Happy Lughnasadh, y’all!

Also called “Lammas,” this is the feast of bread. Originally a festival in honor of the god Lugh, today celebrates the beginning of the harvest season. In particular, we celebrate the grain harvest. There is an element of sacrifice in the grain harvest in the cutting, crushing, and grinding. The grain has to be cut down so we can, uh …, reap its benefits. Because of the blade and the grindstone, we get all sorts of goodies like bread and beer. Woo hoo!

Lugh is a Sun god; he is also a smith. When his hand was cut off in battle, he forged a new one for himself out of silver. So today is also a day to celebrate makers. If you create things with your hands, today is your day!

Even in Puritan America we still have remnants of this celebration, most notably the numerous local fairs that happen all over rural America at this time.

If you are a Christian, this year the lectionary readings give us several weeks in July and August of readings about bread and being fed: the prophet Elisha feeding a large crowd, Jesus feeding the five thousand, the prophet Elijah being fed by an angel while on the run from Jezebel, the tribes of Israel receiving manna in the desert, and the long discourse in the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John where Jesus proclaims, “I am the bread of life.” So it’s very appropriate for us followers of Jesu to celebrate the grain harvest.

So, to whoever you are, wherever you are, whoever and however you worship (or not), whoever you love, I wish you a blessed Lammas. May your harvests be bountiful and may the works of your hand hands prosper.To God our Maker, Jesu the Christ, and the Holy Spirit who is the source of wisdom and breath of life be all glory and praise, now and ever and unto Ages of Ages. Amen.