Its harvest festival time of year again ...

LordSutch

Our Church is holding the annual harvest festival service this Sunday week, and the Rector & his wife are looking for able body people to help and provide the usual fruit n'veg, bread, wheat, etc to decorate the inside of the Church ...

I love the Harvest Festival service because it marks a season change, from the very end of summer, to the beginning autumn with chestnuts falling off the trees + the beginning of darker/colder nights. I love the smell in the Church, the atmosphere & the harvest hymns. For me its just a nice happy thanksgiving service with a very good feel good factor + the knowledge that all the produce collected will go the the homeless, & those not so well off in our community.

When is your Harvest thanksgiving service, and what are your thoughts, memories?

We plough the fields and scatter . . . .

katydid

LordSutch wrote: »

Our Church is holding the annual harvest festival service this Sunday week, and the Rector & his wife are looking for able body people to help decorate the Church, and provide the usual fruit n'veg, bread, wheat, etc to decorate the inside of the Church ...

I love the Harvest Festival service because it marks a season change, from the very end of summer, to the beginning autumn with chestnuts falling off the trees + the beginning of darker/colder nights. I love the smell in the Church, the atmosphere & the harvest hymns. For me its just a nice happy thanksgiving service with a very good feel good factor + the knowledge that all the produce collected will go the the homeless, & those not so well off in our community.

When is your Harvest thanksgiving service, and what are your thoughts, memories?

We plough the fields and scatter . . . .

I only came to it as an adult and I love it. All you've said says it all.

I'm a city girl, born and raised in the suburbs. Having said that, I'm an avid gardener and allotmenteer, so I do appreciate the food we grow. But even if you have no interest in these things, it really makes you feel close to nature, and makes you appreciate the wonder of creation.

LordSutch

Anymore harvest thanksgiving posters ?

Would love to hear how your Church is decorated, etc . . .

Berserker

Our church is in a strange location and we have a mixture of "townies" like myself, who wouldn't know a whole lot about country living and an equal amount of true country people, who live and breath country life. The country folk really take the lead at this time of year in the church and they do a fantastic job. The rest of us jump in and help them out. The variety of fresh produce, home made breads and the like is just remarkable. It really is a special time of year. I love the Autumn and Winter myself, so the service signifies the beginning of that time of year for me. We gather our food into hampers, trying to balance the amount of fruit, veg, tinned food etc in each of them and send them to a local charity.

katydid

LordSutch wrote: »

Anymore harvest thanksgiving posters ?

Would love to hear how your Church is decorated, etc . . .

Going to the service in Dunmore East next Sunday. I'll report back!

homer911

Not having hours until the 18th
Church grounds autumn cleanup and church decoration the day before

LordSutch

Talking of cleaning up the Church grounds...

Shedloads of leaves @ this time of year + many bin bags and I've done my bit outside, while leaving the ladies to decorate the inside of the Church for harvest

hinault

LordSutch wrote: »

Our Church is holding the annual harvest festival service this Sunday week, and the Rector & his wife are looking for able body people to help and provide the usual fruit n'veg, bread, wheat, etc to decorate the inside of the Church ...

I love the Harvest Festival service because it marks a season change, from the very end of summer, to the beginning autumn with chestnuts falling off the trees + the beginning of darker/colder nights. I love the smell in the Church, the atmosphere & the harvest hymns. For me its just a nice happy thanksgiving service with a very good feel good factor + the knowledge that all the produce collected will go the the homeless, & those not so well off in our community.

When is your Harvest thanksgiving service, and what are your thoughts, memories?

We plough the fields and scatter . . . .

Never heard of this until reading this thread?

Is this a protestant concept?
Or just a culchie concept?
Or both?

katydid

hinault wrote: »

Never heard of this until reading this thread?

Is this a protestant concept?
Or just a culchie concept?
Or both?

You never heard of a Harvest Festival? That's surprising, I must say. I know it's not the RC tradition, but I would have thought you'd have heard of it in popular culture.

katydid

katydid wrote: »

Going to the service in Dunmore East next Sunday. I'll report back!

It was cancelled. :-( Not the service, but the Harvest. Long story, but I was disappointed. However, the service was very moving, given the gospel of the day, and I'm glad I went.

Next Sunday in Tramore instead for the Harvest service.

katydid

Berserker wrote: »

Our church is in a strange location and we have a mixture of "townies" like myself, who wouldn't know a whole lot about country living and an equal amount of true country people, who live and breath country life. The country folk really take the lead at this time of year in the church and they do a fantastic job. The rest of us jump in and help them out. The variety of fresh produce, home made breads and the like is just remarkable. It really is a special time of year. I love the Autumn and Winter myself, so the service signifies the beginning of that time of year for me. We gather our food into hampers, trying to balance the amount of fruit, veg, tinned food etc in each of them and send them to a local charity.

A lot of us are removed from direct contact with the land nowadays, and in a way the traditional form of the harvest festival seems to be out of kilter with our modern lifestyle. But people do like to re-connect with that element of our society, even if it's on one day a year.

And of course, harvest is a great chance to look at the bigger picture of the environment and our stewardship of nature, something we all can connect with. I was involved in a harvest festival last year, and that's the theme I took.

Peregrinus

LordSutch wrote: »

Talking of cleaning up the Church grounds...

Shedloads of leaves @ this time of year + many bin bags and I've done my bit outside, while leaving the ladies to decorate the inside of the Church for harvest

Good to see that gender stereotying is alive and well!

LordSutch

Yes indeed our Church is very stereotypical, with some of the ladies also baking cakes & making tea, while men lift & move oak benches & stack piles of chairs in the hall.

PS: How was your harvest thanksgiving service?

Nekarsulm

Tonight, 8pm. Corlespratten. Cavan. (Tea afterwards, naturally! )

Peregrinus

LordSutch wrote: »

Yes indeed our Church is very stereotypical, with some of the ladies also baking cakes & making tea, while men lift & move oak benches & stack piles of chairs in the hall.

PS: How was your harvest thanksgiving service?

I'm a Catholic. We don't have harvest thanksgiving services.

(More stereotyping!)

Plus, I live in Western Australia. It's not harvest time. Harvest Festival isn't a big thing for Anglicans in these parts, but those parishes that do celebrate it mostly do so in February/March. (Which, oddly enough, is also not harvest time, except for grapes.)

looksee

...the good seed on the land
And it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand.
He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,
The breezes and the sunshine, and soft, refreshing rain.

I think those are the right words, they have been stored in the back of my head for nearly 50 years. This is the warm, feelgood aspect of religion that I could live with, I do not feel any contradiction between claiming to be atheist and accepting the analogy of the process of nature with direction by a higher being. It is the entirely wholesome and beneficial act of being grateful for and appreciative of the positive aspects of life.

sbsquarepants

All sounds very pagan to me:eek:

looksee

sbsquarepants wrote: »

All sounds very pagan to me:eek:

Precisely And lovely with it.

brian_t

RTE One (Television) is showing a Harvest Thanksgiving Service with Choir and congregation from Sligo Grammar School at 11am this Sunday.

Keplar240B

Most gracious God, by whose knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew:
We yield thee hearty thanks and praise for the return of seedtime and harvest,
for the increase of the ground and the gathering in of its fruits,
and for all the other blessings of thy merciful providence bestowed upon this nation and people. And, we beseech thee, give us a just sense of these great mercies,
such as may appear in our lives by a humble, holy, and obedient walking before thee all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost be all glory and honor,
world without end. Oh Jesus thank you

Jellybaby1

I was away when our Harvest was on so I can't report on it, but I expect it was the same as every other year, lots of clean up outside and inside the church by the dedicated parishioners, lots of polishing of brasses, fabulous flower arrangements, and lots of fruit and veggies nicely presented in the aisles, around the pulpit and the baptismal font. All of which is donated by the parishioners. And coffee and cake afterwards. I'm sure it all looked and smelled just wonderful. I was sorry to miss it this year.

Benny_Cake

Harvest Festivals weren't a part of my experience growing up, and I'm not aware of them being held in any Catholic churches in Ireland although perhaps it differs in other countries. Those who attend them seem to hold them in great affection. It all seems like a good idea especially at a time when most of us are quite a distance removed from the ways in which our food is produced.

Peregrinus

Benny_Cake wrote: »

Harvest Festivals weren't a part of my experience growing up, and I'm not aware of them being held in any Catholic churches in Ireland although perhaps it differs in other countries . . .

I don't think so. At least, not under the name "harvest festivals".

Harvest festivals, however called, are of course almost universal, and are certain pre-Christian (as sbsquarepants points out). Once any society moves on from the hunter-gatherer phase and starts sowing and reaping, harvest becomes an important time, and a time to celebrate, especially in temperate zones where there is a clearly defined "harvest time" during the year.

So, before Europe was Christianised, they were already celebrating harvest festivals in one form or another. Samhain was what the Gaels were doing. And the church "baptised" local festivals by given them a Christian overlay in the form of, e.g., All Saints Day, from which Hallowe'en takes its name.

Come the Reformation, and Protestants find Hallowe'en a bit superstitious, so they strip away (somewhat ironically) the Christian overlay and rename the festival as what it originally was; a harvest festival.

LordSutch

Peregrinus wrote: »

Come the Reformation, and Protestants find Hallowe'en a bit superstitious, so they strip away (somewhat ironically) the Christian overlay and rename the festival as what it originally was; a harvest festival.

We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land, for it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand.

Been to two this year in south side parishes + one down the country.
Beautiful, all of them (and most importantly, the food was distributed to various groups in need of the food).

So until next year . . . .

uck51js9zml2yt

LordSutch wrote: »

Been to two this year in south side parishes + one down the country.
. . .

Nothing like a good Mass(meant harvest festival) .



Never been to one since I'm not protestant

Nekarsulm

Kelly Many Numskull wrote: »

Nothing like a good Mass(meant harvest festival) .



Never been to one since I'm not protestant

You're not too late this year yet. Probably a couple of late ones left!

Better than 50% chance that you get a sermon on "The Parable of the sower"

Jellybaby1

Absolutely, there are a few still to go. I find in some Harvest services the local RC priest calls in too along with some of his parishioners who say they enjoy the hymns and the decorations. I wonder why their church don't do it. It's nice to say thank you for the food we eat.

uck51js9zml2yt

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Absolutely, there are a few still to go. I find in some Harvest services the local RC priest calls in too along with some of his parishioners who say they enjoy the hymns and the decorations. I wonder why their church don't do it. It's nice to say thank you for the food we eat.

You don't get much into 25 - 45minutes( depending on the day)!

Jellybaby1

Do you mean the length of the mass? Sure what's another 15 minutes? A few hymns would fill that up in no time. I don't know how things are done in RC parishes, but would it be possible for some parishioners to get together and talk to the PP about running a Harvest service/mass? The priest would have to be open to suggestions, and the parishioners would have to be willing to do a bit of work for it, but I don't know how it would be paid for i.e. the flowers, fruit, veggies and refreshments afterwards. If ye really would like it, sure go for it.

uck51js9zml2yt

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Do you mean the length of the mass? Sure what's another 15 minutes? A few hymns would fill that up in no time. I don't know how things are done in RC parishes, but would it be possible for some parishioners to get together and talk to the PP about running a Harvest service/mass? The priest would have to be open to suggestions, and the parishioners would have to be willing to do a bit of work for it, but I don't know how it would be paid for i.e. the flowers, fruit, veggies and refreshments afterwards. If ye really would like it, sure go for it.

As I'm not RC I'd have no interest in talking to the PP about it

Jellybaby1

My mistake tatranska, I misread your post.