Group: Administrator
Posts: 9,757
Joined: 23-Sep-2001 |
Lammas marks the end of the Summer and the beginning of Autumn. The days are starting to grow shorter and the nights longer. This holiday is one of the High Holidays or Greater Sabbats. Lammas was the medieval Christian name for Loaf Mass because it was on this day that loaves of bread were baked from the first grain harvest and placed on the church altars as offering.
Lammas is celebrated for the Celtic God Lugh (meaning light or shining). He was known to be the patron of all the arts, traveling and influence in money and commerce. Lugh was the son of Arianrhod associated with Kingship and threefold death. His wife was Blodeuwedd also known as the flower maiden.
Lammas is the first of three harvest festivals; Mabon and Samhain being the last two, which celebrate the ripening of the grains and the corns. Pagans view this theme as the celebration of the God known as the "Green man" , "Wicker Man" or the "Corn Man" and his time to sacrifice himself so that rebirth can begin in the Spring. This ritual of the gathering of crops tells of the success as well as the power raised during the Beltaine Fires when the Sacred Marriage of the Lord and Lady took place, representing sexuality and reproduction as well as a remaining good harvest.
This Sabbat is a celebration of the bread, as bread was the main staple of our ancestors and a good grain harvest was cause for rejoice. The reaping, threshing and preparation of the grains were all parts of elaborate rituals and the ceremonies were hoped to ensure bountiful harvests the following year. This time of year does find us harvesting in the fields and gathering crops that will hold us through the long winter months. While it is still warm and sunny outdoors we can see the noticeable change in the days length and realize that winter is not far away.
Lammas, traditionally, is a merry time, a time of Fairs, Handfastings, and Feasts is expressed in the following poem by Robert Burns.
It was on a Lammas night,
When corn rigs are bonie,
Beneath the moon's unclouded light,
I held away to Annie:
The time flew by, wi tentless heed,
Till 'tween the late and early;
Wi' sma' persuasion she agreed
To see me thro' the barley.
The sky was blue, the wind was still,
The moon was shining clearly;
I set her down, wi' right good will,
Amang the rigs o'barley
I ken't her heart was a' my ain;
I lov'd her most sincerely;
I kissed her owre and owre again,
Among the rig o' barley.
I locked her in my fond embrace;
Her heart was beating rarely:
My blessings on that happy place,
Amang the rigs o'barley.
But by the moon and stars so bright,
That shone that hour so clearly!
She ay shall bless that happy night,
Amang the rigs o'barley.
I hae been blythe wi' Comrades dear;
I hae been merry drinking;
I hae been joyfu' gath'rin gear;
I hae been happy thinking:
But a' the pleasures e'er I saw,
Tho three times doubl'd fairley
That happy night was worth then a'.
Among the rig's o' barley.
CHORUS
Corn rigs, an' barley rigs,
An' corn rigs are bonie:
I'll ne'er forget that happy night,
Among the rigs wi' Annie.
|
