3 Things You May Not Know About Lammas

We have Lammas coming up soon! For those unfamiliar this holiday occurs at the midway point between the Summer Solstice & the Autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Since I’m currently in the process of packing up my apartment for my move to Texas I probably won’t be able to have a big Lammas celebration this year. Though one thing I can do for this holiday is bake bread. Luckily, at its core Lammas is a day to celebrate the wheat harvest and eating carbs is probably one of my favorite activities.

Personally I feel that Lammas is an underrated sabbat and there isn't as much excitement around it compared to the other Pagan holidays. So I thought I would share 3 things you may not know that I think make this holiday uniquely awesome.

1: The Many Names for this Sabbat

There are many different names for this holiday. This makes it a bit confusing, but when you look into it the different names actually reveal a lot of fascinating aspects about the history of Paganism. The oldest name for this holiday is Lughnasadh which is Gaelic and is the name used for the celebrations that occurred throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Mann. Lughnasadh is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and the festival itself is named after the Celtic god Lugh.

The term Lammas, which is the name most current wiccans use, actually shows up after the Christian conversion in Europe. The name Lammas is a contraction of the words loaf (as in bread-loaf) and mass (as in Christian Mass). In the Christian tradition, people would bake a loaf made from the newly harvested wheat and take it to church where the bread would be blessed. After the bread was blessed it might even be used in protective rituals. There's a book of Anglo-Saxon charms that states Lammas bread should be broken into four bits and placed at the four corners of the barn to protect the harvested grain.

I find this all super interesting because it’s a great example of how Paganism & Christianity have intermixed over the centuries. While we don’t know exactly when Christians started celebrating Lammas, it’s definitely possible the acts of harvesting & blessing bread and doing a barn protection spell on this particular day was inspired by earlier Pagan celebrations. I mean it sounds pretty pagan to me!

As a modern Pagan, it’s a bit odd thinking about the Pagan & Christian relationship. Sure, it really sucks that many of our Pagan ancestors were forcibly converted to Christianity but at the same time it’s like thanks for preserving our traditions I guess? In reality a large part of what we know about Paganism today comes from the fact that Christians recorded a lot of the folk traditions and incorporated them into their own religious practices. Pagans in northern Europe didn’t write a lot down so a lot of times we need to rely on Christian sources for our information. What makes the story even more fascinating is that nowadays most Christians have stopped celebrating Lammas and now it’s the Pagans & Wiccans who are again celebrating this holiday which really shows the cyclical nature of history.

There are two more lesser known names for this holiday as well. Gŵyl Awst which is the Welsh name for this holiday and August Eve which is the name early Wiccans used for this holiday. The switch to using the name Lammas among Wiccans came much later.

2: Athletic Games on this Sabbat

Sports are probably not one of the things you associate with this holiday, but there are actually some interesting athletic aspects to Lammas. In The Every-Day Book of 1838 William Hone wrote of a Lammas day sport common among Scottish farmers near Edinburgh. In this sport people would build towers out of peat and each team would put their flag at the center of the tower. The farmers would go to others' towers and attempt to "level them to the ground." People were allowed to defend their towers and all the farmers were given a horn they could blow to alert nearby country folk of the impending attack and they would show up and it would turn into a big brawl. If there are any Scots reading this, please let me know if you’ve heard of this game and I’d love to know if there are any communities still doing this.

There are also historic Pagan athletic games associated with Lughnassah called the Tailteann Games. These were funeral games associated with the history of Pre-Christian Ireland. The games were held during the last fortnight of July and culminated with the celebration of Lughnasadh. Modern folklore sources claim that the games started around 1600 BCE, with some sources claiming as far back as 1829 BCE. The games included the long jump, high jump, running, spear throwing, boxing, sword fighting, archery, wrestling, and chariot racing. I don’t know if any modern Irish Pagans have thought about reviving these games, but that would be really wonderful. If I could plan my ideal modern Lughnasadh celebration I would love to have a day of fun athletic competition that culminates in a big feast where everyone would bring homemade baked good to celebrate the harvest.

3: Ireland’s Oldest Fair?

The oldest Irish festival still going on today is called Puck’s Fair and it takes place annually for three days on the 10th, 11th and 12th of August. Every year a group of people go up into the mountains and catch a wild goat for the fair. The goat is brought back to the town and the "Queen of Puck", traditionally a young girl, crowns the goat "King Puck" which signifies that the festivities may begin. The goat is then put into a small cage on a high stand for three days, and on the 3rd day of the fair, he is brought down to be led back to the mountains.

Most Scholars believe the fair's origins stem from the Celtic festival of Lughnasadh. As Lughnasadh symbolises the beginning of the harvest season the goat acts like a pagan fertility symbol. I don’t know about you but I would love to go to this fair if I’m ever up in Ireland.

I hope you enjoyed this post & video. If you did please give it a like and down in the comments let me know what you’ll be doing to celebrate Lammas this year.