TO SAY THANK YOU FOR LIFE
All through history man saw himself as dependent on nature and on the gifts
of creation. Most religions know ceremonies which are meant to say thank
you for a successful harvest. Christianity has incorporated this thanksgiving
in the Eucharist when we thank for bread, which ‘earth has given and human
hands have made’, and for vine, ‘fruit of the vine and work of human hands’.
Churches usually celebrate Harvest Festival on the first Sunday in October.
The celebration is integrated into the church service. When I was a child,
fruits and garden produce were displayed around the altar, especially large
pumpkins or marrows, which looked impressive but were not very useful to
the people who got them as gifts. Often the gifts went to old people’s homes
and I was surprised that these people seemed to be more interested in the
communal singing than in the gifts, as we were asked to help taking the gifts
there and also take part in a little service which contained well known hymns
as ‘we plough the fields and scatter’. The harvest was and still is in many
churches combined with an activity of fundraising for the poor. At St
Oswald’s we collect gifts for the City Mission, and our gifts are of a more
practical nature.
In many rural communities the Harvest Festival is still celebrated with a meal
and with dancing. Not that we would engage in such a strenuous activity, but
we are still thinking of having a meal, circumstances permitting. In the alpine
regions of Europe, the harvest often is combined with the return of the cattle
from grazing in higher regions of the mountains, and to give thanks for a
year without accident, the cow leading the column of cattle would be wearing
wreaths of flowers and herbs.
Urban churches these days would have to find new and different ways of
celebrating harvest thanksgiving. It could for instance involve children
cooking or making decorations, but it isn’t easy to communicate to children
who get their food from supermarkets why we would celebrate harvest.
Assembling the ingredients for the cooking would give an impression o