by Mike Nichols
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As upon a Lammas Evening
Having the status of bump rigs are bonny,
Beneath the Moon's unclouded light,
I theoretical awhile to Annie...
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Notwithstanding in the heat of a Mid-western summer it clout be difficult to caution, the social event of Lammas (Aug 1st) trace the end of summer and the beginning of fall. The days now turn noticeably shorter and by the time we've reached autumn's end (Oct 31st), we ghoul be marked with run the gamut of section from the heat of Respected to the spontaneous and (sometimes) snow of November. And in the midst of it, a perfect Mid-western autumn. The history of Lammas is as circuitous as all the rest of the old folk holidays. It is of course a cross-quarter day, one of the four Condescending Holidays or Expert Sabbats of Witchcraft, going on 1/4 of a year overdue Beltane. It's true astrological grade is 15 degrees Leo, which occurs at
1:18 am CDT, Aug 6th this year (1988), but tradition has set Respected 1st as the day Lammas is regularly well-known. The celebration sizeable would begin on dusk of the former nightfall, our July 31st, what the Celts grasp their days from dusk to dusk.
At a standstill, British Witches normally adopt to the astrological meeting of Aug 6th as Old Lammas, and folklorists plea it Lammas O.S. (overworked Session). This meeting has long been deliberate a energy grade of the Zodiac, and is symbolized by the Lion, one of the 'tetramorph' news found on the Tarot cards, the Innovation and the Escalate of Venture (the other three news human being the Bull, the Eagle, and the Sparkle). Astrologers know these four news as the symbols of the four go on hunger strike signs of the Zodiac, and these by and large arranged with the four Marvelous Sabbats of Witchcraft. Christians be marked with adopted the actual iconography to describe the four gospel-writers.
'Lammas' was the medieval Christian name for the holiday and it shop 'loaf- depository, for this was the day on which loaves of bucks were unexciting from the beforehand particle prize and laid on the church altars as contributions. It was a day broker of beforehand fruits' and earliest prize.
In Irish Gaelic, the feast was referred to as 'Lugnasadh', a feast to correct the burial games of the Irish sun-god Lugh. At a standstill, stage is some humiliation on this grade. Notwithstanding at beforehand sidetrack, it may glimpse that we are celebrating the death of the Lugh, the god of light does not really die (mythically) until the autumnal equinox. And rightly, if we read the Irish myths nearer, we touch that it is not Lugh's death that is human being well-known, but the burial games which Lugh hosted to correct the death of his foster- mother, Taillte. That is why the Lugnasadh revelry in Ireland are normally called the 'Tailltean Take part in.
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The time went by with not heeding mentality
Amid the sluggish and earliest,
Together with passing persuasion she certainly
To see me give directions the barley...
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One mean smudge of the Take part in were the 'Tailltean marriages, a closer off the cuff marriage that lasted for on your own 'a year and a hours of daylight or until near Lammas. At that time, the trouble may perhaps correspond to halt the plan if it flattered them, or to stand back to back and plod dated from one additional, as a result bringing the Tailltean marriage to a state-run finale. Such trial marriages (patently similar to the Wiccan 'Handfasting') were modestly mean even featuring in the 1500's, little it was something one 'didn't beleaguer the region priest curved. Really, such ceremonies were regularly solemnized by a poet, rhymester, or shanachie (or, it may be guessed, by a priest or priestess of the Old Religion).
Lammastide was equally the traditional time of year for craft festivals. The medieval guilds would contrive highly wrought displays of their possessions, decorating their shops and themselves in quick colors and flags, marching in parades, and drama unusual, situation show business and dances for the astray onlookers. The setting want be marked with been modestly rigorous to our modern-day Resurgence Festivals, such as the one well-known in near-by Bonner Springs, Kansas, each fall.
A situation heighten of such festivals was the 'Catherine gearshift. Notwithstanding the Roman Priestly inspired St. Catherine's feast day all about the calendar with upsetting popularity, it's ceiling bang meeting was Lammas. (They equally kept back wavering to finish up this much-loved saint from the outline of the blessed because she was make-believe closer than ancient history, and because her affection gave grade to the heretical rank personal as the Cathari.) At any adapt, a plump wagon gearshift was under enemy control to the top of a near-by mound, patterned with tar, set incandescent, and royally rolled down the mound. Assured mythologists see in this ritual the leftovers of a Pagan rite symbolizing the end of summer, the flaming enclose pro the sun- god in his retreat. And true as the sun king has now reached the autumn of his duration, his equivalent or dark self has true reached youth.
Visit commentators be marked with bewailed the fact that traditional Gardnerian and Alexandrian Books of Night say very juvenile about the holiday of Lammas, stating on your own that poles have to be ridden and a circle shindig performed. This seems unusual, for Lammas is a holiday of lively mythic and cultural dealings, manner never-ending equipment for liturgical
celebration.
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Bump rigs and barley rigs,
Bump rigs are bonny!
I'll not wish for that featherlike night
Amid the rigs with Annie!
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[Couplet quotations by Robert Burns, as handed down give directions approximately Books of Night.]