BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Pagan Lammas, The Summer Harvest

One of the four major Sabbats, Lammas is an ancient harvest festival whose strongest roots seem set in the old Celtic celebrations. In old Gaelic the holiday was called Lugnasadh, after the sun-god Lugh. It traditionally happens the eve of July 31st into Aug 1st. To learn more about this holiday, you can read

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art11252.asp

Just a note, that not only is this Saturday's Lammas holiday a full moon, it's a blue moon as well. "Blue moon" is the term for when you have more than one full moon within a calendar month.

Wonderful article Rae! I linked to it in my own Lammas article. Hope thats ok!

That's cool, Fiona. When I asked to become the Pagan editor, I was debating taking on the Wicca site instead, but started to realize that my own interests and spiritual practice really ranged across many cultures and concepts.

At this point, I've got articles written for all the eight major turns of the wheel, and I rotate those articles back as a feature each year when the holiday comes.

Have a great Lammas this Saturday. My schedule is so crazy right now, I'm going to just do a little personal ritual at home. With our lovely blue moon, I'm hoping to raise energy and work on my intentions for when I go to the Firedance festival in a week.

Blessed Be,
Rae

Correction on the Blue Moon thing.... It would seem that back in 1943 or so, Sky & Telescope magazine made a mistake in an article, and all of us have been using the incorrect definition ever since.

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/moon/article_127_1.asp

When a season has four full moons instead of the usual three, the third one is the Blue Moon.

Tonight's full moon is Hay Moon or Corn Moon, depending on your tradition.