![\"A](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/311\/2014\/07\/HerefordLantern-225x300.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/a>It is surprisingly hard to design rituals for large numbers of people that can involve everyone in the ritual.<\/p>\n
Some of my more successful attempts at creating ritual involving large numbers of active participants have happened at Lammas.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>Doing vs. Observing<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cRitual has to be more than just theatre, and that\u2019s often where things go awry in larger rituals. It often feels like there\u2019s one group of people\u00a0doing<\/em>\u00a0the ritual while everyone else is simply\u00a0observing<\/em>\u00a0it. The quarters are called but the only people who are a part of the process are the six or so folks standing in the center of the circle. What are the other thirty supposed to be doing? Are they even clued in to what\u2019s happening? Ritual shouldn\u2019t be passive, and if you find yourself or those around you passive during ritual something\u2019s not working.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0Jason Mankey, quoted by John Halstead in a post on ritual design<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, Lughnasadh was celebrated with games in honour of the goddess Tailtiu (pronounced Tahl-tee), the mother of Lugh. So it seems appropriate to have a game in one\u2019s Lammas ritual. Obviously the origins of Lammas (Hlaf-mass<\/em> in Anglo-Saxon) are different from Lughnasadh, but in contemporary Pagan practice, the two festivals are often splurged into one, in much the same way as Yule and Christmas are a glorious smorgasbord of customs and traditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Harvest Game<\/strong><\/p>\n
I got the idea for my Lammas game from J G Frazer\u2019s The Golden Bough<\/em> \u2013 so of course it is of highly dubious historical authenticity. It is also great fun.\u00a0 Frazer says that harvest traditions in many regions of Europe involved the reapers cutting the corn (wheat) with their scythes, until they reached the last clump of wheat in the field. At this point, the corn-spirit that inhabited the field was believed to have taken refuge in the last sheaf of corn, and this was cut with a special ritual, and bound up to be made into corn dollies. \u00a0(Note for North American readers: when I write corn, I do not mean maize<\/a>, I mean wheat<\/a>.)<\/p>\n
The Harvest Game involves two teams, the reapers and the corn. There is also the hare, who is the Corn Spirit. The job of the corn team is to try to protect the hare. The job of the reapers is to try to catch the hare. The reapers chase the hare, and the hare hides amongst the corn. If a reaper touches a member of the corn team, they are out and can no longer take part in the game. Eventually the reapers catch the hare, and then they throw grass heads or stems at him or her.<\/p>\n
The Lammas mime<\/strong><\/p>\n
The other ritual for Lammas that I devised for large numbers of people was to divide the participants into small groups of about six or seven people. They were then asked to come up with a simple and silent mime to represent the story of Lammas. They had about ten minutes to devise this. Then the groups took it in turns to perform their mime. One group mimed the death of the Corn King; another mimed the cutting of wheat; one mimed the funeral of the Corn King. All the mimes were different, and it was a surprisingly effective way of experiencing the harvest theme of Lammas.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is surprisingly hard to design rituals for large numbers of people that can involve everyone in the ritual. Some of my more successful attempts at creating ritual involving large numbers of active participants have happened at Lammas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1320,"featured_media":1967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,210],"tags":[287,288,289,110],"class_list":["post-1966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-story","category-praxis","tag-lammas","tag-lughnasadh","tag-participation","tag-ritual"],"yoast_head":"\n
Lammas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is surprisingly hard to design rituals for large numbers of people that can involve everyone in the ritual. Some of my more successful attempts at creating ritual involving large numbers of active participants have happened at Lammas.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lammas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is surprisingly hard to design rituals for large numbers of people that can involve everyone in the ritual. Some of my more successful attempts at creating ritual involving large numbers of active participants have happened at Lammas.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dowsing for Divinity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-08T10:03:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-26T16:31:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/311\/2014\/07\/HerefordLantern.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Yvonne Aburrow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Yvonne Aburrow\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/\",\"name\":\"Lammas\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-08T10:03:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-26T16:31:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/7c81436f22ac62c734bfff7da2e3fc7a\"},\"description\":\"It is surprisingly hard to design rituals for large numbers of people that can involve everyone in the ritual. Some of my more successful attempts at creating ritual involving large numbers of active participants have happened at Lammas.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lammas\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/\",\"name\":\"Dowsing for Divinity\",\"description\":\"Pagan Theology, Poetry, and Praxis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/7c81436f22ac62c734bfff7da2e3fc7a\",\"name\":\"Yvonne Aburrow\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1dba3f1b3f6f59c1a6d9cdab52066d3b?s=96&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1dba3f1b3f6f59c1a6d9cdab52066d3b?s=96&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Yvonne Aburrow\"},\"description\":\"Yvonne Aburrow has been a Pagan since 1985 and a Wiccan since 1991. She has an MA in Contemporary Religions and Spiritualities from Bath Spa University, and lives and works in Oxford, UK. She has written four books on the mythology and folklore of trees, birds, and animals, and two anthologies of poetry. She is the editor of the Theologies of Immanence wiki, a collaborative project for creating grass-roots Pagan theology. Her most recent books are \\\"All Acts of Love and Pleasure: inclusive Wicca\\\" and \\\"Pagan Consent Culture: Building Communities of Empathy and Autonomy\\\" with Christine Hoff Kraemer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/yaburrow.googlepages.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/author\/yvonne\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lammas","description":"It is surprisingly hard to design rituals for large numbers of people that can involve everyone in the ritual. Some of my more successful attempts at creating ritual involving large numbers of active participants have happened at Lammas.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lammas","og_description":"It is surprisingly hard to design rituals for large numbers of people that can involve everyone in the ritual. Some of my more successful attempts at creating ritual involving large numbers of active participants have happened at Lammas.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/","og_site_name":"Dowsing for Divinity","article_published_time":"2014-07-08T10:03:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-26T16:31:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"768","height":"1024","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/311\/2014\/07\/HerefordLantern.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Yvonne Aburrow","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Yvonne Aburrow","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/","name":"Lammas","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-08T10:03:25+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-26T16:31:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/7c81436f22ac62c734bfff7da2e3fc7a"},"description":"It is surprisingly hard to design rituals for large numbers of people that can involve everyone in the ritual. Some of my more successful attempts at creating ritual involving large numbers of active participants have happened at Lammas.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/07\/lammas\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lammas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/","name":"Dowsing for Divinity","description":"Pagan Theology, Poetry, and Praxis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/7c81436f22ac62c734bfff7da2e3fc7a","name":"Yvonne Aburrow","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1dba3f1b3f6f59c1a6d9cdab52066d3b?s=96&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1dba3f1b3f6f59c1a6d9cdab52066d3b?s=96&r=pg","caption":"Yvonne Aburrow"},"description":"Yvonne Aburrow has been a Pagan since 1985 and a Wiccan since 1991. She has an MA in Contemporary Religions and Spiritualities from Bath Spa University, and lives and works in Oxford, UK. She has written four books on the mythology and folklore of trees, birds, and animals, and two anthologies of poetry. She is the editor of the Theologies of Immanence wiki, a collaborative project for creating grass-roots Pagan theology. Her most recent books are \"All Acts of Love and Pleasure: inclusive Wicca\" and \"Pagan Consent Culture: Building Communities of Empathy and Autonomy\" with Christine Hoff Kraemer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/yaburrow.googlepages.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/author\/yvonne\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}