Now is the time when you can see fruits of all the hard work – the time of harvest:

Give offerings and thanks to the land, deities and spirits who help you all the way and your ancestors.

Feed the bees 🐝 and hummingbirds with sweet water stations.

Make a harvest wreath from 🌾 , goldenrod, sunflowers 🌻 and red clover ☘️ to hang on your door and welcome abundance to your home.

Decorate your house with table cloth, napkins, maths to add to Lammas harvest energy and add to your meals fresh herbs like sage, thyme, basil 🌿 and oregano 🌿.

It’s a time to let go of those emotions and thoughts that you are holding back.

add black-eyed Susan, chamomile and yarrow to your bath and help release fear and negativity from your mind. Keep black obsidian and malachite near by and interact with them daily to banish what limits you and believe in power of dreams.

This year 2023 Lammas comes on a full moon and another Full Moon comes on August 31. It’s a blue moon time.

It is 13 Moon Month and it’s a time when you need to cleanse your mind and thought and detox the mind and thoughts to be ready to start afresh. Meditation and mindfulness are most welcome.

History

Lughnasadh, which translates as “Lug’s gathering” or “Lug’s wedding”. Lug is one of the gods of the Celtic pantheon, the patron of agriculture and many crafts. The Celts called him “long-armed” and “many skillful.”

An ancient legend about the origin of this holiday

Lug allegedly established this holiday to honor of his adoptive mother, the goddess Tailtine, after her death. The image of this goddess is associated with the earth, fertility, because her name “Tailtin” comes from the word “talam” – earth.

The holiday Lughnasad is not only cattle-breeding, but also agricultural. The day of Lughnasad is “the time of the beginning of the harvest”, the period when “the earth suffers under the weight of her fruits.”

The main features is the ritual eating of the fruits of the first harvest, in which all members of the community are to take part; gathering and feasting on the top of a high mountain; sacrifices of the first fruits of the harvest to a deity on the top of the mountain.

On August 1, the whole family go out into the field in festive attire, and the head of the family, with appropriate ceremonies, cut the first ears of bread.

It was customary for women to distribute specially prepared small curd cheeses to everyone who was in the summer pastures – for good luck.

On the eve of August 1, magic is done on cattle in order to protect them from all sorts of misfortunes.

We take special care of cows: we smear their tails and ears with resin, tie red and blue threads to their tails, and cast magic spells. According to a very old custom, on this day people bathe cattle in the sea or river.

High in the mountains, sacrifices were made, and then games, various competitions, and dances were arranged.

On the first day of August, as on other holidays, it was customary in Scotland to light bonfires on the hills and dance around them.

The most important dish on Lammas is bread in all its variations. Fruits, nuts, bread are the main food of Lammas.

On this day, big changes take place in the life of a magician – a change of work, place of residence, renewal in thoughts and actions. This is one of the turning points of the Wheel of the Year.

Lammas or Lughnasad is a threshold festival, a turning point on the wheel of the year, marking the meeting of the first breath of autumn, the time of the harvest and the beginning of the harvest and the transition of the season to the next cycle. It reflects the connection with nature and the cycles of life, like other wheel holidays, and celebrates the arrival of abundance and the first results of labor in a year. It is always a time of power, but this year Lamas is also connected to the power of the full moon.

On the Wheel of the Year, Lammas (Lugnasad) is located opposite Imbolc, thus measuring exactly half of the year from the first ideas and sowing of “seeds” to the ripening of “fruits”. It’s time for the first harvest.

The Full Moon always brings the results of our efforts, at least for the previous two weeks, and by and large this is also the result laid down by the New Moon in the same sign six months ago.

Therefore, the first Full Moon of August will be very important and perhaps quite difficult for many. First, because in August we are waiting for another, the so-called blue moon, which will gain its full strength by August 31st. The blue moon is the 13th moon of the year, a rare phenomenon that happens about once every three years and which, of course, has its own special meaning.

But for now, the Moon of Lughnasada or the Moon of the First Harvest awaits us, which will reach its peak on August 1

A supermoon is about 7% larger than a regular full moon, super moon is larger and brighter than usual, and its influence on us is stronger.

Lamas is the time of the magic of reconciliation and resolution of problems. A certain period of the year closes and another opens, giving us the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of our efforts and give thanks to the world for everything it shares with us. During this period, it was considered important to be generous, forgive others sins and get rid of anger.

The ancient Slavs during this period celebrated Perun’s Day. They gathered in the groves, rumbled with various objects, arranged competitions, jumped over the fire and bathed in the rivers.

Modern practices and rituals at Lughnasad

During a whole week from July 31 to August 6, you can read fortune.

Runes, Tarot, astrology and all kinds of oracles will truthfully answer questions regarding material well-being and love compatibility.

Do not forget to thank the Universe and Mother Earth.

You shall feel a harmonious energy of love and gratitude. All drinks and dishes now are filled with the energy of love and thanks forces.

On Lammas you can be freed from all kinds of oppression.

To cleanse yourself of negativity, you need to jump over the fire, filling with fiery energy. It helps to find a mate.

It’s time to make wishes about reciprocity and marriage.

For the festive table, it is advisable to bake bread yourself, and give some of the dishes to the gods (into the earth, into the fire, into the water).

From August 1 to 6, light golden, yellow, green candles in your house.

This is a wonderful time when you can make wishes until the next holiday.

Temporary Marriages Tradition

Temporary marriages for “a year and a day” were arranged on August 1-6 by a simple joining of hands. Young people lined up in two rows on the fairground, opposite each other, and their parents agreed on the conclusion of alliances.

Marriage was sealed with a simple handshake.

In Scotland, for example, this custom was so widespread that monks were sent from neighboring monasteries to fairs to give church blessings to such unions.

If, after a year and a day, the couple decided that they were not suitable for each other, they appeared at the same fairground, turned their backs to each other and dispersed in different directions, after which their temporary marriage was considered completely terminated.

Straw Dolls with Pink Ribbons

On Lammas it is customary to make dolls, symbols of Mother Earth, decorating them with pink ribbons of Frigg, the Scandinavian Mother Goddess.

These dolls have to be hung over the hearths for the whole winter.

Sometimes they were made in the shape of the Seed Mother, or cornucopia, and sometimes several dolls were tied in knots to provide protection. In rural areas, this custom still exists.

Traditions

Lammas is a holiday of the Sun, therefore the flower of this day is a sunflower 🌻. They are hung in the house 🏡 and attract happiness 🍀 and well-being.

They also make pupae from wheat ears and straw.

✔️ Burn 🔥 incense. This attracts good spirits.

Bake pies with blueberries, apples.

Hung Bunches of meadow herbs in the house (you can just make a bouquet and place it in a beautiful vase).

Eat nuts 🥜, berries 🍓, bread 🍞, fruits 🍇, vegetables 🌽, honey 🍯 and make fruit drinks

Rituals for enrichment and prosperity “work” well on this day💰

deities

On this day, different peoples thank and ask for protection from such Gods and Goddesses as

John Barleycorn, the God of Grain, Demeter, Ceres, the Mother of Grain, Freya, Freyra, Lug.

symbols of Lughnasad

Loafs of bread, sheaves of wheat, barley, oats, fruits, grain pupae, sun wheels, full moon, harvesting tools are considered the symbols of Lughnasad.

Flowers

In addition, summer flowers, ears of corn, a sickle, and bread are present at the festival.

colors

The colors of the day of the first harvest are orange, gold, yellow, light brown, green.