Lithasblot
(Freyfest/Freysblot)
July 31st - August 1st
The harvest festival; giving thanks to Urda (Ertha) for her bounty. Often alms are given to the unfortunate at this time, or loaves in the shape of the fylfot (the Sun-wheel, which fell into regrettable disrepute during the dark times of the second World War when the symbol was perverted as a symbol of chaos and darkeness). Interestingly, Lithasblot 1941 was allegedly the time when the magical lodges of England performed rituals to keep the Nazi forces from invading their country; which may have worked, since Hitler eventually abandoned plans to invade Great Britain. Lithasblot has long been associated with ceremonial magic and magical workings.
Lammas is the holiday of the first cutting of the grain, when John Barleycorn dies to feed us all. Every culture has a version of John Barleycorn, and in our cosmology it is Frey, who is mourned on this day for his sacrifice that we might live. Nerthus, his mother who cuts him down, is also honored; so is Gerda his garden-goddess bride whose tears guide him back from Death. Another Lammas-associated goddess is Sif, whose golden hair is associated with the grain that Thor’s rains grew. Aegir may be celebrated as a brewer – as Frey is a beer god – and Njord may be hailed for the fish harvest that comes in. This is also an excellent time to honor Jord, the Earth Mother.
Lammas is the holiday of the first cutting of the grain, when John Barleycorn dies to feed us all. Every culture has a version of John Barleycorn, and in our cosmology it is Frey, who is mourned on this day for his sacrifice that we might live. Nerthus, his mother who cuts him down, is also honored; so is Gerda his garden-goddess bride whose tears guide him back from Death. Another Lammas-associated goddess is Sif, whose golden hair is associated with the grain that Thor’s rains grew. Aegir may be celebrated as a brewer – as Frey is a beer god – and Njord may be hailed for the fish harvest that comes in. This is also an excellent time to honor Jord, the Earth Mother.
The name Lammas is taken from an Anglo-Saxon heathen festival which was forcibly Christianized. The name (from hlaf-mass, “loaves festival”) implies, it is a feast of thanksgiving for bread, symbolizing the first fruits of the harvest.
heathens mark the holiday by baking a figure of the God Freyr in bread, and then symbolically sacrificing and eating it.
Again, no purely Heathen name has survived for this festival, which takes place at the beginning of August, as this was the time when the first fruits of harvest were brought to the church as gifts; since this was taken over from Heathen custom. In English and German tradition, the First Sheaf was often bound and blessed as an offering to Heathen deities or the spirits of the field at the beginning of harvest, just as the Last Sheaf was at its end. English folk custom also includes the decoration of wells and springs at this time. In Heathenism today, the feast is especially thought of as holy to Freyr as a fertility God, Thor as a harvest God and his wife Sif, whose long golden hair can be seen in the rippling fields of ripe grain. The warriors who had gone off to fight at the end of planting season came back at this time, loaded with a summer’s worth of plunder and ready to reap the crops that had ripened while they were gone. Loaf-Feast is the end of the summer’s vacation, the beginning of a time of hard work which lasts through the next two or three months, while we ready ourselves for the winter.
heathens mark the holiday by baking a figure of the God Freyr in bread, and then symbolically sacrificing and eating it.
Again, no purely Heathen name has survived for this festival, which takes place at the beginning of August, as this was the time when the first fruits of harvest were brought to the church as gifts; since this was taken over from Heathen custom. In English and German tradition, the First Sheaf was often bound and blessed as an offering to Heathen deities or the spirits of the field at the beginning of harvest, just as the Last Sheaf was at its end. English folk custom also includes the decoration of wells and springs at this time. In Heathenism today, the feast is especially thought of as holy to Freyr as a fertility God, Thor as a harvest God and his wife Sif, whose long golden hair can be seen in the rippling fields of ripe grain. The warriors who had gone off to fight at the end of planting season came back at this time, loaded with a summer’s worth of plunder and ready to reap the crops that had ripened while they were gone. Loaf-Feast is the end of the summer’s vacation, the beginning of a time of hard work which lasts through the next two or three months, while we ready ourselves for the winter.