Nice one Tisi - I find that a more satisfying explanation of the so-called "passage graves". That, or they were storage depots for local produce. Burying dead people in them seems like a waste of space, or something that came later. (The Westminster Abbey syndrome)
Getting back to Lughnasahd or “Lammas” day on the first of August, it would be nice if we were ahead of the game. For a change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LammasOn this day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop, which began to be harvested at Lammastide. The loaf was blessed, and in Anglo-Saxon England it might be employed afterwards to work magic: a book of Anglo-Saxon charms directed that the lammas bread be broken into four bits, which were to be placed at the four corners of the barn, to protect the garnered grain. In many parts of England, tenants were bound to present freshly harvested wheat to their landlords on or before the first day of August. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it is referred to regularly, it is called "the feast of first fruits". The blessing of first fruits was performed annually in both the Eastern and Western Churches on the first or the sixth of August (the latter being the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ).
Is this the origin of the Harvest Festival? Nowadays our locals bring tins of fruit and baked beans. So much easier than having to grow and harvest your own wheat.
William Hone speaks in The Every-Day Book (1838) of a later festive Lammas day sport common among Scottish farmers near Edinburgh. He says that they "build towers...leaving a hole for a flag-pole in the centre so that they may raise their colours." When the flags over the many peat-constructed towers were raised, farmers would go to others' towers and attempt to "level them to the ground." A successful attempt would bring great praise. However, people were allowed to defend their towers, and so everyone was provided with a "tooting-horn" to alert nearby country folk of the impending attack and the battle would turn into a "brawl." According to Hone, more than four people had died at this festival and many more were injured. At the day's end, races were held, with prizes given to the townspeople.
I would have liked to ask Edward Woodward if he would liked to have done that instead of being a Wicker Man.