Editing Lammas (section)

==History==
[[File:Holy Trinity Brompton-2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|On Loaf Mass Day, bread is brought into the [[Church of England parish church|parish church]] to be blessed by a Christian cleric.]]
In Christianity, the offering of [[first fruits]] to God has a history, as in the [[Old Testament]], "when the harvest ripened the priest went into the field and gathered a sheaf of first-ripened grain. Then he took that sheaf into the temple and waved it before the Lord."<ref name="Rogers2003">{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=Adrian |title=Unveiling the End Times in Our Time: The Triumph of the Lamb in Revelation |date=December 2003 |publisher=B&H Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8054-2691-5 |language=en}}</ref> The [[Didache]] of the early Church enjoined firstfruits be given of "money, clothes, and all of your possessions" (13:7).<ref name="Elwell2001">{{cite book |last1=Elwell |first1=Walter A. |title=Evangelical Dictionary of Theology |date=2001 |publisher=Baker Academic |isbn=978-0-8010-2075-9 |page=1203 |language=en}}</ref>

In [[Anglo-Saxon England]] Lammas was the name for the first day of August and was described in [[Old English literature]] as "the feast of [[first fruits]]", being mentioned often in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]''.<ref name="Hutton"/> It was probably the day when loaves baked from the first of the wheat harvest were blessed at church.<ref name="Hutton"/> The loaves might then have been used in [[Apotropaic magic|protective rituals]]:<ref name="Homans">[[George C. Homans|Homans, George]] (1961). ''English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century'', 2nd ed. 1991. p.371.</ref> a book of Anglo-Saxon [[Incantation|charms]] directed that the Lammas loaf be broken into four parts, which were to be placed at the four corners of the barn, to protect the grain.<ref name="Hutton"/>

For many [[villein]]s, the wheat must have run low in the days before Lammas, and the new harvest began a season of plenty, of hard work and company in the fields, reaping in teams.<ref name="Homans"/> In the medieval agricultural year, Lammas also marked the end of the [[hay]] harvest that had begun after [[Midsummer]]. At the end of hay-making a sheep would be loosed in the meadow among the mowers, for him to keep who could catch it.<ref name="Homans"/>

Historian [[Ronald Hutton]] writes "the time that the first of the harvest could be gathered would have been a natural point for celebration in an agrarian society".<ref name="Hutton"/> He says it is likely "that a [[Anglo-Saxon paganism|pre-Christian]] festival had existed among the Anglo-Saxons on that date".<ref name="Hutton"/> Folklorist [[Máire MacNeill]] linked Lammas with the Insular Celtic harvest festival [[Lughnasadh]], held on the same date, and suggested the Anglo-Saxons adopted it from the [[Celtic Britons]].<ref name="Hutton"/> She highlighted the apparent lack of a Continental Germanic festival on 1 August, and the apparent borrowing of the Welsh name ''Gŵyl Awst'', 'Gule of August'.<ref name="Hutton"/> However, Hutton says that "MacNeill's thesis of a pan-Celtic seasonal ritual, like her reconstruction of pagan rites, is so far un-proven" and to prove it "would involve a detailed knowledge of the religious calendar of the Anglo-Saxons before they arrived in England, which is impossible".<ref name="Hutton"/>

Lammas Day was one of the traditional [[Scottish term days|Scottish quarter days]] before 1886. Lammas also coincided with the feast of [[Liberation of Saint Peter|St Peter in Chains]], commemorating Saint Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison, but in the liturgical reform of 1969 the feast of St [[Alphonsus Liguori]] was transferred to this day.<ref name="Daniel"/>

Ann Lewin explains  the Christian feast of Lammas (Loaf Mass Day) and its importance in the [[liturgical year]]:<ref name="Lewin2011"/>
{{quotation|August begins with Lammas Day, Loaf Mass Day, the day in the [[Book of Common Prayer]] calendar when a loaf baked with flour from newly harvested corn would be brought into church and blessed. It's one of the oldest points of contact between the agricultural world and the Church. The others were [[Plough Sunday]] in early January, the Sunday after Epiphany and the day before work would begin again in the fields after Christmas festivities, when ploughs would be brought to church to be blessed; and [[Rogation days]] in May, the days before Ascension Day, when God's blessing would be sought on the growing crops.<ref name="Lewin2011"/>}} 

Today, in the [[Church of England]], the mother church of the Anglican Communion, during the celebration of [[Holy Communion]], "The Lammas loaf, or part of it, may be used as the bread of the Eucharist, or the Lammas loaf and the eucharistic bread may be kept separate."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Agricultural Year |url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/times-and-seasons/agricultural-year#mmm372 |publisher=[[The Church of England]] |access-date=14 May 2020}}</ref> ''[[Common Worship]]'' specifies:<ref name="Common Worship"/> 
{{quotation|The Lammas loaf should ideally be baked by members of the congregation, using local produce wherever possible. Other small loaves or buns, in the tradition of 'blessed bread,' may be distributed to the congregation. Part of the Lammas loaf may be used as the eucharistic bread on this occasion. Two patterns of readings are suggested, the first concerning the offering of the first-fruits and the second concerning the bread of life.<ref name="Common Worship">{{cite book |title=Common Worship: Times and Seasons |date=19 August 2014 |publisher=Canterbury Press |isbn=978-0-7151-2238-9 |language=en}}</ref>}}

Christians also have [[Procession#Christian processions|church procession]]s to bakeries, where those working therein are blessed by Christian clergy.<ref name="Sherborne2023"/>

In [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' (1.3.19) it is observed of Juliet, "Come Lammas Eve at night shall she [Juliet] be fourteen." Another well-known cultural reference is the opening of ''[[The Battle of Otterburn (ballad)|The Battle of Otterburn]]'': "It fell about the Lammas tide when the muir-men win their hay."<ref>{{cite book|last=Child|first=Francis James|title=The English and Scottish Popular Ballads |publisher=Houghton Mifflin|year=1889|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cHsicFK4rykC&pg=PA293|pages=293}}</ref>