It represents the beginning of the harvest cycle. In Western paganism, it is a grain festival which is sometimes called the Sabbat of the First Fruits. Lammas or Lughnassadh honors the Celtic God Lugh and may also have some association with the Roman Moon Goddess, Luna. Lugh was a God of harvest, fire, light and sun. He was King of the Tuatha De Danaan and the consort of Dana, the first Great Mother Goddess of Ireland. Dana, as Lugh's Queen and Mother Goddess, is also honored on this Sabbat.

Lugh's sacrificial death and rebirth as a sheaf of grain at Lughnasadh is often re-enacted on Lammas, symbolizing that even a God must eventually bow down to his Goddess through whose benevolence he is reborn. Other rituals on this Sabbat contain enactments of growth, birth, honor, and thanks to the Goddess from whose womb they grew, and thanks to Lugh in his aspect as Sun God for blessing and impregnating the womb with heat and light.