Thanksgiving ceremonies and celebrations for a successful harvest are both worldwide and very ancient. In the UK the traditions of "Harvest Home" and "Harvest Festivals" are a mixture of the religious and the secular and take place in churches, chapels, schools and communities throughout the country, usually during the month of September.
THE ORIGINS OF THE FESTIVAL
Ever since primitive man learned to cultivate his own crops and become independent of the hunter-gatherer existence, a successful harvest has been a matter of life and death and an abundant harvest an occasion for celebration and thanksgiving.
CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS
Corn Dollies were, and still are, traditionally made from the last ears of wheat to be cut, and can be simple or elaborate according to the local style and the skill of the weaver. The Kern Baby is the last sheaf of wheat to be cut, which is bundled up and dressed in white trimmed with coloured ribbons to represent the Spring; both corn dollies and Kern Babies are kept until the new crop is sown the following year, when the preserved grain is added to ensure a successful crop.
In Scotland, the last sheaf of the harvest is called the Maiden, and must be cut by the youngest female in attendance.
HARVEST FESTIVALS
The Harvest Moon is the full moon which falls in the month of September, at or around the time of the Autumnal Equinox, and traditionally harvest festivals and harvest suppers are held on or near the Sunday of the harvest moon.
Churches, chapels and schools all around the country hold an annual Harvest Festival service. The congregation (or, in the case of schools, the staff and pupils) bring in gifts and offerings of produce - traditionally local produce but there is an increasing trend towards imported foods and even tinned goods, particularly at school harvest festivals. These are used to decorate the church or hall - ideally with a huge vegetable marrow as the centrepiece of the display - and in country districts the local farmer will donate a sheaf of wheat. Loaves of bread may also be baked in the shape of a wheatsheaf and used as decorations.
After the harvest thanksgiving service, particularly in rural communities, the congregation will move on to the Church or Village Hall for the Harvest Supper. The ladies of the community will all have been cooking and baking furiously, using the local fruit and vegetables and roasting local meat, and a good time will be had by all. The produce which decorated the church will be either auctioned to raise funds for the church or more usually, and always in the case of schools, made into parcels and distributed to elderly residents or taken to a nearby residential home.
Harvest Home celebrations are dying out with the almost universal mechanisation of farming and the consequent decline in the numbers of farm labourers. In past years, the whole community would work together to get the grain harvest (usually wheat, with barley and oats grown further north) in before the autumn weather closed in. Then, as the last sheaf was gathered and carried in procession into shelter, this bringing of the "harvest home" would be an occaasion for great rejoicing accompanied by feasting, music and dancing.
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