By Mark Vigil
Guest contributor Mark Vigil is The Wall Street Caddy.
LAMMAS IS A PAGAN FESTIVAL that was once celebrated throughout Ireland and Great Britain in early August to mark the harvest of the season's first wheat crop. It is also referred to as the Gule of August.
Shakespeare understood the importance of the pagan festival. In Romeo and Juliet (1.3.19) he says "come Lammas Eve at night she (Juliet) be fourteen" — a strong symbolic reference given Juliet's ultimate destiny.
Over time, the Catholic church recognized the holiday, and somehow on the liturgical calendar it coincided with the feast of St.