Harvest Festival - September
Harvest Home
Hip! Hip! Hip! For the harvest home,
Now we've taken the last load home,
I ripped my shirt and I teared my skin,
To get my master's harvest in.
WARWICKSHIRE HARVEST SONG
  The timing of Harvest festival varies according to weather conditions and location, but festivals are held all over Britain at the end of the summer to celebrate the bringing-in of the crops, usually during September. Most of these festivals now take the form of a religious service in the local parish church. In the past they were much more of a pagan celebration and took place in the fields and farms as each stage and crop of the harvest was completed successfully.
Apart from being a time of hard work, harvest was also a time full of mysticism and ritual. At the start of the harvest, communities would appoint a strong and respected man of the village as their Lord of the Harvest. He would be responsible for negotiating the harvest wages and terms, organising the fieldworkers and setting the work pace, calling for rests and meal breaks as well as urging on any slackers. The men would be spread across the field and would move in a line, scything the crop as they went. Behind them followed the women and older men who would gather and bind the cut corn. After it had been stacked and dried, it would be made into ricks or collected on carts and taken back to the barns to be stored.
 Throughout the world, harvest time has always been the occasion for extraordinary customs. In England, to this day, vestiges of myth and magic may still be found. For example, great ceremony was always attached to the gathering of the last sheaf of corn. The reapers raised a great 'Harvest Shout' as it was cut. The last sheaf was treated with special respect and used to make 'Corn Dollies' as they were believed to harbour the Corn Spirit itself. It was then placed on the top of the final load of corn and carried back into the village in triumph.
In some places, it would be fashioned into a 'Corn Lady' or 'Kern Baby' dressed in white robes and garlanded with coloured ribbons. At the closing of reaping in Northumberland, when the last sheaf was set at the end, the reapers shout that they have 'got the kern'. It is then dressed in a white frock and hoisted on to a pole. The Kern Baby was then carried back and set up in a prominent place during the harvest supper. Often the Corn Dolly would be planted in the first new furrow the following spring on Plough Monday, so that its spirit would be released and ensure another good harvest. During the winter months, the Corn Dolly was believed to protect the family from evil spirits and from need.
Objects made from dried straw are known to have been made in the earliest civilisations, practised throughout Europe, Asia and South America. Harvest rituals occurred in every country where grain is grown in order to please the spirits of the crop. Abstract shapes or religious symbols made from straw were believed to insure prosperity and good luck in the next growing season.
In Devon, an old man selected a bundle of good ears of wheat, which was called 'the neck'. Then the reapers would stand around him in a ring, take off their hats and hold them with both hands towards the ground. All together they would then cry "The Neck!" three times, standing up with their hats high above their heads. This was called 'crying the neck' and was one of many symbolic ceremonies that remembered long after their origins have been forgotten. Another story about a Corn Dolly is in the folksong 'John Barleycorn':
There were three men come from the West
Their fortunes for to try,
And these three made a solemn vow:
"John Barleycorn must die."
They ploughed, they sowed, they harrowed him in,
Threw clods upon his head,
'Til these three men were satisfied
John Barleycorn was dead.
However in the spring he rises up through the soil. By and by he grows big and strong, even growing a beard. Consequently the three men cut him down at the knee, tie him to a cart, beat him, strip the flesh off his bones and grind him between two stones. Nevertheless, in the end it is John Barleycorn who defeats his opponents. He proves the stronger man by turning into ale!
 At the end of thfe harvest, each farmer would give a huge supper for all who helped bring in the crop. Having stored the last load of corn, the team of harvesters would follow their elected Lord of the Harvest into supper. Shropshire Fidget Pie is a substantial dish that was often served as a supper dish for the harvesters. Other traditional harvest supper dishes are Damson and Apple Tansy, originating in a fifteenth century manuscript, and Suffolk Fourses Cake, a traditional lardy bread served to Suffolk harvesters in the afternoons with sweetened beer.
The usual fare at Harvest supper was boiled beef or mutton with potatoes, followed by a wheat pudding of some description. In some areas a dish called 'Whipod' was served, consisting of rice, white bread, raisins, treacle and currants, which must have been similar to a bread pudding of today. Special harvest breads were also made, often in the shape of an ear of wheat. Great quantities of ale were consumed and the wages, which were often very small, would be handed out. It was likely that the harvesters would be less likely to grumble about their low wages if their stomachs were full and their heads muddled by ale! Many farmers had their own harvest jugs for use at this time, which usually bore their names and a verse composed by a local wit.
The potter fashioned me complete
As plainly doth appear
For to supply the harvest men
With good strong English beer
INSCRIPTION ON NORTH DEVON HARVESTING JUG
CITY MUSEUM, PLYMOUTH
The gathering of the harvest was celebrated with music, singing and dancing as well as the hearty supper. Games were played, one of which required six strong men to stand in two rows of three, facing each other. They would link arms and a man and a woman would be laid side by side across the linked arms and then tossed in the air. This is thought to be some type of fertility ritual associated with the gathering-in of the harvest.
We've ploughed and sowed
We've reaped and mowed
And we've gathered in the clover.
And every man will take his can
And neatly toss it over.
Now drink, boys, drink, and if you spill
You shall have two, it is our master's will.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE HARVEST DRINKING SONG
The 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.
 Farmers today no longer scythe by hand, but use large combine harvesters. However, the traditions remain the same and Harvest Festival continues to be an important event in the church calendar. Everyone in the congregation brings a contribution of food to the service, baskets of apples and fresh vegetables sitting beside tins of baked beans and sliced peaches on the church windowsill The age-old hymns, "We plough the fields and scatter" and "Come ye thankful people come" are sung. On the altar are the symbols of life - a large plait of bread and some water. The church looks festive, decorated with wheatsheaves and local produce. Many parishes still hold a Harvest Supper or Harvest Lunch and the sentiment is still strong - relief and thanksgiving for the safe gathering of the crops.
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap
but by the seeds that you plant.
ROBERT LOUIS STEPHENSON
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