The Almanac · Calendars & tools
Rituals · Liber XXXV · Witchcraft & Wicca
Lughnasadh (Lammas / August Eve)
Gardnerian Book of Shadows (c. 1949–61); Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959); wider Wiccan practice
Two traditions meet in this festival. Lughnasa was the Irish festival of the god Lugh at the start of harvest, studied in depth by Máire MacNeill (1962), with hilltop gatherings, games and the first eating of new crops. In England 1 August was Lammas, "loaf-mass", when bread from the first wheat was brought to church for blessing. Gardner's coven kept it as August Eve, one of the four great sabbats. Wiccan rites usually include the sharing of bread baked from the new grain, corn dollies or other harvest figures, and the theme of the god who is cut down with the corn so that life continues. Games and competitions recalling Lugh's fairs sometimes accompany it.
Purpose
Lughnasadh gives thanks for the first harvest, especially of grain, and in Wiccan myth recalls the sacrifice of the corn god.
Timing
- Season / time
- The sabbat of Lughnasadh
Traditionally 31 July into 1 August; some reckon the astronomical cross-quarter. Wiccan festivals are commonly reckoned from sunset on the eve.
Materials
- candles
- salt and water
- incense
- cakes and wine (or ale)
- bread from the new grain
- sheaves or corn dollies
Tools
- athame (black-handled knife)
- white-handled knife
- wand
- pentacle
- censer
- cauldron
Fire safety with candles, censer and any bonfire or cauldron fire.