Lammas Day (loaf-mass day), is the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it is referred to regularly, it is called "the feast of first fruits". Lammas is a neopagan holiday, being cross-quarter holiday between the Summer Solstice (Litha) and Fall Equinox (Mabon)

At Lammas, the Sun God or the Father, as he is now, must give way to his Son. We have followed the cycle of fertility and birth throughout the year and, just as the apples on the trees have ripened and the corn in the fields grown golden and heavy, the young God has grown, with his mother's protection and his father's guidance, almost to adulthood. And, as the sun wanes, the new, youthful God must take his place. For Pagans this festival sees the Sun God, often in the form of John Barleycorn or the Wicker Man, making a sacrifice for the sake of the harvest and to make way for the next generation.

The Goddess stands in wait as her children celebrate his passing and enjoy the fruits of their labours. Great feasts were common in August and the figure of the Goddess would be venerated after sundown to acknowledge her coming and her growing influence. Perhaps this was more evident in the past, since, after building, toiling in fields and working the land, the man's work would have been more or less done for a time and the work of tending the family, preparing food for winter and caring for vulnerable children in the freezing months would me down to the mother. We must not underestimate her work in these deadly, dark months. Before central heating and fridge freezers, the survival of a family would be a very real and daily struggle while men searched for food and wood to burn.

Perhaps this festival also marks the eternal quality of the Goddess as seen in Paganism. We regard the female as being a permanent state and generally static. Mother Nature is cyclic and, although there are changes within that cycle, the essence of Nature remains immutable. It is the God who seems to constantly change, never permanent, never sated and often imperfect. In this part of the great turn of the year, we see how that relationship is illustrated and is necessary. The Goddess standing by and witnessing her consort falling to Earth but encouraging her son to take his place and take things one more step further.

Many cultures celebrate this important time of the year so whatever you do this Lammastide enjoy it!

Happy Lammas!