THE HISTORY OF LAMMAS



The history of Lammas is as convoluted as all the rest of the old folk holidays. 
It is of course a cross-quarter day, one of the four High Holidays or Greater 
Sabbats of Witchcraft, occurring º of a year after Beltane.

However, British Witches often refer to the astrological date of Aug. 6th as Old 
Lammas, and folklorists call it Lammas O.S. ('Old Style'). This date has long 
been considered a 'power point' of the Zociac and is symbolized by the Lion, one 
of the 'tetramorph' figures found on the Tarot cards, the World and the Wheel of 
Fortune (the other three figures being the Bull, the Eagle and the Spirit). 
Astrologers know these four figures as the symbols of the four 'fixed' signs of 
the Zodiac, and these naturally align with the four Great Sabbats of Witchcraft. 
Christians have adopted the same iconography to represent the four gospel-
writers.

'Lammas' was the medieval Christian name for the holiday and it means 'loaf-
mass', for this was the day on which loaves of bread were baked from the first 
grain harvest and laid on the church altars as offerings. It was a day 
representative of 'first fruits' and early harvest.

Lammastide was also the traditional time of year for craft festivals. The 
medieval guilds would create elaborate displays of their wares, decorating their 
shops and themselves in bright colors and ribbons, marching in parades and 
performing strange, ceremonial plays and dances for the entranced onlookers. The 
atmosphere must have been quite similar to our modern-day Renaissance Festivals.

A ceremonial highlight of such festivals was the 'Catherine Wheel'. Although the 
Roman Church moved St. Catherine's feast day all around the calendar with 
bewildering  frequency, it's most popular date was Lammas. (They also kept 
trying to expel this much-loved saint from the ranks of the blessed because she 
was mythical rather then historical, and because her worship gave rise to the 
hetetical sect known as the Cathari.) At any rate, a large wagon wheel was taken 
to the top of a near-by hill, covered with tar, set aflame, and ceremoniously 
rolled down the hill. Some mythologists see in this ritual the remnants of a 
Pagan rite symbolizing the end of summer, the flaming disk representing the sun-
god in his decline. And just as the sun king has now reached the autumn of his 
years, his rival or dark self has just reached puberty.