It may have whizzed past many of you. But today is Lammas Day. As far as I know, this is mainly a British festival. On the other hand, I have had many AMERICAN almanacs list it for some reason.
My question is simply this: What do Brits (and Americans) do on Lammas Day?
Well, that’s a bunch of shite. It’s not an “actual historical religious holiday,” I suppose, but we living and breathing neopagans run festivals and celebratory circles and parties world wide, so I’d say that’s about as actual as you can get.
Of course, it’s one of the least lauded of our holidays (the second most being Ostara, or Candlemas), at least in America. I think that’s because it suffers from a lack of a distinct “hook”. Midsummer wasn’t all that long ago, and Autumn Equinox is much more satisfying for harvest themes. Even our myths don’t have a real great story for Lammas, 'though John Barleycorn is one of my favorites - but he often makes an appearance at Autumn Equinox, instead. So once again we’re celebrating the harvest and male fertility and sacrifice? But we don’t get to build and burn a giant flaming man? It’s like Autumn Equinox-lite. yawn
It’s often called Lame-ass by neopagans, but don’t tell them I told you that.
Me? What am I doing? I’m sitting at home while all my friends are camping at a Lammas festival that I can’t afford! Harrumph.