The first full moon after August 1st marks a Celtic Pagan harvest and fire festival called Lughnasa(dh), also called Freyfaxi, Lammas(tide), loaf mass, or August Eve. It marks the first wheat harvest and collecting seeds for future planting. It is one of the 8 Wiccan/Pagan holidays or Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year, and the first of three Autumn harvest festivals.
It is the half-way point between summer solstice and fall equinox, the days are getting shorter in preparation for equal days, but you wouldn't believe it here in the Okanagan, though, it has been in the mid 30s this month! This is a time of giving thanks and celebrating abundance, but also hard work and sacrifice. Other themes include fertility, union of sun and Earth, transformation, death and rebirth.
In 2016 a couple of friends of ours put into fruition an event that @Drutter and I had dreamed of (and celebrated) years earlier. We held the first annual B.C. Bud Day at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which moved to Thornton Park for the following years.
Although we miraculously made it to and helped host the 4th annual event in 2019 while massively pregnant, this year we cancelled/postponed the event because of COVID, but it happened organically anyway! I'm so happy that it happened without us, because it means we successfully created the event. Now we can reap what we've sowed years ago. We got it in enough people's minds that they will show up ritualistically at a specific time and place to celebrate.
It survived what the other stoner holidays could not and continued much needed activism and socialization this year. However, it probably looked more like a plain market than a festival or celebration because there were no activsts to make signs or facilitate events like the bakewalk.
B.C. Bud Day is one of the major Stoner Holidays in Vancouver, Canada along with the Global Marijuana March, 4/20,and Cannabis Day. B.C. Bud Day is also a harvest festival of world-renowned B.C. Bud. Some of the best growers in the world come from across Western Canada to showcase the fruits of their labour.
I'm sad that my old friend who is local to the area and often helps hosts such events (if his masters permit him), made no mention to me that he and other people intended to attend anyway, knowing that @Drutter and I can't just wake up and go anymore. Perhaps his ego was a little deflated from a cancelled 4/20 and Cannabis Day, so he opportunistically hosted the event with probably no credit whatsoever to the founders. It feels like intellectual theft, but the true founders of the event know what some people'll do for a free hamburger ;)
This year, I had a campfire with the ones I love most, my family. I gave thanks for real love and said farewell to fair-weather friends.
