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On Lammas

Lammas

 

For the White Horse of summer, with its crown of hope made from fern and flower, has left the land. Now we must wait till the Grey Horse comes amid the dark days of winter shivering - Hookland

Lammas or Lughnasadh is the first of the three Wiccan harvest festivals, the other two being the autumnal equinox (or Mabon) and Samhain. Wiccans mark the holiday by baking a figure of the god in bread and eating it, to symbolise the sanctity and importance of the harvest. Celebrations vary, as not all Pagans are Wiccans. The Irish name Lughnasadh is used in some traditions to designate this holiday.

Wiccan celebrations of this holiday are neither generally based on Celtic culture nor centred on the Celtic deity Lugh. This name seems to have been a late adoption among Wiccans. In early versions of Wiccan literature the festival is referred to as August Eve. The name Lammas (contraction of loaf mass) implies it is an agrarian-based festival and feast of thanksgiving for grain and bread, which symbolises the first fruits of the harvest. 

It is past Lammas. The field is impatient to be cut. Ghost-crowded, it spectres chatter and shout louder than any tractor. The sky is darkening to the chance of rain and they are calling for the blades to come quick. – Hookland artist Katherine Giddings, 1964 pic.twitter.com/Vc6AkuB4l4

— Hookland (@HooklandGuide) August 2, 2022

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