Harvest Festivals

Background Information

Most schools maintain the custom of celebrating Harvest Festival early in the Autumn term. Although traditional food production (ploughing, sowing and harvesting) is outside the experience of many modern children, the festival can highlight a number of issues of contemporary importance.

Historical background to Harvest Festival
The celebration of Harvest in Britain dates back to pre-Christian times when the success of the crop governed the lives of the people. Saxon farmers offered the first cut sheaf of corn to one of their gods of fertility, in order to safeguard a good harvest the following year. The last sheaf was thought to contain the Spirit of the Corn, and its cutting was usually accompanied by the ritual sacrifice of an animal - often a hare caught hiding in the corn. Later, a model hare, made from straw, was used to represent the continuity of the Spirit. This practice eventually led to the making of plaited 'corn collies', symbolising the goddess of the grain. These were hung from the rafters in farmhouses until the next year. When the harvest was in, a celebratory supper was held to which the whole community was invited.

The now widespread practice of celebrating Harvest Festival in churches began in 1843, when the reverend Robert Hawker invited parishioners to a special thanksgiving service at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall. This led to the long-practised custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce.

Sukkot
The celebration of harvest is common to many other cultures as well. One of the most familiar is Sukkot, the Jewish festival of the Tabernacles. During this festival Jews build themselves sukkot, which are fragile little shelters decorated by fruit, vegetables, twigs and leaves. Blessings are given to God using the 'four species', a symbolic selection fo fruit and leaves comprising lulav (a palm shoot), hadas (myrtle leaves), arava (willow leaves) and etrog (a citron or large lemon). The objects probably symbolise the final harvest of the year, although there are several other interpretations.

Activities

Harvest and the world community
Many schools use Harvest Festival to focus attention upon problems in the wider world. The following stories can be used to investigate issues of PSE, and to increase children's awareness of the inequality in the distribution of the world's resources.

Art and craft / design technology
There are numerous opportunities for artwork deriving from the material in this chapter. Wall displays can reflect the varied nature of the harvest activities - the harvest of the land; the harvest of the sea; the harvest of the earth; 3-D pictures composed using autumn fruits and seeds, and collections of corn dollies.

Harvest food
One of the most rewarding activities is to bake harvest loaves. Children can also contribute to a harvest 'basket of life' in which individual qualities and virtues can be displayed alongside the fruit, flowers and vegetables.

This information was taken from the book Active Assemblies Through the Year written by Ian Addis. Click here for more information on this book.