Lammas is Coming !

Despite countless holidays, real or invented, being converted to shopping opportunities, and agriculture being forced out of New Jersey by the building of unattractive “townhouses” (lacking a town in which to dwell), there are still a few free range celebrations, fine excuses for a summer gathering of friends. Throw in an interest in Alice Waters and the slow food movement, and you have the perfect combination to honor the first harvest festivals, Pagan or not.
Lammas(loaf mass), or the Gaelic Lughnasdh (commemoration of Lugh), celebrates the first, or earliest permissible harvests being brought in from the fields, and falls on July 31/ August 1, or when the Sun enters 15 degrees of Leo (August 5 this year), or the first full Moon of August (also the 5th this year, but this date is variable). A complex of symbols surround this period. Lugh is one of the Celtic solar deities, who may be considered as alive in the grain, and sacrificed by it’s harvest and processing, as in the traditional song “John Barleycorn is Dead” (you may be familiar with the classic recording by Traffic), but the grain crop itself is embodied in the corn dolly, a figure braided from the first sheaf of grain cut from the field. (similar in Mesoamerica corn god)
In Ireland, this was also the time for “tailltean”, handfasted trial marriages between couples which span a year and a day. For devotees of Lugh, it was a time to engage in competitive races and other feats of skill and strength, feasting, and ending the day with a bonfire. So, the elements of a successful Lammas celebration bear a more than slight resemblance to prize day at summer camp.
This brief sketch provides more than ample decorating tips. Your color theme is yellow and green (just like my High School’s colors), and fresh produce, fresh greenery; think of Thanksgiving, without all the color washed out. While wheat is grown in New Jersey, fresh corn and all its variations will be far easier to find. Try to prepare a series of dishes made with locally grown produce; this is your chance to put together a vegan, or at least a meatless meal, to recuperate from all the backyard barbecues.
Just like summer camp, someone should be events director, to sign up participants for competitions; foot races, swimming trials, that sort of thing. The winners should be crowned with green wreaths of corn leaves, or wheat. Don’t forget to exhaust the children present with their own competitions. Considering the tragic demise of John Barleycorn, wacking a piñata would be a perfect complement to the events of the day.
As this celebration is so concerned with grain crops, you should provide plenty of bread (and beer). The bread can be shaped into the form of Lugh (think of a giant holding a club), and is either passed along to each person to consume a piece, or torn and tossed into the fire, along with the memory of uncompleted tasks.
Yes, if you can manage it in your circumstances, a bonfire is key. Do all the usual bonfire things around it. Toss in sandalwood, mastic, or pine resin. Give guests slips of paper to write out regrets, or hopes for prosperity, which they can add to the blaze. Use the opportunity to take a relationship to the next stage (yes, I think we’re moving in together). You could close the evening out with a cantrip from Scotland, recited on this day: “Corn and bread, food & flocks, wool & cloth, health and strength, peace & plenty”.