal only to be told the Tuatha Dé already had experts in these. So then Lugh asked had they got one man who had the whole combination of skills and the reply was no and so he was allowed enter.
Lughnasadh was and, is of course, one of the four Great Fire Festivals, i.e., cross-quarter festivals. The custom of lighting bonfires to add strength to the powers of the Waning Sun was wide-spread. Brands from the Lughnasadh fires were kept in the home, through the Winter, as protection against storms and lightning, and against fires started by lightning. The Need-Fire seems to have been an integral part of most Fire Festivals, but was not limited to them. Since the ashes from such a fire had properties of protection, healing, and fertility, a Need-Fire might be lit at any time a "need" for such things existed.
Lugh dedicated this festival to his foster-mother, Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg, who died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated. When the men of Ireland gathered at her death-bed, she told them to hold funeral games in her honor. As long as they were held, she prophesied Ireland would not be without song. Tailtiu’s name is from Old Celtic Talantiu, "The Great One of the Earth," suggesting she may originally have been a personification of the land itself, like so many Irish goddesses. In fact, Lughnasadh has an older name, Brón Trogain, which refers to the painful labor of childbirth. For at this time of year, the earth gives birth to her first fruits so that her children might live.
Celebrating this time can be as simple as doing a meditation in which you visualize yourself completing a project you have already begun. Make a corn dolly charm out of the first grain you harvest or acquire. Bake a loaf bread and give a portion of it to Mother Earth with a prayer of appreciation. Make prayers for a good harvest season. Harvest herbs in a sacred way for use in charms and rituals. Kindle a Lughnasadh fire with sacred wood and dried herbs. If you live in or near a farming region, attend a public harvest festival, such as a corn or apple festival. It doesn't have to be anything complicated.
You could read a poem such as by Robert Burns for this as well.
It was on a Lammas night,
When corn rigs are bonie,
Beneath the moon's unclouded light,
I held away to Annie:
The time flew by, wi tentless heed,
Till 'tween the late and early;
Wi' sma' persuasion she agreed
To see me thro' the barley.
The sky was blue, the wind was still,
The moon was shining clearly;
I set her down, wi' right good will,
Amang the rigs o'barley
I ken't her heart was a' my ain;
I lov'd her most sincerely;
I kissed her owre and owre again,
Among the rig o' barley.
I locked her in my fond embrace;
Her heart was beating rarely:
My blessings on that happy place,
Amang the rigs o'barley.
But by the moon and stars so bright,
That shone that hour so clearly!
She ay shall bless that happy night,
Amang the rigs o'barley.
I hae been blythe wi' Comrades dear;
I hae been merry drinking;
I hae been joyfu' gath'rin gear;
I hae been happy thinking:
But a' the pleasures e'er I saw,
Tho three times doubl'd fairley
That happy night was worth then a'.
Among the rig's o' barley.
CHORUS
Corn rigs, an' barley rigs,
An' corn rigs are bonie:
I'll ne'er forget that happy night,
Among the rigs wi' Annie.
thinks this helps. everything i have read was wrong. but thinks.
What have you read?
There is not anything new for me to add as Redhand has said quite a bit, but I do celebrate all the holidays. Lammas is also called Harvest Home and in Wiccan practice we celebrate it and give thanks for the food and the harvest to the Lord and Lady.
i have been reading a book that i bought called lammas but it was bad nothing that u said is in it.
If you are interested in Wicca, a good book for beginners is Scott Cunningham's Guide for the Solitary Practioner. I bought it for my husband when he was just starting out. I looked through it as my craft was taught to me by my mother , but it explains all the holidays etc. It depends on what kind of thing you are interested in.
I agree I like Scott Cunningham.
think you very much and i will take a look at that book....
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