2023 Lughnasadh/Lammas

This is an Irish Gaelic festival and is by Wiccans considered the start of the harvest season. It is generally held on July 31st - August 1st OR approximately halfway between Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox. This seasonal festival was named after the Celtic God Lugh. (It was renamed to Lammas by the early Christians). In Wiccan tradition it is the time when the God is waning. There are many different beliefs of what this festival actually celebrates. Some say it is Lugh’s wedding celebrated with the first grain, others say it was begun by Lugh as a funeral feast. Historically athletic competitions were held, handfasting occurred, trading was done and early fruits were offered for the feasting. Like Imbolc and Beltain, it was also customary at Lughnasadh to visit holy wells. They would pray for health while walking clockwise around the well as a part of the honorings of the season. It is briefly mentioned that the introduction of loafs of bread were brought in by the early Christians. However, in the Scottish Highlands special cakes were made and given to the men and women and were possibly offerings to the gods.

My memories are of writing a Poem of Invocation and reading it at Faery Worlds. It was pretty amazing! I can’t say that I have any other memories that really stand out when it comes to this particular holiday. This year we went to a small gathering of vendors and we will also be celebrating by going to a park to take in the drying grasses and hot sun while we honor the chasing of the sun god. We will be doing a little divination as well. It’s not all firmed up yet. Just to offer an idea of an easy way to celebrate the Turning of the Wheel.

Tarot

Princess of Cups/Page of Cups (reversed)

We are beginning to enter the harvest season and there may be some doubts in your mind that have crept in concerning the intention you’ve set for the year. This is natural especially at this stage. Now is when we see some success and most likely some failure stemming from creative blocks. We might begin to wonder if we’ve gotten it all wrong and if we’ve picked the wrong road. I’m here to say that you haven’t but this is the season to weed out what isn’t working. Maybe reshape your outlook and don’t let your negative emotions overtake the progress you have made. Just remember this is a normal stage of the process and it allows us to reflect and release. Focus on what has been working and how you can better support it.

On a side note, we noticed that in season one of PBM we somehow overlooked doing an episode for Lughnasadh. We will be rectifying that sometime soon. Even if it isn’t timely to the season. Our apologies.

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https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Lughnasadh#Historic_customs