The Festival of Lammas

Bake a Loaf!

In case you’re beginning to feel something stirring deep within your cells, that sense of a shift in light, sound, and atmosphere, it’s for a good reason. Today is Lammas, the cross quarter day (or halfway point)  between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. At this point, we are officially moving away from summer and headed into fall. 

The Festival of Lammas has pagan roots that were later adapted by the church, as with so many of our cultural holidays. Here is what the Old Farmer’s Almanac has to say about its origins and celebrations.

This observance, traditionally observed on August 1, marked the beginning of the harvest, and especially celebrated the first wheat crop, or that of corn. It derives from the ancient English festival the Gule of August, a pagan dedication of the first fruits that the early English church later converted to Christian usage. On Lammas Day, loaves of bread were baked from the first-ripened grain and brought to the churches to be consecrated. The w…