1 August marks the festival of Lammas, or Lughnasadh, depending on your tradition. It’s a time of harvests, feasting, and giving thanks. The names are often used interchangeably. Though, as we shall see, there is some debate as to whether the two festivals are the same thing.
Either way, you’ll find plenty of Lammas lore online with a casual Google search. But as regular readers will know, I’m fond of the deep dive. What’s really going on with this early harvest festival? How did people celebrate it in the past? And how can people celebrate it now?
Let’s take a look at Lammas, its links with Lughnasadh, and what you can do to mark this time of year…
The History of Lughnasadh
Lughnasadh takes its name from the Irish god Lugh, the god of craftsmen and bards. Ronald Hutton notes that Lughnasadh is “the only major ancient Irish feast to be named after a known deity”, remarking there’s no obvious reason to associate this feast with Lugh (2011: 327). Some people describe Lugh as a sun god, but he’s far more often considered in relation to his huge range of skills.
Scholars once believed that deities enjoyed worship across the Celtic world. As a result, these scholars also believed in pan-Celtic festivals (Hutton 2011: 327). Hutton points to Maire MacNeill’s study of the festival, drawn from folklore surveys and medieval literature. She concluded that the ancient Celts must have held a festival on 1 August, incorporating the same elements as the later celebrations found in her research.
MacNeill also looked at 18th and 19th-century records of open-air celebrations. 78 gatherings happened on hills throughout Ireland, 13 were held near rivers and lakes in the North Midlands, and 80 happened near holy wells (Hutton 2011: 327). Despite this variety of locations, MacNeill drew from the associated folklore to create a prototype Lughnasadh rite.
This included cutting the first of the corn and taking it to a high place, where it was buried as an offering to the deity. They also enjoyed meals of bilberries and new food, and a sacrifice of a sacred bull provided meat for the feast. MacNeill also suggested a ritual dance, plays about Lugh, and a 3-day celebration ruled by Lugh’s human representative (MacNeill 1962: 426).
There’s a problem.
Trouble was, these celebrations weren’t held across the whole British Isles. That implies that there was no unified tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries. So without a series of closely related rituals across the British Isles during this period, it’s difficult to argue for the existence of pan-Celtic seasonal rituals in honour of Lugh in earlier centuries.
That said, the date was still significant. Even if people celebrated in different ways, the need to celebrate at that time makes it worthy of investigation.
Hutton explains that rituals to celebrate the first harvest could be found on the Isle of Man and in parts of Wales. Even the Hebrides had harvest celebrations, though these were different from those in Ireland. People picked the first of the corn, making it into a bannock. Family members carried a piece of this around the fire while they sang to set up protection around the hearth. They repeated the process around the house and farmland using the embers from the fire (Hutton 2011: 329).
In the Highlands, people also used the date to top-up their apotropaic measures. They put new rowan crosses over the doors, tied red or blue threads to their animals’ tails, and renewed other protective devices (Hutton 2011: 330).
So what is Lammas then?
Lammas was an Anglo-Saxon feast held on 1 August to celebrate the opening of the harvest season. Its name comes from ‘hlaef-mass’ or ‘loaf mass’. It appears in chronicles, providing a written record of its celebration.
For the Anglo-Saxons, the customs involved baking the first of the ripe cereals into bread. The church consecrated the bread, which was broken into four. People crumbled each quarter into a corner of whichever barn was to be used to store the grain (Hutton 2011: 330).
But Lammas doesn’t appear in mainland Europe on 1 August. So MacNeill assumed a pre-Christian festival must have existed for the Anglo-Saxons to hold Lammas at that time. She assumed the English must have adopted Lughnasadh from their Celtic ancestors.
Before MacNeill reached this conclusion, Isabel A. Dickson refers to the importance of Lammas in Scotland (1908: 383). While it was central to harvest thanksgiving, she also claims its popularity was “due to its having coincided with or partially taken the place of an older nature festival” (1908: 384). For her, this festival was Lughnasadh.
Rosemarie Morgan also tries to connect Lammas and Lughnasadh. She claimed the Anglo-Saxons called the festival Lughmass, to celebrate Lugh (2004: 146). This name later got confused with ‘hlaf maesse’, or Lammas. For her, the Christians appropriated Lughnasadh and its baking of bread (2004: 146).
Whether Lughnasadh and Lammas were one and the same is impossible to prove. Yet people continued to celebrate Lammas from the Middle Ages and into the 20th century. People held fairs, paid rents, elected officials, and opened common lands. According to Miss Bevan, people in Wales set up small houses made of reeds and sticks called ‘Lammas Houses’. They lit fires inside them and roasted apples, which they sold for a penny (1884: 349).
Lammas in Scotland
In one Scottish newspaper from August 1882, a correspondent noted that Lammas was the second of the “four cross quarter-days”, in between Whitsuntide (5 June) and Martinmas (11 November). They also noted that these were once the days for paying rent, although by 1882, Michaelmas (29 September) had replaced Lammas.
This same correspondent noted that people celebrated “many quaint customs”, including the “throwing open to common pasturage of lands” (The Antiquary for August 1882: 4). For them, this referred back to older village communities that enjoyed shared lands, before enclosure turned grazing lands into private property.
Meanwhile, an article in the East of Fife Record in 1914 echoed these sentiments. For them, the day “has little or no meaning for the town dweller in the south, but it is an important date in Scotland, where it is a quarter day” (1914: 2). The author went on to detail some of the Lammas practices from “rural England”. These included presenting a loaf made of new corn at Church. Apparently, in Sussex, farmers’ wives competed to see who could make the first loaf.
Reviewing old newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it becomes clear that Lammas was a time for great markets and funfairs. This was particularly the case in St Andrews, where one article in 1929 questioned the safety of holding the fair in the town’s streets (W. H. H. 1929: 8). By 1947, another article from the same newspaper described their Lammas Market as “one of the biggest on record”, while noting the way the market day fairs were dying out (1947: 5).
Are Lammas and Lughnasadh the same thing?
Many people now use Lughnasadh and Lammas interchangeably, no doubt since many of the popular Wiccan texts do so. Yet Scott Cunningham even noted that Lughnasadh wasn’t always observed on 1 August. He explains that “[i]t originally coincided with the first reapings” (2003: 67). This would certainly make sense since agriculture would follow the needs of the harvest, not the calendar. Some of the older newspapers refer to ‘Lammas-tide’, as in a period of time in which Lammas was celebrated. Its date would depend on the ripening of the grains.
Many of the assumptions about earlier witches celebrating these festivals come from the work of Margaret Murray. Her reliability has been wholeheartedly dismissed by scholars upon further examination. As an example, only one accused witch ever gave evidence that she had met other witches on the four quarter days. Murray took this single example as the basis for the festival cycle of an assumed religion (Hutton 2008: 255).
In part, Murray constructed the festivals of this supposed ancient religion based on the agricultural year (Hutton 2008: 256). She did note that Lammas was an early harvest festival within the Church, “and was probably the same among the witches”. It’s nice to see her being so specific about that. /sarcasm She also made the assumption that “the jumping dance” was “possibly […] a fertility rite to ensure the growth of the corn” (1917: 252). This is why I have such issues with Murray. She worked in the realm of conjecture, rather than evidence.
It may sound disappointing that in celebrating Lammas or Lughnasadh, you’re not following in the footsteps of an ancient Celtic religion. But you are still participating in a seasonal celebration that has been recorded for centuries, even if it differs across territories! And that’s still cool.
Lammas and Proposed Ancient Traditions
Marian Green refers to the festival as Lammas Tide, a time of the first harvests (1989: 111). The harvest finishes properly at the autumn equinox, so this is a period of giving thanks for the first things that are brought in.
Green talks about making corn dollies, which were believed to have been a way to capture the Sun’s life force. These dollies were kept indoors and then brought out at sowing time to give the seeds a power-up. She doesn’t cite her sources so it’s impossible to know where this assertion came from. In many of her books, Green does instruct would-be witches to learn about folk customs and practices. In doing so, she assures them that they’ll be able to uncover the ‘Old Ways’, preserved in secret and continued in rural Britain.
Yes, this does smack of Murray’s belief in an ancient religion, continued in secret across the centuries. One of the problems of this approach is a tendency to assume folk practices belonged to this ‘ancient’ tradition. These practices were then mapped onto the Wheel of the Year when there’s no evidence they should have been.
That said, in this case, it’s not an unreasonable assumption. Lammas is the point when we notice the shortening days as the sun begins to wave. Why wouldn’t people give thanks for the first harvest, and carry out practices to ensure the health of the crops in the months to come?
How do people celebrate Lammas now?
Kate West refers to Lammas as a time of sacrifice. Yet she also points out this would have been symbolic, rather than literal, due to the value of workers in pre-industrial Britain. Instead, she proposes that workers sacrificed the last sheaf cut from the first field to be harvested. This apparently took the form of a person, the Corn King, and was symbolically slain and apparently given to the land spirits in payment for the harvest (2001: 84).
She also describes how corn from this first harvest would be turned into flour, and then bread for a great feast. This was a way for the community to share in the bounty provided by the land (2001: 85). At least this custom appears to have a historical precedent, perhaps a local version of the Church’s approach to Lammas. Rather than crumbling the bread to protect the barn, the bread fed the community.
West suggests that people make their own Corn Kings, either from corn dollies, or made as gingerbread men. You can ‘sacrifice’ the latter by eating them and give thanks for your own ‘harvest’ in doing so (2001: 86). That might include thanking the supply chain that provides your food or giving thanks for whatever good things have happened in your life this year.
She also recommends baking your own bread, which would indeed be an excellent way to mark Lammas. For many of us, we’re somewhat divorced from much of our own food production. So if we want to give thanks for our food, making it ourselves is a good way to do it.
Remember, harvesting crops was literally a case of life-and-death in earlier times. In some ways, celebrating the harvest at Lammas means we can also honour our ancestors and their hard work.
Gratitude and Protection
As this becomes a time to count your blessings, West also suggests finding a way to ‘give back’ for what you’ve received. So one option could be to sacrifice your time or effort for the benefit of your land or community (2001: 88). That might involve picking up litter in your neighbourhood, feeding local wildlife, donating your time or produce to a food bank, or helping to care for communal land. For those living in colonial or settler countries, see if there are ‘land back’ initiatives you can support.
Keen on Lughnasadh? Patti Wigington suggests honouring Lugh’s talents at crafts. Celebrate your own crafty skills, and maybe craft an offering to Lugh in his honour. She also suggests holding a potluck with your neighbours using produce you’ve grown yourself (2021). This would be a great idea on shared allotments.
Alternatively, take your cue from those in the Highlands and work on protecting your home. On a mundane level, that might mean checking your smoke alarm works. Get your burglar alarms serviced. Fix any broken locks and stop leaving keys under plant pots!
If you’re interested in folklore about home protection, you can get my free PDF guide about it below! For the more witch-inclined among you, you might want to investigate the practice of warding for home protection. By far one of the best books on the subject is By Rust of Nail & Prick of Thorn: The Theory & Practice of Effective Home Warding by Althaea Sebastiani.
Enjoy your Lammas!
Whether you celebrate Lammas, or Lughnasadh, or both, have a great time! Even though there’s no evidence to suggest they descend from ancient festivals, they do both have incredible lifespans. Taking part in old traditions is still a great way to get involved with your community and your heritage. Find out what local traditions are held near your home and get involved!
Folklore is one of the threads that ties a community together. People made sense of the world around them through their rituals and beliefs. Preserving these old festivals helps us to remain in contact with our ancestors, even if scientific discoveries have rendered some of their beliefs void since then.
Getting back in touch with the seasons via these festival cycles is also important. We’ve become so cut off from the seasons through modern living that it’s easy to forget we’re part of a larger eco-system. These festivals put us back into that eco-system so we can help to care for it better.
Plus, any excuse for gingerbread men, right?
References
The Antiquary for August (1882), ‘Lammas Tide’, Dundee Evening Telegraph, Monday 7 August, p. 4.
Bevan, Miss (1884), ‘Welsh Folk-Lore Items’, The Folk-Lore Journal, 2:11, pp. 348-351.
The Citizen (1947), ‘The Lammas Market’, The Citizen, Saturday 16 August, p. 5.
Cunningham, Scott (2003), Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn.
Dickson, Isabel A. (1908), ‘The Burry-Man’, Folklore, 19:4, pp. 379-387.
East of Fife Record (1914), ‘Lammas-Tide’, East of Fife Record, Friday 24 July, p. 2.
Green, Marian (1989), The Elements of Natural Magic, Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books.
Hutton, Ronald (2008), ‘Modern Pagan Festivals: A Study in the Nature of Tradition’, Folklore, 119:3, pp. 251-273.
Hutton, Ronald (2011), The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MacNeill, Máire (1962), The Festival of Lughnasa, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Morgan, Rosemarie (2004), ‘Lughnasadh-Lammas’, The Hardy Review, 7, pp. 146-147.
Murray, M.A. (1917), ‘Organisations of Witches in Great Britain’, Folklore, 28:3, pp. 228-258.
West, Kate (2001), The Real Witches’ Handbook: A Complete Introduction to the Craft, London: Thorsons.
W. H. H. (1929), ‘St Andrews Lammas Fair’, The Citizen, Saturday 17 August, p. 8.
Wigington, Patti (2021), ‘All About Lammas (Lughnasadh)’, Learn Religions, February 16, https://learnreligions.com/celebrating-lammas-or-lughnasadh-in-august-2562156.
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This is a good article. May I make a suggestion, however, to replace feeding local wildlife with perhaps donating to or feeding animals in a local animal shelter or wildlife rehab facility? Much of feeding local wildlife is fine, but there are many instances where it is not recommended and may bring in the wrong kind of wildlife.