Lughnasadh, Lammas, does it matter?

As this is my first year back as a practicing witch in many years, I wanted to re-learn the Pagan origins and celebrations of Lammas aka Lughnasadh. I keep seeing both names, but ignorant as to why some call it Lammas and some call it Lughnasadh. I was surprised to discover these two names were not always the same festival, however, got combined in the Wiccan community. This doesn’t surprise me given that old European pagan practices were mostly lost to time, due to the absence of written language, records, and the destruction of cultural heritage by the Roman Empire. Therefore, it makes sense that the bits and pieces we’ve been able to scrape together would come from different roots, but were similar enough to merge into one for modern day pagan celebrations.

But does it matter?

Well, I think that is up to you! It matters to me and here’s why: Lughnasadh has its roots in pre-Christian tradition and was a lively, game-filled festival, while Lammas, though possibly inspired by earlier pagan harvest rites, became a more somber Christian church feast focused on religious observance. One of the reasons I came back to my practice is because I wanted to stop observing Christian holidays (for now, maybe I’ll change my mind later!). Also, as I will describe below, it seems the Christians may have adopted elements of these fun pagan harvest festivals and turned it into a duller version. So knowing that, I don’t want to give my power to Lammas. Ultimately, it may be impossible to reconstruct our ancient past completely, given the complexities of history and the influences that have reshaped our traditions over time. But we can do our best.

 

Lughnasadh

Origins

Lughnasadh (pronounced LOO-nuh-sah, also called Lughnasa or Lúnasa) is an ancient Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the harvest season around August 1. Its name comes from the god Lugh and násad meaning “assembly” or “gathering” or possibly nás “death.” It was one of the four great Celtic fire festivals with Samhain, Imbolc, and Beltane which marked seasonal transitions. According to Irish myth, the hero-god Lugh founded this festival as a funeral feast and athletic competition to honor his foster-mother Tailtiu, an earth goddess who died of exhaustion after clearing Ireland’s plains for agriculture. The gathering was held at Áenach Tailteann (Teltown in Co. Meath), and for centuries Lughnasadh was essentially an annual fair and sacred games in her memory as late as 1168 AD.

Early literature and folklore describe great assemblies featuring feasting, music, dancing, trading, horse races, athletic contests, and contests of skill. Activities included chariot racing, hurling, wrestling, spear-throwing and other sports. It was also a favored time for masss-matchmaking and trial marriages, or handfastings, that would last a year and a day then could either continue or be ended without consequence. Communities used Lughnasadh to renew social bonds and ensure cooperation for the intense harvest work ahead.

Folk Customs

Although detailed druidic rites weren’t written down, later folklore hints at spiritual practices of Lughnasadh. According to folklorist Máire MacNeill’s study The Festival of Lughnasa, evidence suggests the ancient rites included an offering of the “First Fruits” harvested a feast of the new food, the sacrifice of a sacred bull, and even a ritual “dance-play”. Bonfires were kindled on hilltops, and young men would leap through the flames. In some legends, Lugh himself had to battle forces of blight or darkness to secure the harvest, later folk tales cast this as Lugh (or St. Patrick) defeating the malevolent Crom Dubh, who hoarded the grain wealth. Thus, Lughnasadh had a mythic theme of struggle and renewal, with Lugh ensuring the crops would sustain the people.

Lughnasadh traditions survived, often in Christianized forms, well into the 19th and 20th centuries. In Ireland, the first Sunday in August was often called “Bilberry Sunday,” when people hiked up local hills to pick the first bilberries (wild blueberries) as a festive outing. Many places held “Garland Sunday” parades or fairs on this weekend, where the first harvest fruits and flowers were celebrated. The Reek Sunday pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday of July is believed to be a Christianized Lughnasa custom (St. Patrick taking Lugh’s role atop the sacred mountain). Even today, Ireland’s Puck Fair each August, where a wild goat is crowned king for three days, is thought to descend from Lughnasadh celebrations. In Gaelic Scotland, the festival, Lùnastal, involved climbing hills and visiting holy wells, with offerings of flowers or first fruits left for local spirits and faeries. One Scottish custom was baking the “Bannock,” a special round oatcake made on the first day of the quarter and ritually breaking it into pieces. In the Scottish Highlands, families would go to the fields and eat these quartered cakes; as they did, they cast bits over their shoulders as offerings to the wild creatures, saying “Here to thee, wolf, spare my sheep; there to thee, fox, spare my lambs…” and so on. This practice embodied the pagan spirit of sharing the first fruits with nature. Such folklore shows how deeply the “first harvest” festivities ran through many communities. It was a time to enjoy the initial yield of crops, but also to be grateful and secure blessings for the remainder of the harvest season.

Spiritual Meaning

At its heart, Lughnasadh signified that the carefree summer was ending and now the grain must be cut and stored to ensure survival in winter. There was gratitude, but also gravity. The alternate old Irish name for Lughnasadh was “Brón Trogain,” meaning “the sorrow of the earth,” suggesting that the earth goddess feels sorrow or labor pains as the crops are taken from her womb. In myth Lugh’s foster-mother Tailtiu “dies” to give life to the people’s fields. So, the festival balanced joy and sorrow: joy for the bounty combined with respect for the earth’s sacrifice. Lughnasadh’s agricultural rituals likely helped people spiritually cope with this annual turning point, giving thanks for the food received, and ritually “sacrificing” a portion back to the land or deity to ensure future fertility. In sum, Lughnasadh was a vibrant pagan festival of community, competition, and communion with the land, one that persisted in folk memory even as Christianity reshaped Europe’s cultural landscape.

Lammas

Anglo-Saxon and Medieval England

Origins

“Lammas” comes from Old English “hlafmaesse,” meaning “Loaf-Mass” for the church service, Mass, and the loaf of bread which was used for communion in the medieval church. In Anglo-Saxon England, Lammas was celebrated August 1st, which was described in Old English writings as “the feast of first fruits”, yrfe-mæssan in some sources. Essentially, it was the Christianized first harvest celebration, when people brought the first baked loaf from the new wheat crop to the church to be blessed. It was also one of the “Quarter Days” which were four days of the year on the medieval calendar when legal, financial, and agricultural obligations were due. Tenants had to pay rent and taxes with either money, grain, or the harvest produce. (Leave it to the Christians to ruin a good time). This concept of land ownership and paying rent did not exist in the pagan- Celtic culture but was brought by Roman and Norman feudal systems.

This Christian holy day likely originated by the early medieval period, it’s mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other 10th-century texts. Lammas was primarily observed in England and English-influenced regions; it doesn’t appear as a major festival in continental Europe, which is one reason Folklorist Máire MacNeill suspects it may have assimilated the native Celtic festival, Lughnasadh. However, historian Ronald Hutton claims we will never know without the Anglo-Saxon religious calendar from before they arrived in Britain, which is impossible.

Another medieval name for August 1 was the “Gule of August,” which 18th-century antiquaries suggested was an anglicization of Welsh Gwyl Awst, meaning “Feast of August”, implying the English Lammas absorbed elements of a Brittonic harvest feast. Whether or not Lammas has direct pagan roots, it became a fixture of the Christian agricultural calendar in Britain. It conveniently coincided with St. Peter’s Day on August 1, and later with the Feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori when the Church reassigned feast days after 1969, but its key characteristic was always the blessing of the first grain.

Medieval Lammas Practices

On Lammas Day, it was customary for farmers to bake a loaf from the freshly harvested grain, often wheat or rye, and bring it to church for a special blessing at mass. This blessed bread symbolized thanking God for the start of the harvest. In some accounts, after the service the loaf might be broken into four pieces and placed at the four corners of the barn to protect the gathered grain, seemingly a fusion of Christian ritual and folk magic. An 11th-century Anglo-Saxon book of charms contains instructions that on Lammas Day one should take “the hallowed bread… blessed on Lammas Day” and crumble it in the barn’s corners “so that mice do not harm the sheaves”. This shows how people used superstition or ritual as protection against pests. Lammas also unofficially marked the time when the community’s food supplies would turn the corner from old to new. As one historian notes, by late July the previous year’s grain stores were often running low, so the new harvest “began a season of plenty”, with everyone relieved to have fresh bread again. It was a time of hard work, but also a time of “company in the fields, reaping in teams”. Lammas was more centered on formal church services rather the festive games and activities celebrated for Lughnasadh. However, there are some quaint customs that at the very end of the harvest, which usually concluded Lammas, such as English villagers would turn a sheep loose in the meadow and whoever caught it got to keep it.

Folklore and Legacy

Lammas continued as an acknowledged day through medieval and early modern times in Britain. Many towns held “Lammas fairs” or markets around early August.  Lammas has even been mentioned in literature such as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: “Come Lammas Eve at night shall she (Juliet) be fourteen,” stating Juliet’s birthday on Lammas Eve, July 31, which shows Lammas was a calendar marker to Elizabethan audiences. By the 19th and 20th centuries, explicit Lammas church services had waned in many areas, but the term and its legacy persisted, especially revived by folklorists and, later, neopagans.

Overtime

Over time, these two traditions began to blur. In Christianized Ireland and Scotland Lughnasadh fairs were often renamed or aligned with Lammas. Medieval Irish texts casually used the term “Lammas” to refer to August 1st. Some areas didn’t allow harvesting before Lammas, not because of Lugh, but to show gratitude to God, indicating that Lammas had influenced Gaelic harvest customs.

Today, modern Pagan and Wiccan communities often use Lammas and Lughnasadh interchangeably in the Wheel of the Year. In the 20th century, Wiccan founder Gerald Gardner and other early Neopagans adopted the “Wheel of the Year”, which combined four Celtic fire festivals Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh with the solstices and equinoxes. Initially, the August festival was often called “Lammas” in Wiccan texts, due to its English familiarity, but later generations, seeking deeper historical roots, increasingly embraced the name “Lughnasadh” to reconnect with pre-Christian origins. As a result, Lammas and Lughnasadh became widely interchangeable in Wiccan and Pagan circles.

Overall, I don’t think  being politically correct about the name is that important because the meaning of the holiday in modern paganism is the same. However, I strive to be intentional with my practice and that is why this matters to me personally.

Go raibh an fómhar torrach is beannaithe
May the harvest be fertile and blessed

 

 

Sources:

• Boston Public Library – “Origins and Practices of Lammas/Lughnasad” bpl.org 
• Wikipedia – “Lughnasadh” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lughnasadh
• Wikipedia – “Lammas” (Anglo-Saxon Loaf-Mass history) en.wikipedia.org
• Irish Times – “The story of Lá Lughnasa (harvest festival)” irishtimes.com
• “A Clerk of Oxford” blog – “A little History of Lammas”, Anglo-Saxon Lammas traditions (Old English poem and bread charm) aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com
• Carmina Gadelica (Scottish highlands folklore) – Lammas bannock offerings sacred-texts.com
• John Beckett (Patheos) – “Lammas Night” patheos.com
• The Allergic Pagan blog – “Lughna-say-what? What to call this Pagan Holiday”  allergicpagan.com