Celebrating Hlāfmæsse
August 1st marks the celebration of one of my favorite of ancient festivals: Hlāfmæsse, or Loaf-Mass. This Anglo-Saxon Heathen festival was so powerfully ingrained in the hearts of the ancients that even as Christianity began dominating the landscape, the festival carried on in a Christian format. The suffix of -mass is a clear Christian association, while the prefix of Hlaf- is of ancient origin. Eventually, this festival became the more commonly known Lammas from Neopaga traditions.
Barley, Bread, Beer, and Bounty
Depending on where you may be in the world, the trees might be swelling with colorful fruits while the grasses and grains ripen with golden hue. Where I am, fruits are still slowly swelling while the grains are very close to their peak maturity. This is why we have several harvest celebrations- various food crops come to fruition at differing times which is a true saving grace to those who live off the land and must bring in each gain and each fruit.
In my practice, Hlāfmæsse is a celebration of the first harvest, a time when we see the fruits of our various labors start to mature. The days are still long and so hot, but there is a peaceful release in the air that lets us know all that can be done has been done. Now, we gather in the early crops of barley, wheat, cereals, and other grains and prepare them into foods for both nourishment and celebration- all the while nourishing gratitude in our hearts for the Old Gods, the Land Spirits, and the Ancestors who continue to bless, protect, and guide us.
One simple way to celebrate Hlāfmæsse is to bake bread! This year I’ll be making an Apple Loaf (recipe below) for the first time with locally-grown apples. While baking, you can meditate on the life cycle from ploughing to mounding, sowing seed to nurturing plant, flowers to fruit, then finally to harvest. The whole dance of life emerging from the compost-death of the land only to become a life-force-full gift from the land which will feed us and then return to the dark depths from which it emerged. A powerful cycle!
I honor my hearth God Ing-Freyr at this festival, along with much love and gratitude to Eorthe (Earth Mother) and Ylfe (Land Spirits in charge of vital energy). The first portions of your baked bread can be given as offerings of gratitude and power to the kindred spirits of your hearth with generous libations of stout beer and ancient prayers.
August 24, 2025 marks the beginning of the ancient month of Weodmōnaþ, Weed Month. A time when the last push of vital force moves through the land as Eorthe covers her soil-flesh before the cold comes. I think of this month as such a profound time for connecting to plants- seeing them grow, flower, fruit, seed, and eventually die back for the winter. Weodmōnaþ’s full moon falls on September 7, 2025 and the month ends on September21, 2025.
Brian Bates’ The Way of Wyrd is not just a novel—it is a soul map for those drawn to the ancestral threads of Northern European spirituality. Through the journey of the young Christian scribe Wat Brand, who is sent to study pagan practices among the Anglo-Saxons, readers are initiated into the mythic, animistic worldview of early English heathenry, presented through the eyes of the shamanic healer Wulf.
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I am so excited to try a different bread in celebration of this year’s Hlafmas. I am by no means a great baker, but thankfully there is an abundance of simple recipes that can be used to get in touch with the flavors, scents, and energies of the season. Here’s the one I’ll be making…
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