Forgotten Festivals Remembered: Lammas Day

Saturday, August 1 at 10am we will be in the Trinity Parish House to bake the bread. The Lammas Loaves will be blessed and distributed at the services on Sunday, August 2.

Inspired both by the Old Testament Scriptures and the practice of the early Church, Christians have celebrated festivals of the first fruits of the earth for centuries. One of these festivals, called England Lammas Day, is celebrated on August 1. The name ‘Lammas’ comes from an Old English expression meaning ‘Loaf Mass’.

On Lammas Day, loaves made with the first harvest of grains were baked, brought to church, blessed, and distributed to the people. Lammas Day reflects a day of thanksgiving mirrored by the prayers offered at Rogationtide in the spring where the Church asked for God’s blessing on the upcoming harvest.

When it is so easy today to simply go to the grocery store, it’s important for us to remember our connection to the places where God has put us and our dependence on God’s creation for something as basic as the things we eat. Lammas Day also invites to reflect on the precariousness of food for so many of God’s children. Lastly, this festival invites us to pray with our bodies in a different way: both through the physicality of baking bread and also in the delight of breaking bread together.

Traditionally, Lammas loaves are made with the local harvest. This year our flour comes from Ground Up Grains in Holyoke, MA.