Harvest is the most essential season in agriculture when the product is collected and stored for the first time. Farmers can celebrate their hard work throughout the harvest season before beginning another season.
As a result, harvest celebrations have grown in popularity in certain towns. Harvest Festival is a yearly celebration celebrated by farmers and villagers during the major harvest seasons in a specific region as a thanksgiving ceremony for a successful harvest in the past. They also pray for good crops in the future.
Every farmer can tell you that harvest is the most hectic but enjoyable time of the year. It is stressful and needs lots of planning, several big machinery, and a good wind – however, a flourishing harvest can give plentiful flour, beer, biscuits, and breakfast cereal for the coming year.
The weather plays a vital part in an exceedingly thriving harvest. A wet season and winter will stop some farmers from getting crops into the ground, whereas a dry spring leaves grains without the necessary valuable water.
Communities all around the world rely on agriculture for food or income. Some communities solely rely on agricultural products to feed their families.
Harvest festivals are celebrated in different regions and countries or states with other names and seasons worldwide due to climatic and cultural differences. Harvest festivals are mainly celebrated by a successful gathering of villagers offering various dishes and cuisine from the harvested crop.
Farmers and villagers decorate their religious places, such as temples and churches, with flowers, sing traditional songs, and recite prayers. Every Harvest festival celebrated worldwide has a different name in traditional differences in other countries and regions.
1. Origin of Harvest Festival
If you talk mainly about the UK, since pagan times here in the UK, people always valued good crops. Depending on local customs, harvest festivities are held in September or October, known as the Thanksgiving festival. Modern Harvest activities include singing hymns, praying, and adorning churches with baskets of fruit and food.
Farmers and villagers used to praise the pagan gods when all the crops were successfully harvested each fall on harvest day, assuring nourishment for the rural community for the months ahead.
At the start of the summer, labourers’ travelling parties sought employment from farms, and the crop-picking season concluded with a large feast for everybody, known as the harvest supper.
This custom was carried on for generations, but the first formal Harvest Festival in Britain was not documented in history until 1843, when Rev Robert Hawker of Morwenstow, Cornwall, brought local parishioners into his home to receive the Sacrament in “the bread of the fresh crop.”
2. History of Harvest Festival
The name “harvest” represents “autumn” and is derived from the Old English word “hærf-est,” which correctly characterizes the harvest season in the area. This was a critical season in which performance may mean the difference between life and death.
A bountiful crop has ensured that the community would be fed through the potentially bleak winter months. But it is no surprise that it was a superstitious period, and if it succeeded, it was a tremendous delight. Many of these traditions may be traced back to Christianity.
Lammas, which means “bread market,” was celebrated on August 1, marking the start of the harvest season. Farmers baked bread using the fresh wheat crop and donated it to the local church. It was then served as communion bread at special Masses to honour God for the harvest. The ritual ceased when Henry VIII abandoned the Catholic Church, and today, a harvest celebration is conducted after the season.
The community nominated an influential and respected man from the hamlet as the “harvest king” at the start of the harvest. He is in charge of bargaining agricultural pay and organizing field labourers.
On Michaelmas Day, the harvest dinner was served to commemorate the conclusion of the harvest. At the head of the table sat the “Lord of the Harvest.” The goose was stuffed with apples and served with a variety of veggies. At this time of year, goose markets are conducted in English towns.
Apart from corn, harvest time involves many other crops, including apples, cherries, hops, and potatoes. An annual September vacation to the hop fields of Kent gave a breath of fresh air to families living in polluted districts of London in the early half of the twentieth century.
Apples are harvested afterward during the year, generally around October. Over 2,000 kinds of these delicious fruits were produced in the UK, but it is currently difficult to locate more than a few cultivated here in shops. That is why going to an apple day or festival in the countryside, where you can sample a variety of tasty apples, is always a joy.
These were working vacations, and the accommodations were overcrowded and unsanitary. However, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many youngsters to experience the countryside, seeing their first cows and roaming free through the forests and fields.
3. When is Harvest Festival in the UK Celebrated?
The Harvest Festival is a traditional festival held in England every year on harvest day in the British farming calendar and is an important annual event. Although the UK doesn’t have a national holiday for the harvest festival, as the Harvest Festival in the UK has no official date.
It is usually held around Sunday near the full moon, the mid-autumn harvest moon. The full moon occurs on the autumn equinox day closest to autumn. Mid-autumn moons typically appear in September but may not arrive by October. Also, local harvest time plays a significant role in celebrating the harvest festival.
The celebration expresses gratitude for the food grown on the land, which is why it is an essential event in the rural calendar. During harvest celebrations in the United Kingdom, various activities occur for an entire week in churches and schools, where the harvest festival is majorly celebrated.
4. Agriculture Work in the UK During Harvest Festival
Like everywhere in the world, farmers in rural areas in the United Kingdom were also used to doing all the manual labour work on farms with traditional hand tools. That time was around the 19th century, which was also considered the best time as, during that time, everyone in the family used to help in the field for farming due to modern agricultural equipment and machinery, thereby making strong community relations.
Introducing contemporary agricultural technology and machinery has made farm work simpler, faster, and more efficient. The modernization of farming equipment and machinery reduced the amount of labour necessary while increasing farmer production overall.
Farmers now employ power machinery to complete jobs they used to undertake with animals. This hybrid strategy of current farming practices has enhanced output while decreasing labour requirements.
4.1. Top Activities and Traditions that Farmers follow
For many years, the harvest festival in the UK has followed numerous activities and customs. Still, the central tradition around which the festival revolves is offering prayers and gratitude rituals for bountiful harvests.
The traditional celebration consists of singing songs, hymns, and traditional prayers. Typically, guests bring food, which is distributed to the needy, impoverished, and local community. Food is sometimes sold to raise revenue for charitable causes.
Many old Pagan festivities, such as Christmas and Halloween, have been accepted by the Christian church or as non-religious events, borrowed from Winter Solstice and Celtic New Year traditions. These seasonal events have lasted in British folklore and legacy despite shifting major faiths because they originate in nature and the seasons.
Before the widespread use of imports, a strong harvest was critical to the community’s ability to weather the winter. This is why a Harvest Festival has been in the UK for thousands of years. So, what kinds of Harvest customs exist? Modern festivities in England frequently include:
- Historically, every day of the harvest, church bells could be heard. The horse pulling the last cart load was adorned with flower garlands and bright ribbons. To commemorate the completion of the harvest, a spectacular Harvest feast was prepared at the farmer’s home, and games were performed.
- Various harvest ceremonies are associated with the arrival of maize or other cereal crops. For instance, one of its field’s traditions is ‘Hollaing Largesse.’ If an outsider went through an East Anglian harvesting field, the reapers would form a circle and perform traditional melodies. The stranger is then required to offer a payment to them to help pay for their harvest meal.
- In the harvest field, a final pile of maize held particular significance. In Cornwall, a reaper chops this with a scythe and raises it, screaming. In some areas of the nation, the event is known as ‘Crying the Mare,‘ it is performed at a different time.
- That last handful of corn stalks may have been braided into a ‘corn dolly.’ This signified the corn’s spirit and was retained until the following spring to ensure a successful harvest the following year. This is known as a Kern Baby in Hampshire and a Kirn Babby in Devon. However, the corn dolly is not usually shaped like a human. The Cambridgeshire Handbell, Durham Chandelier, and Worcester Crown are examples of regional dollies.
- The modern British tradition of celebrating the Harvest Festival in churches began in the 1840s when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited parishioners to an exceptional thanksgiving service at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall. In translation, victorian, Dutch and German harvest hymns helped popularise his idea of a harvest festival. They spread the annual custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce for the Harvest Festival service.
- Rev Piers Claughton of Elton, Huntingdonshire, was another early adoption of the custom as an organized part of the Church of England calendar in or about 1854.
- Many Harvest Festival celebrations have shifted in emphasis as British people have begun to rely less primarily on home-grown products. Harvest has been increasingly associated with an awareness of and concern for those in need of essential food, for whom raising crops of adequate quality and quantity remains a challenge.
- Development and relief organizations frequently provide tools for use in churches during harvest season that emphasize their concerns for those in need all around the world.
- One of the most important traditions, without which the harvest festival is incomplete, is decorating churches with flowers and fruits grown on their farm. Plenty of traditions followed in earlier times vanished today and are no longer observed.
5. Food And Recipes Made and Served During Harvest Festival
After a long day of harvesting crops on the farm, everyone would meet for a Harvest Supper. They would eat the autumn fruits and veggies while singing and playing games. They make use of seasonal ingredients and flavours or re-create old favourites. Here is a list of foods that are prepared for the Harvest Festival in the UK.
- Apple toffee
- Bread cooked from scratch
- Festival of the Harvest Loaf of Sheaf
- Dishes with apples and berries
- Roasted vegetables
- Cakes, pies, and tarts
- Dishes using pumpkin
5.1. Chocolate-Swirled Pumpkin Muffins
Looking for something sweet? Nothing exactly shouts fall like a pumpkin. Why not transform the innards of your pumpkin into a tasty, guilt-free snack this year instead of wasting it? To make delicious, easy pumpkin muffins, check out the recipe.
5.2. Corn Dollies
Corn dollies have been made for thousands of years, and symbolic corn dolls are an integral part of this festival. It was a Pagan tradition that originated from the beliefs of maize growers who believed in the Corn Spirit.
5.2.1. Materials Used to Make Corn Dollies
Maize dollies were created from the last sheaf of corn harvested during harvest. To ensure a bountiful harvest, the Corn Spirit was said to live or be reincarnated in the plaited straw decoration or corn doll, maintained until the following spring. The corn dolly was frequently honoured at the harvest banquet table.
5.3. Pumpkin Pie
The pumpkin and pumpkin pie are both harvest symbols. Pumpkin pie is often consumed in the fall and early winter. It is typically cooked for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays when pumpkin is in season in the United Kingdom neighbourhood.
The invention of automation in the 1800s put an end to the trade, but it was reintroduced as a fascinating pastime.
6. In The End
Crops are the farmers’ most significant investment. They work hard till the crops are harvested. So, a successful harvest is what they require, filling them with immense gratitude; hence, they get excited while celebrating this great festival.
However, with generations, ancient traditions also changed as they passed from one generation to the other. But despite that, the harvest festival in the UK is still celebrated in the United Kingdom with immense joy and enthusiasm.
Last Updated on January 6, 2024 by Apeksha Soni