“The grain to harvest’s cutting falls
to make the bread for banquet halls.
We’ll save some seeds where life’s waiting,
and plant a new field come next Spring.
We shared the work we needed to do,
and now we’ll share the eating too!
Thank you, fruit, and thank you bread,
for making sure that we are fed.”

–  Asleen O’Gaea, Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Litha to Lammas

Thoroughly clean, dust, tidy up, refreshen, improve, and add appropriate seasonal decorations to your home altar.  This should normally be clean and tidy, however an extra cleaning before the Lughnasadh celebration is a way to express your reverence, create a visible reminder of your thoughts and devotional practices, and to offer hospitality to the nature spirits, ancestors, and Shining Ones. If you don’t have a home altar, read some books and webpages about setting one up in your home or garden, and then establish one this holiday season. 

A large fire is often lit in your safe outdoor fireplace as part of celebrating Lughnasadh.  Take special care because many areas are quite dry in early August.  Maybe use a few fireworks left over from the Fourth of July in America.

Read solitary or group rites for Lughnasadh available in books and webpages.  Create your own ritual for Lughnasadh.  Practice the ritual.  Conduct the ritual at a convenient time for you, or your family and/or friends, as close to the day of the autumnal equinox as possible.  Attend a public Lammas ritual of a local NeoPagan group. 

Stay at home.  Improve your home, backyard, or garden.  Eliminate long driving trips.  Do you really need to “Go” anywhere?  Do you really need to fly by airplane to another country?  Explore your backyard, neighborhood, local community, nearby city, county wide area, regional area within 100 miles.  Visit a local “sacred site.”

Add some appropriate Lammas, Lughnasadh, or Mid-Summer songs, chants, prayers, reflections, invocations, or poems to your Neo-Pagan Craft Journal, Book of Shadows, blog, website, or Ritual Handbook.  Write in your personal journal.  Most spiritual seekers keep a notebook, journal or log as part of their experimental, creative, magical and experiential work. 

Working and meditating in the garden is an important facet of any spiritual path.  We need to regularly reconnect with the earth and the autumn season outdoors. Tend your garden daily.  Water your garden each day.  Weed your vegetable garden.  Harvest squash, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables from your garden each day.  Review your own lists of chores for July and August, and act accordingly.   

The Celtic God, Luga (Lugh, Long Hand), is noted for his high level skills in many arts and crafts: smith, carpenter, bard, healer, herbalist, magician, gamesman, spear throwing, military leadership, etc.  Get out your paintbrush.  Fix something in the yard or garden or home.  Tidy up the garden.  Create something, make something.  Start learning a new practical skill or craft.  

Check out astronomical details about the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius, in late July, and the beginning of the “Dog Days of Summer.”  

Do some thinking, reflection, or discursive meditation on various themes.  Here are some themes to reflect upon:  What are the relations between Chaos, Gaia, and Eros?  What role does more sunlight play in bringing forth the bountiful harvest?  What does summertime mean to you?   

Renew supplies of your favorite ritual-recreational drug: coffee, tobacco, alcohol (whiskey, beer, wine), fuzzy herbs, etc.. Beer and whiskey, made from barley, are often part of joyful summer harvest feast celebrations.  Read about the song John Barleycorn.

Prepare for the “Games” of the First Harvest Feast.  The Greek Olympics and Roman Heracleia games were held at this time.  What games might you play?  Horseshoes, boche ball, races, swimmng races, croquet, volleyball, badminton, frisbee, baseball, wrestling, spear throwing, arrow shooting, weight tossing ….  Get your equipment and playing court ready, and practice. 

Read about and make a loaf of bread.  Loaves of bread are a traditional part of the First Harvest Feast.  Break bread into four pieces and place at each of the Four Corners altars.   Lammas means “Loaf Mass” in the Welsh language.  Sharing bread is a common feature of a Lammas celebration.  What is the role of baking bread in human culture?  Find a really good bakery in your area.