Lughnasadh ~ Lammas ~ Beginning of Autumn

In the night of 1 to 2 of August, the Wheel of the Year turns from Litha, Midsummer, to Lughnasadh or Lammas and we celebrate the festival of the First Harvest of Grain and Fruit of the year. Hence, Lughnasadh is also called Grain Festival. Lammas is the Saxon name of this celebration and literally means Bread Mass. Here we find the reference to the festival of the grain and the celebration of the corn, the main ingredient of our daily bread. Even today it is good to reflect on and be thankful for the abundance of grains. It is after all one of the most important food sources for humans worldwide. Lughnasadh is the older, Celtic, name for the festival and that means celebration of Lugh, the Celtic Sun God, also known as the God of Great Ability.

Lughnasadh, the period or celebration of Lugh, refers to the beginning of the end of Summer. The power of the Sun decreases and its energy is transferred to the grain that has matured. The first harvest festival is the end of the ‘summer vacation’ and heralds the start of a time of hard work. It used to be the time when the warriors came back to help out on land. In the next two to three months, our ancestors prepared for the coming Winter. Working hard together on the land to harvest the crops in time fraternized and created the need to celebrate the work done together. While celebrating Lughnasadh, they engaged in horse racing, athletic competitions or games, reciting poems, musical performances, hand fasting and a large exhibition of arts and crafts. This is where the Autumn markets and fairs, which are held all over the country from August onwards, originate.

Lugh ~ The Sun God

During Lughnasadh, the First Harvest of the Three Harvests, is celebrated. After Lughnasadh, Mabon or Autumn Equinox and Samhain, Celtic New Year, will follow. Lughnasadh represents the decreasing of the power of the Sun, and with that the death and sacrifice of Lugh. He sacrifices himself for the harvest and transfers all his strength into the grain, which is why it is beautiful golden yellow as the Sun. Because of this he ensures that the people have a good harvest to get through the Winter. Thanks to his sacrifice, the rest survives. The days are still longer than the nights, but are getting shorter and shorter. In honour of Lugh, our ancestors baked bread and braided harvest symbols out of respect and gratitude.

A tradition during Lughnasadh is the burning of the wheel. A wheel was rubbed with tar, set on fire and driven down a hill. This heralded the end of Summer and symbolized the decline of the Sun God. You can find the wheel in Tarot as the Wheel of Fortune. The wheel in motion moves up and down. Whether we experience an up or a down depends on the harvest results.

Colours of Lughnasadh

The colours that can be found in nature are the colours of Lughnasadh, such as:

  • Green
  • (Dark) Yellow
  • Red
  • Orange
  • Gold
  • (Light) Brown

Herbs and Plants

  • All grains, such as Oats, Wheat, Barley, Spelt, Corn, Rice
  • Strawberries
  • Blackberries
  • Blueberries
  • Black currants
  • Raspberries
  • Grapes
  • Sunflowers
  • Oak
  • Heather
  • Lavender
  • Marigold

Incense

Incense is not only fun to burn, it is also a lot of fun to make yourself. For a nice incense for Lughnasadh, mix equal parts (1 teaspoon) of:

  • Heather (chopped) or Sunflower petals (chopped)
  • Calendula (chopped)
  • Bergamot (oil) (chopped or a few drops of oil)
  • Sweet almonds (chopped or ground) or Dragon’s blood resin
  • Oats (chopped or ground)
  • Rosemary (chopped)
  • Laurel (chopped) (takes away bad energy and replaces it with cheerfulness)
  • Lavender (chopped) or Hollyhock (chopped)
  • Juniper (a good cleanser)

With this incense you can clean your house during Lughnasadh. It is good to energetically clean your house on a regular basis. In this way old energy disappears and space is created for new energy. Sometimes you can have such a heavy energy or atmosphere in your house. And whatever you do, open windows or dust the place, it will not disappear. Then clean your house with incense and notice the difference.

Crystals

Crystals belong to to the meaning of Lughnasad are:

  • Citrine
  • Peridot
  • Rose quartz
  • Topaz
  • Aventurine
  • Onyx
  • Tiger’s Eye
  • Amber

Food and drinks

Traditional food and drinks to celebrate Lughansadh:

  • Bread
  • Corn
  • (Self-harvested) Fruit, such as Berries, Blackberries, Raspberries, Apples, Pears, Plums
  • Honey
  • Rice
  • Meat
  • Save
  • Apple Cider
  • Wine
  • Beer
  • Herbal Tea (from self-harvested herbs)

Altar decorations

To stand still during Lughnasadh you can make an altar. Choose a beautiful place that you visit regularly, so that every time you pass it you will be reminded of Lughnasadh and the gifts of Mother Earth and the sacrifice of Lugh. You can also make an altar outside.

Above is a nice example of an outer altar with a spiral in the middle. You can walk the spiral with your fingers from the outside in to find out what your intentions were at the beginning of the year, the obstacles that you found on your way and where you are now (the center). From the center, you walk out with your fingers to set out your intentions, wishes and goals that you still want to harvest this year. You can also walk a labyrinth, it just depends on what you like or prefer.

Other ways to decorate your altar are:

  • Seasonal flowers
  • Ornaments or decorations made from grain or wheat, such as Barley, Wheat or Oats
  • Nuts
  • Picked fruits
  • A cornucopia of bread dough with a bunch of grapes in it
  • Gems
  • Incense

When you type “Lughnasadh Altar” on Pinterest, beautiful examples will surface. For your inspiration:

Corn Doll

During Lughnasadh the first crop was harvested. Dolls or figurines were braided with grain or corn stalks. This is where the Corn Doll originally comes from. It was believed that cutting the last sheaf of corn was bad luck, because the sheaf of wheat represented Lugh. That is why our ancestors threw their sickle together at the last sheaf, so that no one knew who killed the Sun God. The last sheaf of corn was also not consumed, but it became a Corn Doll. This Corn Doll was placed in the centre of the party table. After the celebration, the doll was hung above the fireplace. Our ancestors believed that the Spirit of the Sun and Corn lived between the corn. The harvest made this Spirit of the Sun and Corn homeless. That’s why they made the Corn Doll so that the Spirit of the Sun and Corn could live in the doll during the Winter. After the winter when the fields were prepared for the sowing of new crops, the doll was plowed back into the ground so that the Spirit of the Sun and Corn did not die, but lived on forever.

This is how you can make a Corn Doll yourself:

Another custom was to burn a sheaf of corn. The ashes were scattered across the fields. This transfers the power of the grain to the next harvest. Usually the grain was mixed with the new seeds for the same purpose. Death as part of an ongoing transformation cycle rather than an end is the most recurring theme in nature religions.

Lughnasadh is a time of abundance and a surplus of food. In the time of our ancestors, bread was baked, the first fruits were collected, dancing, singing and playing. The houses were decorated with fruits, astrology was practiced, divination was practiced, and barbecues were held in the open air. Seeds of the fruits eaten during the festival were replanted. You can translate that into the present in the form of giving a party with BBQ, helping people in the form of volunteer work, helping Nature by clearing trash during an afternoon and, if you can, giving Nature energy in the form of Reiki or Healing.

Lughnasadh Divination

Just as it is a good thing to clean your house energetically with every turn of the Wheel of the Year with incense, for example, it is also a good thing to practice divination during every celebration. If, of course, divination is a thing you are used to do. Each Turn of the Wheel of the Year has its own energy and with the help of divination you can use that energy for yourself. In this way you know where you stand in the year with regard to yourself, your loved ones, your goals, your results and you also know where, for example, work can be done, where you can focus more or better and what you can let go to create space for new things. If you keep up with that, you will see a nice development and growth in yourself and you will get insights that can be very useful to you, your progress and your growth.

Below are 2 examples of readings you can do with Lughnasadh with your Tarot Cards, Oracle Cards, Runes or Ogham Sticks.

  1. Theme: the theme for the Lughnasadh season
  2. Goals: what goals are in alignment to be manifested this season
  3. Inspiration: what energies can aid your goals come into being
  4. Harvest: what you are being called to be grateful this season
  5. Lugh’s Bread: what needs to be released/sacrificed for you to prosper

~ Ethony ~

Celebrating Lughnasadh

The best way to celebrate this Festival of Harvest and Corn is to go out into Nature with family, friends and loved ones and have a great picnic. Take a large glass for wine. Fill it, pass it around and toast the Summer. Make a wish and share it if you feel the need to it. Grab wine, grab bread, grab a drum or 2 and have a fun and abundant evening together.

A beautiful way to honour the First Harvest is by creating an Altar of Food. You make an altar of food by making a drawing on the ground of food. It is fun to do and everyone can participate. In the middle you place a piece of your Lughanasadh bread (a braided, preferably homemade bread) and from the middle you expand your altar in circles of different foods, such as fruit, vegetables, bread, nuts, which you like best. Make it as colourful and varied as possible, just like Mother Earth. When you have finished the altar, the picnic starts. First you prepare a plate with all the food for Mother Earth and put it in the middle of your table or picnic plaid. You will not eat from that plate, that is your offering to Mother Earth and all her beings to feast on after you have left for the harvest that has been given.

Before you leave, you can burn some incense for the Air and Fire Spirits. Pour your last bit of wine over the food for the Water Spirits and so you have left a sacrifice for all Elements and Nature Spirits that make our Earth and our food.

If you cannot go outside, bring the outside indoors. Decorate your table or altar with Corn and Grasses. If you don’t have Corn, bake a loaf of bread and braid it to symbolize the weaving of Summer energy with birth. Also put a bowl of Raspberries or Strawberries on the table or your altar. Place golden or dark red candles and light them to represent the waning Sun.

Lughnasadh Gratitude Ritual

Bless a home baked bread and place it in the middle of the cirkle. Take an ear of corn and say the following words:

“See here, the first harvest of the grain, and the first baked bread.
It is the bread of life, it is the seed of life.
Let us be thankful for the beginning of the harvest,
And let us pray for food for all “.

Break the bread into pieces. Take the ear of corn into one hand and a piece of bread into the other and meditate about the process that one becomes the other.

When finished, eat the bread. Save a piece to crumble outdoors as a gift to Mother Earth.

Activities to celebrate Lughansadh:

Activities that are fun to do during Lughansadh:

  • Make Corn Doll
  • Give your plants extra attention
  • Harvest fruits
  • Take a nice walk in nature
  • Eat bread
  • Make a crown of ears of corn
  • Plant flower bulbs
  • Bake bread
  • Dance
  • Sing
  • Bless food
  • Letting go of bad habits or things you no longer need in your life by sacrificing them and throwing their symbols into the fire
  • Eat corn or popcorn
  • Share your harvest with others by inviting them to dinner, offering a helping hand or a listening ear
  • Have a picnic with family and friends
  • Decorate your altar with ears of corn
  • Make and bless a bouquet of Lughnasadh herbs with holy water
  • Visit a fair, farmer’s market, autumn market or craft market
  • Invite happiness and fertility into your home by sprinkling some grain or barley kernels at your front door
  • Make a decorative ornament from corn stalks or straw and hang it by the door for protection

Spiritual meaning of Lughnasadh

It is the time to gather and to keep in mind the coming Autumn and Winter. It’s time to start saving the things we need mentally and physically to help us through the dark months. The energy that started to rise from the Earth at Imbolc is now beginning to return. Now is the time to reflect on what we sowed symbolically during Spring (Ostara) and let it go. In letting go, room will be created for a new phase in which we can reap the benefits (knowledge/experience) of what we have sown. Lughnasadh is a time to reflect on abundance. Abundance in the broadest sense of the word. So everything we harvest from the land or from the greenhouses and find in the supermarkets and restaurants and our own refrigerators and pantries. But also what has been processed and we find in furniture and shops, for example, in our houses. You can also consider and celebrate your own harvest this year.

Just as Nature goes through the entire process of sowing, growing, ripening and harvesting, so it is with you too. You can also harvest successes and results through your plans and your efforts. At the beginning of this year you may have had certain wishes or goals in mind. How has the year progressed? Are you still on the right path for you? Or have you always had to adjust your goals? What are your blockages or barriers to achieving your successes and results? In short, what has been your growth process in the past year and do you still have a clear destination in mind? Take some time and focus your energy and enthusiasm on what you (still) want to achieve this year.

A nice ritual to do is the following:

Necessities:

  • a piece of paper
  • pen or pencil
  • (safe) fire

Think about what has happened to you from Ostara onwards and what has or has not changed. In a few short words, write down what is important to you on a piece of paper. Roll this paper up into a tube and meditate for a few minutes on what you have written. Then blow your intention into this tube with a deep breath and put this tube in the fire. The fire stands for transformation and helps you to confirm what you have written down.

May you all have an abundant and warm Lughnasadh!

With love,

Elke )O( The Alder Scrolls /|\ 2020 ©

Sources:

)O( SelfCoaching /|\