Harvest festival

A harvest festival is an annual celebration that occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. Because climates and crops differ around the world, these festivals happen at various times in different places. They usually include feasts, both for families and the public, featuring foods from the fresh crops.

In Britain, people have given thanks for good harvests since pagan times. Today, these festivals happen in September or October and include singing hymns, praying, and decorating churches with baskets of fruit and food.

Many cultures have their own harvest festivals. The Oromos in Ethiopia celebrate Irreecha to mark the end of the rainy season and the start of harvesting. In Asia, the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most popular harvest festivals. Other countries, like India and Iran, also have special harvest celebrations with unique traditions.

For Jews, the harvest festival of Sukkot is a week-long event in autumn. During this time, people build a temporary hut called a sukkah and live inside it, remembering how farmers once lived in similar shelters during the harvest. They also bring part of their harvest to the Temple in Jerusalem as a thank you.

Customs and traditions in English-speaking world

An early harvest festival was celebrated on 1 August and was called Lammas, meaning 'loaf Mass'. Farmers made loaves of bread from the fresh wheat crop and gave them to the local church as Communion bread during a special service to thank God for the harvest.

By the sixteenth century, several customs were established around the final harvest. These included reapers following a fully loaded cart, shouting "Hooky, hooky", and one of the main reapers dressing up and acting as 'lord' of the harvest, asking for money from onlookers. Early English settlers brought the idea of harvest thanksgiving to North America, where the most famous event was the harvest Thanksgiving held by the Pilgrims in 1621.

Today, the festival is held at the end of the harvest, which varies in different parts of Britain. Until the 20th century, most farmers celebrated the end of the harvest with a big meal called the harvest supper. Some churches and villages still have a Harvest Supper. The modern British tradition of celebrating the Harvest Festival in churches began in 1843. As people rely less on home-grown produce, many Harvest Festivals now also show concern for people in the developing world who struggle to grow enough crops.