Lammastide and on into August

August brings with it, Lammastide, that is itself almost forgotten but was introduced by the church to obscure Lughnasad, the festival of fairs, feasts and celebration of the ancient god, Lugh, possessor of the Sword of Light and provider of the autumn sun and the harvest. To provide the autumn sun, Lugh had to kill his one-eyed grandfather Balar - aka Bel or Baal, celebrated in the May festival of Beltane. Balar personified the summer sun, and Lugh killed him by knocking his glaring eye out with a sling.

In Ulster, Lugh is recognised as the half-father of Cuchulainn whom, alone, fought off the rest of Ireland while the Ulster warriors suffered the pains of labour. A story far too for here but can be found in the epic Tain bo Cuilange related in graphic detail that even Stephen King might envy.

Lammastide was the 'period' of harvest time that started with a feast when harvesting began and was celebrated with the 'loaf-mass' that covered over the old Lughnasad festivities. Loaves made with the first of the year's ripened corn were taken to church for a blessing. Lammas, the day of celebrating the loaf-mass was also one of the Celtic Quarter days, when rents fell due, contracts were renewed or terminated and workers offered their services at hiring fairs and, in some areas, the taking of sexual partners for the period of the fairs was common practice; the couples were known as Lammas brothers and sisters.

Lammas was also a day for long-term relationships, recognised by partners handfasting, joining hands through a hole in an ancient stone to commit themselves to a trial period of a togetherness for year and a day after which, if they were still on good terms, they became man and wife.

Lammastide was a time when mortals could try to recover a child stolen previously by the fairies; who were prone to replacing a human baby with a changeling or elf-child.

Tempting the fairy with food, left with the changeling overnight beside a warm fire, was said to be effective by some.

Witches could be a problem to farmers at Lammastide but a ball of hair left in a pail of milk was enough to convince witches they should leave the farmer's cows alone.

A rustic shown with straw in the mouth is something of a stereotype but the hiring fair custom once was that of those working with cows offered their labour that way. Long after the hiring fairs ended this continued in a school playground game in which a straw is held between chin and bottom lip and a rhyme was sung.

'I grew a beard for Lammas fair

It's an awful bit of hair,

Wag beardie wag.'

The winner was the one who sang it most times without drop- ping the straw:

August is the month for cures at rocky outcrops in Devon and Cornwall.

Rocks with holes that people crawled through.

Rocks above water that they could safely through and around

Wells similarly provided cures.

St Madron's near Penzance was said to cures lunatic and sickly children who pray in the nearby chapel (ruins) and sleep all night on a grassy area known as Madron's bed.

Further afield, a cure for sterility could be found at St Maughold's well, Near Ramsey IoM. Always popular on the first Sunday after Old Lammas, (12 th ) people dipped their problem parts in the well water, then threw a pin down the well.

St John's Well at Harpham, near Bridlington, offers cures for animals - and services are held there to this day.

The National Trust's Trelissick Garden in Cornwall assist to preserve traditions in Derbyshire. The first Monday of August is the date of the well-dressing at Bradwell, near Castleton in Derbyshire. Hydrangeas are a local favourite and box-loads of the blooms are obtained from Trelissick.

8th August St Lide's Day

The 11th-century St Lide lived as a hermit on the Isles of Scilly, giving his name to the tiny island now known as St Helens. At one time his chapel was a popular place of pilgrimage, and pirates were warned that if they raided his shrine they would be instantly excommunicated. The writer Leland recorded, rather vaguely that 'Saynct Lide's Isle, . . . in times past at her (sic) sepulchre was gret supersition.

The Isles are said to have once been the mountainous regions of Lyonesse, which was ruled by King Arthur and has long since sunk into the sea between the Scillies and Land's End.

14 th St Morwenna's Day; and the day on which Macbeth killed Duncan. Both had a common Grandfather, Malcolm II so Macbeth's claim to the throne was not as tenuous as Shakespeare suggests.

The 6th-century St Morwenna founded churches at Morwenstow near Bude and Marhamchurch in Cornwall. To get the building under way she went to the foot of a cliff, put a large rock on her head, and started back for the site that she had chosen for her church. Stopping to rest, she dropped the rock, and a well sprang forth. She then finished the journey and placed the boulder at the church's foundations.

Marhamchurch, also near Bude, has celebrated Morwenna's founding of the village ever since, not on her feast day July 5th, but on the Monday after August 12th at a Lammas-linked Revel. At the site of Morwenna's cell in front of the church Queen of the Revel, elected by local children, is crowned by a figure representing Father Time, whose identity is always kept secret.

24 th St Bartholomew's day

The old day for beating the bounds.

Remember St Swithun's day? This is 40 days on and the saying goes

St Bartlemy's mantle wipes dry

All the tears St Swithun can cry.

The 24 th is also Wayzgoose day - a holiday for printers and another excuse for a fair day, including Bartholomew fair made famous as one of London's rowdiest fairs; more recently revived to help Bart's Hospital.

The fair traditionally is a feast, with goose the main item on the men.

Printers recognised that the days were drawing in, allowed their workers to use candles, and made them an extra payment to fund a goose feast, or an outing.

© Roy & Ursula Radford