We are delighted that our 2019 Country Wisdom & Folklore Diary has arrived from our wonderful local printers WPG bang on time for Lammas which could not be more fitting. We have spent the year gathering folklore snippets from around the British Isles, creating images, researching, writing and publishing the diary in our endeavour to keep alive the old ways and celebrate the year which has culminated in the 2019 diary which is now ripe and ready for picking and available to buy from our web shop and Amazon.
Its full of the eccentricities, superstitions, sayings, stories, interesting snippets, recipes, nature and seasonal celebrations. Some of the folklore has come directly from readers of the previous diary or people who have responded to our folklore 'shout outs' when we have been on local radio or local newspapers. Please do feel you can contribute to our ever increasing records of folklore that people remember and use now and from and from remembering the superstitions and ways of past family members.
Below are a couple of pages from this years diary.
Lammas was the season of first fruits and bringing in the wheat and grain crop. A ritual harvest loaf was made from the new wheat. It was one of the ancient quarter days the others being Candlemas, Whitsuntide and Martinmas. The quarter days were later changed to Lady day, Midsummer, Michaelmas and Christmas. Lammas was the day that people had their accounts made up and some think the origin of its name as it was known as 'Later Lammas,' meaning 'last day of accounts.' Another explanation is that the 1st August was when priests gathered 'tithe lambs' or that it comes from the Saxon word 'Leffemesse' or the old English Hlafmaesse meaning Loaf-mass day. Whatever the origin of the name it became a time when a mix of pagan and Christian ways become mixed together to form a celebration of bringing in the harvest.
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