Twenty Ways to Celebrate Lammas Lughnasadh on the Wheel of the Year

20 Ways to Celebrate Lammas Lughnasadh

Make Jams, Sauces or Wines from the local fruits that are available in your area at this time on the wheel of the year.

Make a corn dolly or grain mother.

Build a Lammas fire if you are able to in a safe place and invite friends and family around to enjoy spending time together around it’s warmth. Think about the waning sun as you watch the flames dance.

Let go of any bad habits and unwanted things from your life by writing them down and throwing the paper into the Lammas fire.

Visit a local Craft Faire or simply have an afternoon of crafting, by yourself or with friends just as medieval craftspeople celebrated the festival of Lammas.

Go to a Wine Tasting or host your own, remembering to thank our wonderful Mother Earth for providing us with the fruits to make the wine with.

Lammas is a perfect time to finish off projects began in the summer, particularly outdoor projects, for example clearing the weeds in your garden.

Hold your own “Tailltean Games” (the Irish contests in honor of Lugh or His foster-mother Tailte), by competing in athletic games, poetry reading, and any other contest that would be fun. This would be a fabulous family event or a wonderful way to get friends together at the time of Lammas.

Learn a little about some of the Gods and Goddesses that are honored this time of year and how you can emulate their strengths.

Make a Lammas loaf. You can shape it into any shape that you feel is significant to you for this time of year. You may like to try a Goddess shape or a wheat sheaf for example.  You could decorate it with red or orange ribbon when it is cooked.  When you have made your Lammas loaf invite friends or family round to share your creation.

Go for a long country walk and see what crops are growing and what fruits are ripening. In this day and age when food is mass produced and imported it is easy to loose touch of the seasonality of our food. If you are able to then go and visit a local farmer’s market where there will be locally produced crops.

Play a game such as rhibo (a Welsh game) which is traditionally played at Lammas. Three pairs of people face each other and hold hands. A person is then laid across the hands and tossed into the air much like how grain is winnowed

Make a bean necklace to celebrate the harvest.

Make a Lughnasadh candle. Or find a red or orange candle and light it every day for a week beginning on 31^st July. As you light it think of any negativity that you wish to release into the flame.

Gather meadowsweet, this herb is good for inner strength. It is also a mild sedative and pain killer. Traditionally garlands of meadowsweet were worn at Lammas celebrations.

The tree sacred to Lammas is the Hazel, ninth tree of the Celtic Ogham and linked to inner wisdom. Hazel will help you develop your intuition and assist in making your dreams become reality. Lammas is a perfect time to make a Hazel wand; choose the branch you are drawn to, remembering to ask the tree to give freely of it’s branch to you and thanking it for it’s generous gift. You can choose to leave the bark on or sand it down when the branch has dried out.

Bake fruit pies or crumbles from the fruit that is in season where you are locally. If you are able to then bake a few extra to distribute to friends and neighbours. Perhaps you know someone who is not able to bake themselves who would really appreciate such a wonderful Lammas/Lughnassad pie treat!

Use dried grasses, corn, flowers that are in bloom to make beautiful displays in your house.

Find your own local Lammas hill to climb and see what you can see from the  top of it.

Go for a picnic with some of the wonderful food that you have made and enjoy spending time in nature with the last few weeks of summer.