goldenastrea:

wheel of the year | Lammas/Lughnasadh

(August 1)

“
Harvest Mother
the reaper
feeds us
as the sacred land
lends itself
to nourish us with love
Blessing the harvest
from the depth of the earth
the fruits of the season
apples, plums and peaches
arrive to sustain
our body, mind and spirit
we give thanks
from the depth
of our hearts.”

Lammas and the Harvest by Maria Duncalf-Barber

Lughnasadh is the first in the trilogy of harvest festivals. It marks
the beginning of the harvest season, and the decline of Summer into
Winter.

Lughnasadh, also called Lammas, is the Celebration of Harvest and begins
what is called “the chase of Lugh”. Lugh is the Celtic Sun God and he
rains down upon the crops, living within the golden fields.
In the mythological story of the Wheel of the Year, the Sun God
transfers his power into the grain, and is sacrificed when the grain is
harvested. So we have a dying, self-sacrificing and resurrecting god of
the harvest, who dies for his people so that they may live. So at this celebration we give thanks to the
Earth for its bounty and beauty. It is from these harvests that we eat
through the upcoming winter.

Also Lammas is a festival celebrating the first fruits of harvest, the fruits
of our labours, and seeing the desires that we had at the start of the
year unfold so rituals will be centred around this.

Colours associated with lammas are golds, yellows and orange for the God and red for the Goddess as mother.