The Sabbat of Lammas

Lammas aka Lughnasadh

August 1st The First Harvest
Greater Sabbat

God and Goddess:
This is a time when the God loses his strength as the Sun rises farther south each day and the nights grow longer. The Goddess watches in sorrow and joy as she realizes the the God is dying yet lives on inside her as her child.

General:
As a holiday, Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-na-sa) represents the time of honoring the summer and sun, giving thankfulness for the start of the harvest season and the bounty to be provided. These are the themes of preparation, getting ready for the waning year and end of life. It is also a time to honor Elders. At this time, honoring the knowledge you have gained during the year is acknowledge. But honoring the wisdom given to you or received from your Elder is paramount.
Like the Midsummer festival, many Celts also use this time to honor the nature Faeries. Giving them thanks for watching over their crops and livestock during the summer season. During the Midsummer Festival pagans would ask the Faeries to come and bring their blessings for wishes of love, abundance or fertility. Here during Lughnasadh, thanks are given to those wishes that were granted by the Faeries.

In History: 
A festival of games and dance, Lughnasadh honors the Celtic hero Lugh also known as the Sun God. . This is his festival day, and the first of the harvest festivals. Without Lugh (the Sun) shining on the fields, there would be no harvest and no food for one's family or community during the winter months. So Lugh is a very important deity to the Celts.
Lugh was born of Ethniu, the daughter of the one-eyed King of Giants - Balor. His father was the Dagda, the 'Lord of Perfect Knowledge'. Lugh was schooled in the arts, crafts, magikal ways (he was born with magikal gifts, which reportedly come from the 'Land of the Living' to Tuatha). He is most often seen wearing red as his representation as the Sun or Fire God.
In legend, a prophecy was cast that the King Balor would be slain by a grandson. During a battle, Lugh used his slingshot to knock out the eye of Balor. The eye and the stone went through the skull of the Giant king and killed 3 times 9 of Balor's men who were standing behind him.
The word Lughnasadh roughly relates to 'to give in marriage' and was once associated with marriage contracts. In this context, a marriage contract was entered into, and in 9 months at the next Bealtaine the couple faces the birth of summer and life. If the couple was fertile and a child was born, the contract of marriage was celebrated as a permanent union. If not, the couple ended their marriage contract and went on their own ways.
According to the Immrama, this festival celebrates Lugh's marriage to the "Sovereignty of Ireland", the Goddess Eriu. Eriu, a hag, is transformed into a beautiful Goddess by the marriage and personifies the land of Ireland in her every feature and character.
Some Celtic traditions view Lughnasadh as the moment when the Sacred King dies as a sacrifice to ensure the fertility of the next year's crops. In old pagan practices, the blood of a Rooster would be scattered on the fields to promote the fertility of the land.

Traditions:
Lammas is not obvious until you see the two words: loaf mass. Given that this festival marks the start of the wheat harvest, then the beauty and logic of the Saxon word Lammas (Hlaf maesse or Leff messe) falls into place.
At the heart of the Lammas celebration was a religious service using bread made from the harvest's first flour. What obscures many of these ancient carnivals is the way the earliest Christian evangelists incorporated pagan festivals into Christian celebrations; 'All Saints' an Halloween is another good example of Christianization of ancient festivals.
In Celtic mythology the Lammas ritual was based on a funeral feast where the Sun God Lugh (hence Lughnasadh), commemorated his foster-mother, Tailtiu, who died of exhaustion after preparing tirelessly for the harvest. Thus the festival revolves around bread made from the first wheat grains of this year's harvest. Incidentally, the fruits of August would have been conceived by the gods at Beltane in May.
If you study other ancient European religions, especially those of the Celts, then you will find parallel names, traditions and folk tales around 1st of August, for example, Lughnasadh (Irish), L�nasdal (Scottish) and Calan Awst (Welsh). There also is a modern take on the festival of Lammas with the play, 'Dancing at Lughnasa'.

In some tradtions, Lughnasadh and Lammas are two different festivals, and do not view the words Lughnasadh and Lammas as being interchangable.  Celtic (Irish, Scottish and Welsh) Traditions celebrate Lughnasadh a day to honour the Celtic god Lugh.  While, English traditions will be more apt to celebrate Lammas or loaf -mass as a day to celebrate the harvest.  What every your tradition may call this day, it is a day of celebration with food, friends and fire.

Making a Traditional Corn Dolly for harvest:
http://auntieannesextremelyusefulstuff.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-make-corn-dolly.html

Modern and much easier Corn Dolly or corn husk doll:
http://into-the-dawn.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-make-corn-husk-doll.html

Celebration:
There are many ways to give honor during this 1st harvest festival. This is a Celtic festival of thanksgiving, so what a better way to give thanks than to prepare a meal with the harvest of your garden. Those that indulge in wine can brew a new batch of this homemade nectar of the Gods. Those that do not indulge can brew preserves and jellies from grapes, raspberries and blackberries. Don't forget an apple pie for dessert.
A main course can consist of meats, most often red meats. But this is just a suggestion. In this day and age of healthy eating, you should prepare a meal that fits your personal lifestyle. However, your side dishes should consist of late summer and early fall vegetables.
Invite your Elders to your feast and share in their wisdom. Honor them and what they have given you during the year. Be it presents, gifts or knowledge, they have probably given of themselves to the betterment of you.
After your meal, share the chore of cleaning up. This is a way of showing honor and respect to your host and hostess. Think of it as a physical action to show that you understand the interconnection of all life and the desire to respect what you have been given and thanks for receiving those gifts.

Ritual Ideas:
Very simple Lammas ritual by Mrs. B. For those with not much time! This is the one I like to use since life with kids doesn’t leave much time for me sometimes. 
Supplies you’ll need:
Bread (Home baked, store bought, heck, a cookie will do in a pinch)
Wine (or beer, mead, fruit juice – you know you have a juice box in there somewhere!)
A candle (A summer color is appropriate: gold or yellow, though white always works. Also appropriate? Anything that smells like baked goods – cinnamon, sugar cookie, etc..)
Optional: anything season that you’d like to set out, such as summer flowers, things harvested from your garden, a corn dolly, etc.), an appropriate incense.
Find a quiet place to sit for a moment, or gather around your table if sharing the ritual with others. Have your bread; wine and candle in front of you (don’t forget something to light the candle with). Take a quick moment to think about what Lammas means to you, and what it has meant to those who have followed the season through times past. It’s the first harvest, time to offer bread in thanks for the prosperity of the crops. 
Light your candle (and incense if you are using it). Take a bite of the bread and a sip of the wine.
Say these words (or others, as you like):
On this first day of August, I light a candle to celebrate the harvest.
As the wheel of the year turns and the days start to grow shorter, I honor the Lord and Lady (or the seasons, or your specific deity) and thank them for the blessings and prosperity they have brought to me this year.
I honor those who came before me, and all things living on this earth.
Eat more of the bread; drink more of the wine, being sure to save the last bits as a sacrifice to the earth. Later pour them outside, in your garden, under a tree or into a potted plant.
If you have the time, sit for a few minutes and meditate before snuffing the candle. As you go about your day, keep negative thoughts at bay and try to mentally tally all the wonderful things that have come into your life this year.

Lughnasadh Correspondences

Element:

Fire

Threshold:

Noon

Herbs: 

Grain, acacia, heather, ginseng, sloe, cornstalks, cyclamen, fenugreek, aloes, frankincense, sunflower, hollyhock, oak leaf, wheat, myrtle.

Gemstones:

Aventurine, citrine, peridot, sardonyx, yellow diamonds. 

Incense/Oil:

Wood aloes, rose, rose hips, rosemary, chamomile, eucalyptus, sunflower, corn passion flower, frankincense, sandalwood.

Colors/Candles:

Red, orange, golden yellow, green, light brown, gold, bronze, gray

Animals/Mythical:

Griffins, basilisks, roosters, calves, centaurs, phoenix

Tools/Symbols/Decorations:

Corn, cornucopias, red, yellow flowers, sheaves of grain, first fruits and veg of garden, corn dollies, baskets of bread, cauldron, sickle, scythe, threshing tools, harvested herbs, bonfires, phallic symbols.

Goddesses:

Dana, Tailltiu, Demeter, Ceres, Seelu, Isis, Luna.

Gods:

Lugh, Lleu, Dagon, Dionysus, Taranis, Tina.

Essence:

Fruitfulness, reaping, prosperity, reverence, purification, transformation, change, the bread of life, the chalice of plenty, the ever-flowing cup, the table of plenty.

Dynamics/Meaning:

Lugh’s wedding to mother earth, birth of Lugh; death of Lugh, Celtic grain festival

Purpose:

Honoring the parent deities, first harvest festival, first fruits grains and drink to the goddess in appreciation of her bounty, offering loaves of the sacred bread in the form of the god (this is where the gingerbread man originated).

Rituals/Magicks:

Astrology, prosperity, generosity, continued success, good fortune, abundance, magickal picnic, meditate and visualize yourself completing a project you ‘ve started.

Customs:

Games, traditional riding of poles/staves, country fairs, baking bread, making corn dollies, harvesting herbs for charms/rituals, Lughnasadh fire with sacred wood and dried herbs, feasting, competitions, spear tossing, fencing swordplay, games of skill, martial sports, chariot races, dancing around a corn mother doll.

Foods:

Loaves of homemade wheat, oat, corn bread, barley cakes, corn , potatoes, summer squash, nuts, acorns, wild berries, apples, rice, pears, berry pies, wine, crab apples, mead, crab, blackberries, grapes, cider, beer.

Not my video, but I like it.