Date, Shamate.

Okay so *technically* Lammas was yesterday. But I honestly tend to believe more what my grove believes which is our peasant punk asses probably had what could be liberally called a loose grasp on the calendar year. Holidays were based on what was supposed to happen agriculturally and then when you had a minute you said, yay! And had a peasant party about it.

To further enable all of you dilettantes, it can be argued that Lammas actually comes from the Welsh phrase Gŵyl Awst which can be liberally translated to "Festival of August". So really, you have all month to pull your shit together because let's be real, it was based off of whenever you were done hauling all the grain in and whenever that happened, it happened.

Going from what my PEH said, feel free to use it as an excuse to poke around your farmer's market. I did! I bought some pretty fresh flowers for $4 and tasted some locally made cheese. It was fab. Also, wheat beer drinking, it's for religion, n'est-ce pas? Also? A great time to bust out the bread maker, go carb crazy!

But there is more to it potentially, if you would like though you of course have the right to say "pass" here as you would in any of my religious gatherings. In the Dianic School of thought, we've taken it to be interpreted as an Amazon holiday because you need to "believe in hard ship/ and hard shit" if you're going by the view of the holiday that while it is no fun to die for your crops even though you'll come back, it's also not terribly fun to kill your lover-consort who you are presumably fond of for the good of the land and the people either.

At the end of the day, Lammas is about sacrifice. It's sacrificing to bring in your crops and hopefully not starve to death over the winter. It's sacrificing yourself for the good of the land. It's killing your lover for the good of the people. That's a pretty hardcore holiday.

It's unlikely that you're going to need to kill your lover or die for the land and you probably don't haul crops in every day to not starve in your life. But you do sacrifice, every day. Christianity often asks one to reflect on the big JC's sacrifice, which was indeed big, but I invite you to really think about what you've given up this year in the name of (familial/friendship/relationship) love. The time you've sacrificed, the money, the annoyance. What did you harvest from it? What does it feel like to willingly sacrifice for those you love? What Amazonic feats of strength have you shown in the face of adversity? When have you done what's right, even when it was hard? When did you give something up to help someone else?

I know you all have. It's important to reflect on this and to reflect on what it means to do this really and truly *willingly* and to reflect on how you can give the things you chose to give (time, love, attention, money, etc.) more willingly in the coming year.

And then pat yourself on the ass (what do you think you'd be doing after hauling in all that grain?), have a beer and chow down on some of that bread. Extra butter please.