New Moon ♌️
No, the Anglo-Saxons did not dedicate an entire month to getting totally and completely stoned…. I mean, if they did it was strictly off the record and besides which; wrong kind of hemp!
August comes around with slow, lazy heat. The sunset colours last for longer as the sun lingers lower in the morning and the nights are becoming darker earlier. As well as the first harvest of grain, there is also the hazelnuts falling to the ground, acorns growing on their branches, blackberries are growing dark and glossy. Haw berries are changing from green to red. And the Rowan berries are now a blazing red!
For the Anglo-Saxons, this month also saw the end of summer on the 7th as the season was now classed as haerfest “harvest” until November. It turns out they didn’t have a word for autumn or fall and simply referred to the season as above.
The harvest of grain, in this case: wheat, rye, barley and oats; was celebrated on the first of the month with the feast of Lammastide. Lammas comes from hlafmaess ‘loaf-mass’ and is thought to have been named in a Christian context, especially in reference to mass at the end. We also see this with Christmas, Candlemas, Martinmas; maess meaning both ‘mass’ (religious service) and festival.
Annoyingly enough, there aren’t any records on how exactly Lammas was celebrated, or if it came from a pre-Christian festival. It is thought that Lammas was a celebration of the first loaves of bread were made from the first harvest. Given that the grain harvest was responsible for supplying the winter food for both human and animal, it’s importance is now taken for granted. Perhaps the celebration wasn’t simply about bread, the same grain was also used to make ale!
The importance of harvest reminds me of the rune: Gēr, itself meaning ‘year’ and ‘harvest’:
“Harvest is men’s hope when God allows -holy king of heaven- the earth to give up her fair fruits to warriors and to wretches.”
Translation by Stephen Pollington.
Harvest depends on having the right amount of sun and rain, as well as keeping the grain free of pests and disease, if the circumstances are right then the harvest will be plentiful. Should there be either flooding, drought, the grain getting sick or the weather allowing pests to thrive….. then by harvest time serious thought would have been given to what livestock was to be killed or who would have to go without.
From the above, you can see how whatever harvest was gained, deemed it important enough to have it blessed in church, also how the Acerbot ‘Field Remedy’ was seen as a way of ensuring the success of the harvest for the following year.
Interestingly enough, it appeared the feast on the first of August had another name during the medieval age: the Gule of August. This would indicate that the beginning of the harvest season was seen as such a cause of celebration that it was dubbed the ‘Yule of August’. There is the possibility that this may have been an Anglicisation of the Welsh gwyl ‘feast’ as the Welsh name for the first of August was gwyl aust ‘Feast of August’. However there is no concrete evidence to suggest the Anglo-Saxons took their celebrations from the Britons as both cultures must have had their own celebrations of the harvest season.
‘Weed Month‘ does seem a strange name for the month of August, who leaves their weeding until then? However, Anglo-Saxon physicians believed that grown herbs were at their best by August to be prepared for medicine (leechcraft) as potions, powders and salves to be applied to the skin. Plantain (Rat’s Tails or Waybread) for antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties). Betony (All-heal or woundwort) for stopping bleeding and ridding one self of ‘elf sickness’. Chamomile for treating skin irritation and encouraging sleep, nettle for pain relief of rheumatism, eczema and general nutrition. Mugwort for stimulating menstruation, relieving cramp, protection from magic, crab apple (heart problems and detoxification). These are some of the ingredients to the ‘Nine Herbs Charm’ which was used to treat wounds and infections.
Indeed, when you look at the vegetation in the land during August, the trees and plants are abundantly grown. Some the trees even have a ‘tired’ look to them now as they prepare to shut down and shed their leaves as autumn continues towards winter. It appears that August was regarded as the month of harvest, with the first fruits being berries and grain. Yet also the harvest wasn’t simply of food stores, it was of medicines from the herbs and plants that grow all around; with all the trials and dangers that come with them.
In our home, our harvest from the wassailing performed earlier this year has seen our fig trees explode in size (we have taken four ripe figs on the day of writing- Sunday. We’ve plucked another 3 since!), plums are ripening and we have an abundance of raspberries and blackberries. As for our cherries, we haven’t had any! The pigeons have eaten them all, so there hasn’t been a yield of them for us. But for what we have had, I am thankful.
May whatever your own harvest be: fruit, fermented products to make alcohol with, food, friendship, I hope it is both abundant and plentiful.
Be well, and ‘appy August!’
Locksley. /|\
A Wise Fool 