15 Interesting Harvest Festival Facts You Need To Know Right Now!

Harvest season occurs at various times throughout the year depending on geography, climate, and crop, and festivals commemorating its arrival can be found worldwide.

Some are first-fruits festivals commemorating the start of the season and the first crops. In contrast, others are harvest festivals, celebrating the blessing of a plentiful harvest and marking or ensuring its recurrence.

Harvest festivals have mostly secularized into a more-general celebration in certain parts of the world.

The fall festival of thanksgiving, for example, is generally a national day of rest in Canada (the second Monday in October) and the United States (the fourth Thursday in November).

Other holidays, such as Lammas, also known by the Celtic name Lughnasadh and celebrated by Neo-Pagans and Wiccans, are no longer widely celebrated but are still commemorated by smaller groups.

Others are big religious holidays or remain significant events in the society in which they originated.

History Of Harvest Festival

The harvest festival is a long-standing event that honors farmers who have had a good harvest around the country. It now focuses on philanthropic giving, notably food sharing with individuals who lack necessities.

Since Pagan times, thanks have been given in Britain for successful harvests. The Harvest Moon Festival is held on the Sunday closest to or on the day of the Harvest Moon.

The full moon most comparable to the fall equinox is this one. Harvest festival, Harvest Home, Harvest Thanksgiving, or harvest festival of Thanksgiving are all festivals held on this day that includes singing hymns, praying, and decorating churches with baskets of fruit and food.

The harvest festival is a Pagan tradition that predates Christianity. Its name comes from the Old English word 'Haerfest', which means 'Autumn'. 

The Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker invited his parishioners to a unique harvest thanksgiving service at the church in Morwenstow, Cornwall, in 1843, which kick-started today's church celebrations.

Now on Thanksgiving day, everyone keeps coming to the church on hearing the church bells to perform the Durham ritual by giving something to the farmer's house like a big meal or even corn dolls.

Significance Of Harvest Festival

Harvest festival commemorates the time of year when crops are harvested, and people can thank the harvesters. It traces back to ancient Britain when people relied on crops for sustenance, and farmers would express gratitude after a successful harvest.

Very few people care about the peasants who toil all day in the blazing sun with their animals between the sky and the soil, enduring the monotony of the routine. They harvest supper for harvest homes. This day is all about paying gratitude for their hard work.

Everyone loves to view the field, which is always lush and green! But it's a marvel that only farmers can accomplish by providing so much to the flora and growing ripe gold corns on the field ready to harvest at harvest time, only to sow fresh seeds and cultivate new saplings, to cut rich crops at the following harvest.

So the farmer's work in the field continues indefinitely.

Great individuals toiled unnoticed and died unnoticed for a long time as bound laborers! They were extracted, exploited, and exhausted beyond repair by the old system.

As a result, the younger generation flocked to metropolitan centers to become modern! Science and technology infiltrated villages, completely altering the nature of agriculture.

The nation's economy is now suffering due to their mass migration to cities, and many agro-industries are required to reverse this trend in the countryside. The amenities of cities must be introduced to villages, and population increase must be tempered by supportive material growth.

Traditions Of Harvest festival

Many harvest customs and traditions stem from the animistic belief in spirits like the 'rice goddess', 'corn mother', or 'rice mother', who help cereal crops grow well.

Because these crops are a staple in most societies' diets (rice harvest), therefore, making a figure out of the last sheaf gathered, such as a corn dolly, was a standard part of the celebration.

Harvest celebrations typically involve a feast of freshly harvested crops, singing, and dancing.

They also include contests, and parades of adorned horse-drawn carts or tractors, all of which are open to the public.

Countries Where Harvest Festival Is Celebrated

Asia: Harvest festivals include the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the world's most extensively observed harvest festivals. This event takes place on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, which corresponds to mid-September to early October on the Gregorian calendar, with a full moon at night.

This event is top-rated among Chinese and Vietnamese people, but related celebrations like Chuseok (in Korea) and Tsukimi (in Japan) are also held around the same time.

Vaisakhi, Makar Sankranti, Onam, Lohri, Pongal, Uttarayana, and Bihu are some of the many harvest festivals of the Republic of India.

Europe: Erntedankfest (Harvest Thanksgiving) is traditionally celebrated in Austria and Germany on the first Sunday after Michaelmas, September 30 or later.

 The first Sunday in October is now recommended by Protestant and Catholic churches.

Bénichon is commemorated in Catholic portions of French-speaking Switzerland. It combines the harvest celebration, thanksgiving, and Rindya, the day when livestock are brought back from high-altitude pastures in the Alps, and so all villagers return. A feast with a seven-course menu is frequently included in the celebration.

The farmers in Germany used to have German harvest hymns.

North America: In October and November, Canada and the United States of America hold their respective Thanksgiving ceremonies.

Thanksgiving is actually an annual holiday in the United States, observed on the fourth Thursday in November, towards the end of the harvest season. 

It is customarily a time to express gratitude for worldly and spiritual possessions and give thanks for the harvest.

Thanksgiving dinner is traditionally a get-together of family and friends. It's a day for eating, drinking, and watching football games, parades, and TV shows. Thanksgiving is generally recognized as a secular holiday, despite its historical, mythological, and symbolic significance about the Native Americans' rescue of English settlers at Plymouth, Massachusetts, following a harsh winter.

Thanksgiving, also known as Thanksgiving Day in Canada, takes place on the second Monday in October. It is an annual celebration celebrated at the end of the harvest season to express gratitude. Although some people give thanks to God for this blessing, the festival is now primarily regarded as secular.

United Kingdom of Great Britain: Since Pagan times, thanks have been given in the United Kingdom for successful harvests. Harvest festivals, Harvest Home Festivals, Harvest Thanksgiving Festivals, and harvest festivals of Thanksgiving are held on Sunday, which is the closest to Harvest Moon, probably the full moon closest to the fall equinox (September 22 or 23).

On this day, songs are frequently sung, prayers are said, and churches are decorated with fruit and food baskets.

Tenants in various regions of England were required to deliver freshly produced wheat to their landlords on or before August 1. It is known as 'the feast of early fruits' in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, frequently mentioned. They follow the modern British tradition.

The feast was occasionally referred to as the 'Gule of August' in England and Scotland throughout medieval times. Ronald Hutton says it is simply an Anglicization of Gyl Awst, the Welsh term for the 'feast of August'.

FAQs

Who invented the harvest festival?

In 1843, Reverend Robert Hawker started the harvest festival.

How did the harvest festival start?

Lammas, which means 'loaf Mass,' was a Harvest Festival on August 1, marking the start of the harvest season. Farmers used the new fresh wheat crop to make loaves of bread and donated them to their local church.

After that, they were used as Communion bread in a special liturgy, thanking God for the crop. When Henry VIII ran away from the church, the custom died out, and we now have harvest festival celebrations after the season.

What is a harvest festival?

An annual harvest festival around the time of a region's biggest harvest. Harvest festivals may be found at various periods and locations worldwide due to changes in climate and crops. Harvest celebrations are usually marked by private and public eating, with meals derived from harvests.

Why do farmers celebrate Harvest Festival?

When people began farming in temperate settings, they discovered that harvesting food in the winter was complicated. As a result, enough food had to be produced in the spring, summer, and fall to survive through the winter.

The harvest season was hectic since people didn't want their produce to ripen for too long (causing it to rot). As a result, harvesting was a collaborative endeavor. After all of the crops had been stored, it was time to celebrate a successful harvest as well as solid collaboration.

Is thanksgiving a harvest festival?

Thanksgiving Day is a US and Canadian national holiday that commemorates the harvest and other benefits of the previous year.

What to bring to the harvest festival?

You can bring instant coffee, cooking oil, vegetables, sugar, noodles, rice, pasta, and many more freshly harvested foods that are accepted and welcomed.

What is the purpose of harvest?

Harvesting is gathering mature fruits or vegetables from the field by farmers. Harvesting is critical to preserve the harvests and sell them in the future correctly.1