Lammastide

[JAWS]

Happy Lammastide everybody.

[MadPict]

Merry Lammastide to you

[canuck]

Is this one of those UK traditions that I need to learn about?

[Lolabelle]

MMMmmm...
Happy Lammastide to you to, I think? :confused:

[Lolabelle]

Ah ha! Here we go:

In English-speaking (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Anglophone) countries, August 1 (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/August+1) is Lammas Day (loaf-mass day), the festival (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/festival) of the first wheat (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/wheat) harvest (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/harvest) of the year. On this day it was customary to bring to church (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/church) a loaf made from the new crop. In many parts of England (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/England), tenants were bound to present freshly harvested wheat to their landlords on or before the first day of August. :Razz

[Maegwynn]

Happy Lughnasadh/Lammas!:D

I stole this from the BBC website, for anyone who is interested.



"Then let us toast John Barleycorn,
Each man a glass in hand;
And may his great posterity
Ne'er fail in old Scotland! "

Traditional Scottish poem
"Lughnasadh (pronouced loo'nass'ah) comes at the beginning of August. It is one of the Pagan festivals of Celtic origin which split the year into four.
Celts held the festival of the Irish god Lugh at this time and later, the Anglo-Saxons marked the festival of hlaefmass - loaf mass or Lammas - at this time.
For these agricultural communities this was the first day of the harvest, when the fields would be glowing with corn and reaping would begin. The harvest period would continue until Samhain when the last stores for the winter months would be put away.
Although farming is not an important part of modern life, Lughnasadh is still seen as a harvest festival by Pagans and symbols connected with the reaping of corn predominate in its rites." End of quote.


Although i'm not sure about the part where the BBC says that "...farming is not an important part of modern life..." (!). I know alot of people who would dissagre with them!!

xx

[Angela]

The Lammas fair is still an annual event in St Andrews. :)

[canuck]

Thank you everyone for your insights.

This is starting to sound a bit like the ancient equivalent of the modern Threshing Festival we used to celebrate when I lived in Thamesville, Ontario.

I hadn't realized that the Celtic mid-summer observance was also a harvest festival, but it makes sense. I will see what I can do with Lammastide next year once I am settled in Edinburgh.

[Gleber2]

Thank you everyone for your insights.

This is starting to sound a bit like the ancient equivalent of the modern Threshing Festival we used to celebrate when I lived in Thamesville, Ontario.

I hadn't realized that the Celtic mid-summer observance was also a harvest festival, but it makes sense. I will see what I can do with Lammastide next year once I am settled in Edinburgh.

Lammas is traditionally a Harvest festival but, in Wiccan belief, it is also the funeral of Lugh the Sun God whose power begins to wane at this time.
Happy(?) Lammas everyone.

[JAWS]

Lammastide falls roughly mid way between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox and would seem to have originally been a good excuse for having a final communal booze-up before the hard work of getting the harvest in.
Until the last couple of hundred years any excuse for a good party would seem to have been the rule in both the Pagan and the Christian belief systems. The idea that having a good time was somehow sinful is quite a modern invention presumably stemming from the time when people stopped working at their own pace and were obliged to work at somebody else's behest.

The Christian tradition was that the congregation would all take part in the baking of the Lammas Loaf from the first seeds of the harvest. I would suspect, having tasted the efforts of some people's cooking, that eating the Lammas Loaf once it was prepared would be a real "test of faith". :D

[htwood]

There's a Hebridean step dance called the First of August, I wonder if there's a connection with Lammastide. -H

[JAWS]

Don't know about that, but surely somebody raised hereabouts must be able to help.

[canuck]

There's a Hebridean step dance called the First of August, I wonder if there's a connection with Lammastide. -H

The Hebrideans do celebrate on August 1 (at least the ones on Iona do). So maybe that is the origin of the dance.

[johno]

crikey, sounds like call my bluff. [lol] [lol]

[crayola]

Lammas is traditionally a Harvest festival but, in Wiccan belief, it is also the funeral of Lugh the Sun God whose power begins to wane at this time.It was his foster mother whose death was being commemorated.