Sabbats - Lughnasadh
After mentioning sabbats and sabbat celebrations, I figured I would start a mini-series on the different sabbats, and the wheel of the year in Pagan practises.
To keep this simple I’ll be using a widely available wheel of the year (imaged below) and the holidays it uses, which would be the more generalised ones.
Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-Na-sa), also known as Lammas, is the first harvest festival. It is usually celebrated at the start of August, like this year it is August 1st. The name of this festival comes from the Irish God of the harvest Lugh, and the word for harvest or gathering nasadh.
The main correspondences for Lughnasagh are;
Herbs - aloe, frankincense and rose
Colours - gold, orange, yellow and green
Crystals - amber, citrine and aventurine
Deities - Lugh, Vesta, Ceres, Danu and Hestia
Foods - Bread, corn, nuts, rice and soup
Alongside the correspondences for each Sabbat, there are activities that are associated with each of them as well. I’ve popped some of them into the image above. Others include practising gratitude, meditation and tidying or cleaning your altar. While I want to bake fresh bread, it isn’t an option with two small children, so I tend to purchase a fresh loaf of my favourite bread (M&S Sourdough is my current favourite!) and I’ll enjoy some slices of that while practising gratitude. I also try to clean or tidy throughout the house, and will cleanse the house if I find the extra time.
An easy activity to include the kids in, is getting out in the sun or practising gratitude (depending on the age of the child). With the twins, I want to get them into baking with me but maybe not until next year, so we’ll hopefully be making a loaf of bread together. I recommend this a lot with kids as they get to enjoy the outcome of the work they have done, which is always a positive! Lastly, with a bit of preplanning you could also plant sunflowers together to admire when the Sabbat comes. This is a favourite of the twins as they love getting involved in gardening and getting their hands dirty. Plus it can be lovely to see if the sunflower can outgrow the child as well!
I’ll be posting these Sabbat guides around the time of each Sabbat, so the next post will be on Mabon!
Do you celebrate any Sabbats? Let me know in the comments!