Lammas, the first fruits. the first harvest. Since well before the advent of Christianity humanity has been aware of the changing of the seasons and of the practical relevance of those changes to human life. Lammas usually celebrated on August 1st represents the change from summer to autumn. The nights begin to grow longer and the sun appears less often and for shorter periods. Foods stored for the previous winter are gone. People are hungry and thinner. There is anticipation of a ripening of the new harvest . At Lammas the Gods of the harvest are powerful, sometimes yielding much, sometimes less, and their powers don’t last; after Lammas the fruits of the harvest are stored for the coming winter. The Gods of the harvest are gone. But the people know they will return, as they always do and as they always will. As the ancient hebrews put it “ while the earth remaineth seed time and harvest shall not cease”.
The Gods of the old people were very often associated with grain and with harvest. Generally the old folk tales tell of the killing of the God followed by the defeat of the underworld and the God’s subsequent resurrection. Tammuz was a Sumerian God, representative of decay and growth of natural life. According to belief he dies at mid-summer and is rescued from the underworld the following spring by his lover, Ishtar. Tammuz was known as Adonis in Greek mythology (the anemone is believed to have sprung from his blood). There were many so-called “mystery” religions in the ancient world, open only to the initiated. Underlying them all is the same belief in death and resurrection
The ancient Celts particularly in Ireland worshipped the Sun God, Lugh, and Lughnasadh was a feast to commemorate his funeral games. But in reality the games do not celebrate his death (the Sun God didn’t die until Sept. 22, the date of the autumnal equinox) but in fact celebrate the death of his foster mother Taillte. Lugh’s dedication of the festival to Taillte, the royal lady of the Fir Bolg (an irish clan) decreed that it should be celebrated annually at the beginning of the harvest. The Fir Bolg were defeated by another clan, the Tuatha de Dannan, and after that defeat Taillte was forced to clear a vast forest for the purpose of planting grain. She died from exhaustion , and on her death-bed she told the men of Ireland to hold funeral games in her honour. As long as they were held she prophesied that Ireland; would not be without song. As the years passed the traditions of the games changed into a festival honouring the work of human beings as they sought to
