Lughnasadh: Giving Thanks for the First Harvest

Lughnasadh, also called Lammas, falls on the first of August each year. It is the first of three harvest festivals on the Wheel of the Year. In old farming communities it marked the first grain cut from the fields and the first loaf baked from it. For me, it is a yearly moment to notice what my own work has grown.

What the festival is about

By August, the year is well underway. Things planted in spring, such as projects, savings, habits and relationships, are starting to show results, even if they aren’t finished. Lughnasadh asks two questions: what has come to fruit, and what still needs tending before autumn?

A simple bread-and-gratitude ritual

1. Buy or bake a small loaf. Homemade is nice; a bakery loaf is just as good.
2. Light a gold, yellow or green candle.
3. Break the bread and name one thing your effort has produced this year with each piece. Eat a piece for each.
4. Set one piece aside as a thank-you offering. Leave it outside for the birds, or compost it.
5. Write down one thing you want to gather before the year ends, and put it under the candle.

Other ways to mark the day

• Pick blackberries or visit a farm shop.
• Review your money: what came in this year, and what you’re proud of.
• Make a corn dolly or a small wheat bundle for your altar, and keep it until next year.

Harvest work at my table

Lughnasadh is a natural time for abundance work, but so is any week you want your effort to pay off. My money and career rituals use wheat, old coins, cinnamon and a green candle, the same things you will see on my table in August.