Lammas Round-up

 

Lammas is coming up once again! It's my favourite sabbat apart from Samhain, so I'm looking forward to it. :) This year's it's on Sunday 1st August, or Saturday if you celebrate on 31st July. (Some people celebrate from sundown to sundown on both days, and others may have their celebration on 2nd August, which corresponds to Imbolg, its opposite on the Wheel.) The astrological time of Lammas is Saturday 7th August this year.

For the past few years, I've written posts with ideas for celebrating Lammas. This year I'm doing a round-up like I previously did for Beltane and Litha/the Summer Solstice. I'm sharing my past Lammas posts as well as links from other sites. :)

Note: If you're in the Southern Hemisphere it's almost Imbolg/Imbolc! Check out my Imbolg celebration ideas here:

Imbolg Celebration Ideas: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/01/imbolg-celebration-ideas.html

Imbolg Inspiration: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2019/01/imbolg-inspiration.html

More Imbolg Inspiration: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/01/more-imbolg-inspiration.html

Ideas for Imbolg: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2021/01/ideas-for-imbolg.html

 

 

 

Lammas, also known as Lughnasadh, is the first harvest festival on the Wheel of the Year (the others are Madron in September and Samhain in October) and the last one associated with summer. It marks the transition from summer to autumn, although the "official" start of autumn won't be until Madron (more commonly known as Mabon) aka the Autumn Equinox.

 

It is also called Lughnasadh since it is the festival of the Celtic God Lugh, (described as a Sun and Corn God, among other things)  whose power is waning at this time. In some beliefs the God is sacrified at Lammas  and re-born at Yule aka the Winter Solstice in December.  He is also known as the Green Man/John Barleycorn in some traditions. You can read more about Lugh here:

https://www.otsnews.co.uk/lughnasadh-ancient-time-of-the-harvest/

 

 

And I have linked to more posts about him and the Grain Goddesses Demeter and Ceres in my Lammas Celebration Ideas post.

Lammas is a cross-quarter day and a fire festival. Its themes include harvest, abundance and gratitude.

 

Here are my previous Lammas posts on the blog:

Lammas 2014: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2014/08/lammas.html

Lammas 2015: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2015/08/lammas-2015.html

Lammas 2016: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2016/08/lammas-2016.html

Lammas Celebration Ideas: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/07/lammas-celebration-ideas.html

Lammas 2017: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/08/lammas-2017.html

 

Celebrating Lammas: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/07/celebrating-lammas.html

Lammas 2018: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/08/lammas-2018.html

 

July Update + Lammas Inspiration: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2019/07/july-update-lammas-inpiration.html

 

Lammas 2019: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2019/08/lammas-2019.html

 

Baking for Lammas + Extra Ideas!: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/07/baking-for-lammas-extra-ideas.html

 

Lammas 2020: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/08/lammas-2020.html

 

 

 

And here are some posts from other sites:

 

All about Lammas or Lughnasadh: https://www.thepeculiarbrunette.com/lughnasadh/

 

10 simple ideas for celebrating: https://www.zoryawellness.com/post/lammas-pagan-holiday-how-to-celebrate-lammas-10-simple-ideas

 

Tess Whitehurst shares 5 ways to work magic on Lughnasadh: https://tesswhitehurst.com/5-ways-to-work-magic-on-lughnasadh-6/

Witchcrafted Life post about animal correspondences to work with at Lammas:  https://witchcraftedlife.com/15-wonderful-animal-correspondences-to-connect-to-and-work-with-at-lammas/

I'm planning to make gingerbread which is my favourite thing to do to celebrate Lammas. (Originally inspired by Kate West's book The Real Witches' Kitchen.) I used to use the recipe off the back of the Tesco light brown soft sugar packet, but they've stopped putting it on there, so now I use this BBC Food one: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gingerbread_men_99096

I'm also going to bake some bread. I don't tend to bake bread that often but for the past couple of years I've felt more into making it for Lammas and Madron! This year I'm planning to bake No knead overnight Artisan bread which I first made last year. Here's the recipe: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/no-knead-overnight-artisan-bread/

It didn't come out so well last time, but I'm trying again! lol. Also check out my Baking for Lammas post for links to more recipes: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/07/baking-for-lammas-extra-ideas.html

And here's a recipe for rustic sun bread from Moody Moons: https://www.moodymoons.com/2021/07/23/lammas-rustic-sun-bread-recipe/

I sometimes make Cornish style pasties for my lunch on Lammas. I use a recipe from The Real Witches' Kitchen but I can't write the full recipe out online due to copyright. You can find some similar ones in last year's baking post though: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/07/baking-for-lammas-extra-ideas.html

 

A couple of other things I plan to do are go for a walk at my local nature reserve on a hill and light a candle (orange if I can find a nice one, or white if not). The picture at the top was taken when on the hill the other day.

Hope you enjoyed the post and it gave you some ideas for celebrating! :) I will do a post about my celebrations next week. What kind of things do you like to do?

It's finally been feeling like summer with a mini-heatwave in the UK (although it's not been as hot in my area of Sussex) and hopefully there will be nice weather on Lammas. Happy Lammas! (Or Imbolg!) :)

Photo: Mill Hill, Shoreham-by-sea. Moonsparkle 2021.