Lammas, or Lughnasadh, is the pagan Sabbat on or about August 1st. It is most often celebrated as a first harvest holiday, focusing on harvest of grains. This is a “Cross-Quarter Day” midway between a Soltice and and Equinox. Lammas oil is created to be both celebratory and offeratory. I have tried to give it the smell of fresh bread and roasting grains along with the brightness of the waning sun, since this is the first holiday after High Summer, the Summer Solstice. Use this oil for any ritual or celebration for this time of year, and to honor the Celtic solar god Lugh, who rules the weather and harvest of this time of year.

Lammas is also a time of races, contests and games of physical skill. The landscape is a village harvest of the grain fields. This is a time of celebration (at least, if the harvest is successful and bountiful) and all the village is at work to get the harvest in. It is said that the contests begin with who can harvest the most grain. Then it was said that the laborers would leave the last sheaf of grain standing and the contestants would try to be the first to cut it down by throwing their harvesting sickles at it.

The fields are now clear, and there is all this open space which is available. Footraces, horse races, team sports, all have an open arena. This becomes a sort of Pagan Olympics, and celebration of the vigor and strength of young adulthood.

Beer is brewed from grain, so it is easy to imagine a brewfest of some sorts becoming part of the festivities.

Another fascinating motif for this Sabbat is a confessional and attonement ritual. The aforementioned last sheaf, or a Corn Dollies, or a Corn Man (the first loaf baked from the freshly harvested grain) represented John Barleycorn, a god or hero who represented the sacrifice that the Grain God made for the community’s survival. He will be mourned and buried (sometimes burned/cremated) but there is an opportunity before he is committed to the final resting place. You have the opportunity to whisper a confession, or some secret you want John Barleycorn to take to the grave with him. You can in this way be absolved of your guilt, and no other living being need know your crime.