General Preparations Quotations Bibliography Links Prayers Poems
July 1, 2007
General Preparations
For First Harvest
Celebration (Lughnasadh, Early August Feast, August 1st, Lammas)
1. Collect corn husks, dry and store in shade. "Corn" was a generic term for grain/cereal crops (i.e., wheat, barley, oats) and New World corn was added after 1520. Our winter wheat is harvested in May and June where I live. We can collect wild wheat stalks and seeds, tie, and hang in shade. We can pick fruit (apricots, figs and plums) and dry.
2. Tend your garden daily. Water your garden each day. Weed your vegetable garden. Harvest squash, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables from your garden each day. Review list of chores for July, and act accordingly. To hot to plant in Red Bluff, but check on potted plants (i.e., fertilize, weed, larger pots, etc.) getting reading for late autumn planting.
3. Read about the First Harvest Celebration. Add notes and links to books, magazines, and webpages on the subject. See my bibliography and links below.
Links to webpages and books about the First Harvest Celebration. Add, revise, check links. See my bibliography and links below.
4. Donate to a charity that helps feed people. Donate to a charity or development agency that helps people improve their ability to grow and store food. Donate to or help with cause that emphasizes improving the agricultural environment.
5. Read about and make a loaf of bread. Loaves of bread are
a traditional part of the First Harvest Feast.
Break bread into four pieces and place at each of the Four Corners altars.
6. Add some appropriate First Harvest songs, chants, invocations, or poems to your Neo-Pagan Craft Journal, Book of Shadows, Ritual Handbook, etc..
7. Check out astronomical details about the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius, in late July, and the beginning of the "Dog Days of Summer."
8. Prepare for the "Games" of the First Harvest Feast. The Greek Olympics and Roman Heracleia games were held at this time. What games might you play? Horseshoes, boche ball, croquet, volleyball, badminton, frisbee, baseball .... Get your equipment and playing court ready.
9. Renew supplies of your favorite ritual-recreational drug: coffee,
tobacco, alcohol (whiskey, beer, wine), fuzzy herbs, etc..
Whiskey is often part of a summer feast celebration. ADF Druids like
to pass some whiskey around for sacramental toasts.
10. Visit your local public library or college library for books, media and magazines on the subject. In my area, these resources include:
California State University at Chico, Merriam Library
Tehama County Public Library
Butte County Public Library
Shasta County Public Library
11. Stay at home. Eliminate long driving trips. Do you really need to "Go" anywhere? Do you really need to fly by airplane to another country? Explore your backyard, neighborhood, local community, nearby city, county wide area, regional area within 100 miles.
12. Write in your personal journal. Many keep a Neo-Pagan notebook, journal or log as part of their experimental work. This webpage itself is part of public portion of the Green Wizard's Notebooks. My Green Way Blog includes many relevant quotes and poems.
13. Think about the power of the sun. How can we use solar power? Dry your clothes in the sun. Build a simple box with screen so you can use the power of the summer sun to dry your fresh fruit.
14. Practice discursive meditation while watering. Read about
discursive meditation in J. M. Greer's "The Druidry Handbook, p. ?. Here
are some themes to stimulate the active imagination during discursive
meditation:
What are the relations between Chaos, Gaia, and Eros?
What role does more sunlight play in bringing forth the bountiful harvest?
Is moving water the fundamental living force?
15. Implement new ways to stay cool that use less electrical energy. Switch to an evaporative cooler in areas with low humidity. Keep all windows covered. Carefully place fans to circulate air indoors. Work early in the morning and rest in the hot afternoon. Drink plenty of water. If your nights are cooler, under 80, draw the cool air indoors at night. A gable fan can really help reduce heat indoors.
16. If you are a musician, learn to play one new song for the summer feast and holy day. In 2007, I worked on learning to play the classic American Indian flute tune, "Zuni Sunrise." Get some favorite music together for the event.
17. This is a good month for celebrating. We, in America, celebrate the Fourth of July. Be try to be very thankful for our peaceful and bountiful life in America. We are thankful for our religious freedom and the 1st Amendment. Americanism and patriotism are forms of a popular religion - we should reflect on our symbols and heritage. Take a look at Ceisiwr Serith's website and links on Americanism. Hang up the flags, sing, play, smile, celebrate.
18. The Celtic God, Luga (lugh, Lugh Long Hand), is noted for his high level skills at many arts and crafts: smith, carpenter, bard, healer, magician, gamesman, spear throwing, military leadership ... Get out your paintbrush. Fix something in the yard or garden or home. Tidy up the garden. Create something, make something ... Start learning a new practical skill or craft.
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Bibliography and Links
For First Harvest
Celebration (Lughnasa, Early August Feast, Lughnasadh, August 1st, Lammas)
Celebrating
Lammas - School of the Seasons
Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Beltane to Mabon. Lore, Rituals,
Activities, and Symbols. By Ashleen O'Gaea. Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, New
Page Books, 2005. Bibliography, index, 219 pages. ISBN: 1564147320. A good
study of four spring and summer Celebrations in the Wiccan-NeoPagan
year. Rich in details and ideas. VSCL. Lammas: pp. 97-134.
July:
Quotes, Poems, Celebrations, Lore, Garden Chores
Lammas: Celebrating Fruits of the First Harvest.
Anna Franklin and Paul Mason. St. Paul, Minnesota, Llewellyn Pub., 2001.
Bibliography, index, 276 pages. ISBN: 0738700940.
Links about
Lughnasa, Lammas, First Harvest Festival
One
Druid's Journey - The Green Wizard's Notebooks
Sacred Circles
Bibliography, Links, Quotes, Notes. Photos of the Valley Spirit Center
sacred circle construction project.
Ceisiwr Serith's website
and links on Americanism.
Fourth of July Celebrations.
The Spirit of Gardening
3,400 quotes, poems, sayings, and ideas about gardening, gardens, and the Green
Way. Materials organized by 140 topics; and a fully indexed collection
with a search engine. Online since 1999. Over 6MB of text.
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo.
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Quotations, Information,
Facts, Lore
For First Harvest
Celebration (Lughnasa, Early August Feast, Lughnasadh, August 1st, Lammas)
"Lammas celebrates the first wheat or barley
harvest f the year and the skills of those who tend them. Baking and sharing
bread, feasting with neighbor, and honoring the still-powerful forces of the
summer sun's light, and are key elements of this cooperative, community-based
sabbat.
Corn and wheat dollies made from the last sheaves and stalks
of harvested grain are kept through winter to be planted with the first seeds of
spring. These organic Goddess figures powerfully affirm the reverence for the
Earth's cycles of birth, death, and renewal. The celebrations, which feature a
break from toil, contests of skill, laughter feasting, and dancing, are tempered
by the knowledge that most crops are still growing in the fields with no
guarantee of adequate abundance for the long winter.
Lughnasadh's energy of cautious optimism and feeling of
well-being bring out the best in all people. The sabbat mingles the expansion of
vibrant summer energy with the gathering energy of the upcoming season. The
result is a unique time for solidly expanding toward focused goals, such as
perfecting and challenging your skills."
- Damias Vine Yahoo Group, 7/29/07
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Poems, Prayers, Rites, Liturgy,
Invocations
For First Harvest
Celebration (Lughnasa, Early August Feast, Lughnasadh, August 1st, Lammas)
“The grain to harvest’s cutting falls
to make the bread for banquet halls.
We’ll save some seeds where life’s waiting,
and plant a new field come next Spring.
We shared the work we needed to do,
and now we’ll share the eating too!
Thank you, fruit, and thank you bread,
for making sure that we are fed.”
- Asleen O’Gaea, Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Beltane to Mabon, p.
“The Wheel rolls more, and Autumn returns.
Cooler the rain; the Sun lower burns.
The coloring leaves presage the Year:
All things move into harvest’s sphere.
I vow to savor fruits first picked;
nor into grief shall I be tricked.
I vow to offer what once I spurned,
and face the Turning reassured.
- Asleen O’Gaea, Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Beltane to Mabon, p.
“Under the summer sun,
thirty birds feeding
on figs.
Young tree branches
sagging so low -
ripe peaches.
Still in the shade,
on wet soil,
a black dragonfly.
An old mind
surprised by seeing
a purple fairy at sunset,
dancing to the crickets’ tunes,
leaping as guinea hens screech,
wary of the bats,
hovering to say,
“Lugh’s Day, Lugh’s Day.”
Crackling fires
glowing
under the full moon.
Peace in the Valley.”
- Mike Garofalo, Lugh’s Fairy
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