Friday 1 August 2014

Lammas Day

"And as the daylight's fading
When Lammas has come in
And gleamers go to work among the stubble
There comes an autumn sickle
To cut the summer's throat
Before the season knows it is in trouble"

Martin Newell, Black Shuck

Today is the first of August, or Lammas Day a I learned in the above quoted epic poem. I used to dislike August, but now I learned to appreciate it as a transitory month, a month that shows the passage of summer to autumn and marks the beginning of harvest. It makes me long for Halloween, my favourite holiday. When I read the poem, these verses about Lammas struck me. Cutting summer's throat with an autumn sickle, this is what August does.So I wanted to share it with you tonight. I will talk more about the poem in upcoming posts. It is beautiful and eerie.

2 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

ha! i totally forgot it was lammas and i baked bread anyway.

Guillaume said...

I know very little about the traditions of Lammas, I should start reading about it.