First loaf
Bake bread to mark the first harvest.
- Bake a loaf from scratch, using flour from this year's harvest if you can find it.
- Share it with others.
- Set a piece aside for the birds.
Wheel of the Year · cross-quarter day
Lughnasadh
The first harvest, with bread, games and gatherings.
- Northern Hemisphere
- 1 August Next: 1 August 2027
- Southern Hemisphere
- 1 February Next: 1 February 2027
History and names
Lughnasadh is a Gaelic festival at the start of August. Irish tradition says the god Lugh founded it in honour of his foster mother Tailtiu, and the Tailteann gathering was a famous assembly with games and contests. It marked the first fruits of the harvest.
The English Christian festival of Lammas, which means loaf mass, blessed bread made from the first grain. Pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday of July continues an older tradition of climbing hills at this season.
Also known as
- Lúnasa (modern Irish for August)
- Lammas (English Christian)
Customs
Common ways to mark it are baking bread from the first grain, climbing a hill, gathering bilberries or other wild fruit, attending a fair, and playing games.
Practices
Hill walk
Climb a hill, as people did at this season.
- Choose a hill you can reach comfortably.
- Take a picnic and eat it at the top.
- Look out over the land and think of what is ripening.