Some thoughts about Lammas

I like to try to post about different holidays on the Wheel of the Year and how they speak to me, how I am moved by them.  Some of them are "easy" for me; they're really obvious, instinctive; it's like I've always known them in my soul, as if they've spoken to me from birth.  Some of them have spoken to me from birth -- Beltane, Samhain, Winter Solstice / Yule.  Others are more subtle, and it has taken time, as I've grown into my relationship with the rhythm of the seasons, for me to grow into my relationship with them; but I still love them.  Other holidays or way-points on the Wheel of the Year just plain challenge me, perhaps as what's happening in nature at that time of year just plain challenges me. 

Lammas is interesting for me for a bunch of reasons.  It's my former Coven's, and now my Tradition's, anniversary.  It's the time when the days start getting darker, faster, but when there's also an end in sight to July's heat waves here in the Mid-Atlantic.  Wherever I've lived, I've loved discovering what's in season locally at Lammas.  (One week after Lammas 2008, I moved to Seattle and ate Rainier cherries for the first time.  Wow.) 

This year for Lammas, I thought I'd share some of what Roses, Too! Coven has written over the years in our newsletter and celebration invitations.

About Lammas: 

• The cross-quarter days (Lammas, Samhain, Brigid, Beltane) mark turning points in the year when the days get shorter or longer more quickly or more slowly. Since Litha, or Summer Solstice, the long days of summer have slowly been getting shorter. When Lammas comes at the beginning of August, the days start getting shorter more quickly. This may be a sad thing for those who love summer, but a relief for those waiting for the end of sticky heat!  

• Lammas is a time of harvesting, of evaluating what we have harvested and what we hope to harvest.  The days start growing shorter, faster, as we feel the turn of the year’s wheel towards Fall.  

• Summer Solstice was the longest day of the year -- the day with the most hours of daylight in a 24-hour period.  From Summer Solstice on, the days begin to get shorter, but at first the change is gradual.  At Lammas, the change comes more quickly and is more dramatic, and we can notice more easily how the balance of light and dark changes.  

• Lammas is the first of three harvest Sabbats we celebrate.  This time of year marks the beginning of the harvest, of storing against the winter.  Gardens are going crazy, and we rejoice in the abundance around us.  It's still easy to see the Goddess as life-giving Mother.  But the harvest is still uncertain.  Severe weather, storms or drought, can still destroy crops.  And when we successfully bring in the harvest, we also see the face of the Goddess as Reaper -- She Who Cuts the Grain.  In Harvest is the death that allows life to continue: seeds for next year's crops, food for the winter.  Some traditions celebrate Lammas/Lughnasadh as the wake of the Sun God Lugh, whose sacrifice at Summer Solstice is the death that allows the cycle of both animal and plant life to continue. 

Ritual: Cornbread!

In circle at Lammas, we break cornbread together, sharing the joys and sorrows of what we have reaped in the past year and our hopes for the harvests to come.  We ask ourselves, "What have I harvested so far this year?  What do I hope to harvest?"

Potluck theme: Local Food

Lammas is the “loaf-mass,” the ancient Celtic celebration of the harvest of grain. We live in a world full of global networks that ship produce to us from all over the world. In the USA we have access to a stunning diversity of fruits out of season.

This Lammas we encourage everyone to look for foods that are locally grown, to reconnect with the seasons of the places where we live. What is being harvested near here right now? What will you harvest?

(And don’t forget the protein!)

So, dear reader, my query to you is: 

What does Lammas mean to you?  

• What is happening in nature around you?  

• What have you harvested so far this year in your life, literally and metaphorically?  What do you hope to harvest yet?  

• What foods are local to where you live?  What grows near you?  If you live in the city, what are urban gardeners growing? 

Darkness and light, day and night, geek heaven

We arrived in Seattle not long after Lammas, and Fall Equinox is now fast approaching. We've been noticing how dramatic the change has been in the number of hours of daylight, and in when the sun rises and sets. So when it seemed awfully dark this morning, I decided to see what the objective data say over at the US Naval Observatory about what time the sun is rising and setting.

And I discovered a couple of neat things! (Such geekdom...)

First was the "Duration of Daylight/Darkness Table for One Year," which lets you request a table for an entire year for any location with the number of hours of daylight (or darkness) on each day. This is on the Data Services page, which has all kinds of cool things -- complete sun and moon data for one day, info on the rise and set of major solar system objects and bright stars, what fraction of the moon is illuminated, positions of celestial bodies, dates of solstices and equinoxes...

I also discovered the Astronomical Information Center, with all sorts of FAQs about the sun, the moon, how time is computed, etc.

One really neat tidbit: have you ever checked how long it was light, and how long it was dark, at Spring or Fall Equinox, and noticed they're not actually equal where you are? Their "Length of Day and Night at Equinoxes" page explains the relationship between this and how far one is from the equator, etc., and whether day or night is slightly longer at the Equinox, depending on where you are.

I realize this is getting too geeky for some, but it all rather delighted me. :)

Have fun!

Lammas

Today is August 1st -- Lammas, or Lughnasa/Lughnasadh in many traditions.

For me, Lammas has for many years been the First Harvest, the first of three harvest holidays or harvest "spokes" on the Wheel of the Year, and the Day of the Reaper.

In the Mid-Atlantic, where I've lived most of my life, it's easy to see Lammas this way -- both as the harvest of the first fruits, and also as the day of the reaper. August is hot and the weather is chancy. Many of the first things that come to ripeness are abundant: corn, peppers, tomatoes, basil, blackberries, blueberries, cucumbers, string beans. (I'm thinking of farm stands by the side of the road in South Jersey.) Now I'm in the Mid-West, and at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, we've also been seeing gooseberries, which are legal here now, cherries, even peaches, and -- amazingly -- some early apples.

But there is so much that is not quite ready yet, a harvest that could easily be lost by too much or too little rain, pests, tornadoes, flood, drought...

I'm remembering Lammases in Roses, Too! Coven, when we would tear bites off Sun-round cornbread, so it would get smaller in the same way the Sun does, while we asked ourselves and each other about this harvest and our hopes for the next harvests. I'm remembering a potluck -- before we learned to make sure we "seeded" potlucks with protein and chocolate -- where all folks brought were fresh fruits and vegetables. (They were luscious, but...)

I'm remembering a Lammas potluck in 1993, thrown by the women who lived in a house called Iniquity (not to be confused with the house called Sin), where what was to become Roses, Too! first came into being.

I ask you:

• What's happening around you in nature?
• What have you harvested so far this year?
• What do you hope to harvest yet this year?

May you have a blessed Lammas. (And if you're from a tradition that does this, enjoy tearing apart your bread man!)

Lammas Solar Eclipse

According to NASA,

On August 1, a total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Canada, northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and China. The eclipse will sweep across Earth in a narrow path that begins in Canada’s northern province of Nunavut and ends in northern China’s Silk Road region at sunset.

Details are available from NASA; click here.

There's also a partial lunar eclipse coming up on August 16th.

Enjoy!

Happy Lammas!