Lammas, Lughnasadh, Traditions and Customs of Old.

Hello Everyone,

Greetings to all on this Lammas week and to those who had festivities and camps I hope you all had fun on the first harvest of the year.
This Blog will look at folk traditions over the British Isles and customs of old and also stories associated with the harvest and celebrations of Lammas/Lughnasadh.

Lammas or the first harvest is on the 1st August and differs from place to place on the British Isles, where in Scotland they may harvest the crops early. The word Lammas comes from the Saxon word halfmaesse or  loaf mass and it refers to the first offerings to the God of the fruits of the harvest. In Celtic times this time of year was known as Lughnasadh and dedicated to the God Lugh, which was a time for merrymaking, feasts and honouring's to Lugh's foster mother the goddess Taitu.(Howard, p100-102)

Christian faith however took this festival for their own, knowing the importance of the agricultural year and the blessings given to the crops would help in the quarterly rents collected at lammas by the church. Also this was the time for rush bearing which was a practice that still happens today in Yorkshire and Cumbria, where the rushes or the flooring of the Churches would be swept out and given way for new ones for the winter. Some say this is where the saying Out with the old and in with the new came from. Rushbearing itself dates back several centuries to the time when church floors consisted of little more than stone flags or beaten earth and rushes were used as a winter covering. Each year, in late summer, the rotten rushes were cleared out and new ones were taken to the churches in carts. Human nature being what it is, this annual custom developed into an excuse for celebration involving revelry, music, morris dancing and much drinking of strong ales.

The practice of making corn dollies from the last sheaf of corn that is harvested was very popular and still is. The belief was that the corn spirit lived on within the dolly through winter and kept until the spring to ensure a good harvest for the new year. Also in some villages a corn farmer would be appointed the title The Lord Of The Harvest and would be responsible for bringing the last nook or sheaf into the village.

I hope you enjoyed this article and next time I will be talking about the Autumn Equinox and Mabon.

Sigrid Skadi





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