Per Wikipedia, “August 1 is Lammas Day (loaf-mass day), the festival of the wheat harvest, and is the first harvest festival of the year. On this day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop.”
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Neotraditionalists prefer some variation on Lughnasadh, either because Lammas is ‘too Xtian-centric’ or because everything looks more traditional when you throw in a bunch of silent consonants (/snark, but with love).
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So: the day on which we start to reap what we have sown, which in my neighborhood is going to be fresh local corn-on-the-cob and home-grown tomatoes. Tragic metaphors reworking the pathetic fallacy can wait for business hours; may your late summer be gentle and all your harvests prosperous!
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Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Fresh corn, maters and basil salad!
bjacques
And a happy Lammastide to you all!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryg27FqWdHA
Amir_Khalid
Also, Ramadan begins today.
MikeJ
Why oh why can’t US “news” people go on strike and BBC stay on?
Anne Laurie
@Amir_Khalid: Is it correct to say Ramadan Mubarak? I do plan to post another Open Thread this evening, but of course that’ll be too late for BJ correspondents on the other side of the globe!
Amir_Khalid
@Anne Laurie: Of course it is, and it’s always a welcome thing to hear.
arguingwithsignposts
As for reaping what we’ve sown, is it the whirlwind you’re referring to?
If so, here’s how the orange one tried to sell the debt ceiling deal to his caucus (per tpm):
Steeplejack
I got yer Lammas loaf right here.
Sorry, couldn’t resist. Cranky this morning because I am off in a few minutes to see both the dentist (two crowns) and the dermatologist (skin cancer biopsy). Long day of buses, walking in the heat and dead waiting time.
My body feels like it’s falling apart.
Baud
White House sheet on the deal is here.
One noteworthy thing: Even though Congress must vote on the Super-Congress’s recommendations by December of this year, the “triggers” if the recommendations don’t pass won’t take effect until 2013, after the election. If fact, the triggers are set to go off on the same day that the Bush tax cuts are set to expire (1/1/13).
P.S. Hate to blog and run, but I’ve got to go to work. Have a good day, everyone.
JPL
@Baud: Thanks for the White House spin on the debt deal.
This is not a win for either side, imo. The republicans don’t want to cut defense and the possible increase in medicare cost, although it appears to be minimal, is not a win for the democrats.
If middle class tax cuts increase when the Bush tax cuts expire, that will be because the Republican House refused to extend them.
Mark S.
I knew Pam Geller would come to her senses and come out in favor of shooting 90 children. This will not affect her being invited on cable news shows and being the subject of NYT stories. Both sides do it!
John O
I’ve about had it with this President and this Congress. Gimme a default. Let’s pick the scab and get this national decline over with.
arguingwithsignposts
@Mark S.: Wow, i didn’t think atlas gellar could be outdone, but here’s debbie schussel (lgf commenter ht):
Sick.
JPL
Mark S and Aruguing, Maybe there is no hope left if these folks are still allowed to spew their hatred.
Mark S.
@arguingwithsignposts:
Ugh. I’d forgotten about Debbie. She’s about the only person sicker than Geller.
OzarkHillbilly
I recently found the Daily Snopes If you need a laugh this morning (and who doesn’t) check it out. You will find such gems as “Man stuck in manhole for 40 minutes”:
“Police said Medeiros only suffered some minor scrapes and contusions. They also found that he was intoxicated, but not impaired, the TV station said.”
Not real sure how that can be.
Svensker
Also Happy Civic Day! Civic Day is also known as George Hamilton Day in some parts of Canada — mandatory tanning, one assumes.
Paul in KY
Huh? I thought Lughnasadh was when we feasted on the imminent waking of mighty cthullu who will make all those who opposed him wail in the lake of eternal fire.
You mean it’s not that?!
Poopyman
Ramadan Mubarak, Amir!
Ah yes, Lammas Day. The (nearly) forgotten of the cross-quarter days. Those are the points midway (more or less) between solstices and equinoxes, the others being Halloween/All Saints Day, Groundhog Day, and May Day. This marking of the waypoints of the year has been around for a long time.
This has been a brutal summer in so many ways. Besides the politics, the heat and drought have left nearly everything here in Tidewater Maryland scorched and brown. Only significant watering keeps the veggie garden producing. All else has faded, and the trees are losing their leaves.
October has always been my favorite time of year, and I’m looking forward to it all the more this year for relief.
Tlachtga
I wish Lammas/Lughnassadh had made its way into the modern American calendar–not only because I’m a covert Druid, but mostly because I want more days off.
Origuy
You’d love the signs here in the Highlands; they’re all bilingual in English and Scottish Gaelic. I’m trying to learn enough to get the pronunciations right. Lammas in Gaelic is Lùnastal.