Lugnasadh, sometimes called “Lammas,” is the first harvest festival, but its greatest significance is the God’s sacrifice. He casts himself into the fire to ensure the harvest for his pregnant wife and his son-to-be. The name “Lammas” comes from the Christian “Loaf Mass,” which marked the baking of loaves from the first grain harvest.

This day marks the end of summer in some traditions. The days are beginning to grow shorter, and although it is still warm, there are hints of the coming cooler weather.

Many of the myths of human sacrifice come from this festival, where the sacrifice of the God is misunderstood and distorted into the sacrifice of a human Pagan, which certainly has not happened in modern history. There is a story that the corn king was sometimes burned in medieval times, but there is no evidence to prove this, and I find it unlikely given the gentle nature of most Pagans. As I have mentioned elsewhere in these pages, the most sentient thing I have ever seen sacrificed was an ear of corn cast into the fire at Lugnasadh.

It is interesting to note that like the God of the Christians and those of many other Pagan traditions, our God dies yearly and is reborn, while the Goddess changes between her aspects of Maiden, Mother and Crone – but She does not die.

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