Ship of Fools: The song of harvest home

Thread: The song of harvest home Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by dj_ordinaire (# 4643) on :

As this most beautiful of summers cools away, the woods will up with brambles, mushrooms and chestnuts, and ones campus again swarms with undergraduates, it can only mean that the fall is here. Combined with the discussion of 'offering' of God's blessings in the 'Offertory of water' thread, this has got me thinking about Harvest Festivals.

Will you (Northern hemisphere) Shipmates be celebrating one, and when? And how? And do you agree?

My once tuppence - despite often coming across as a bit twee, anything the Church can do to reconnect people with the limited resources upon which the world relies is a good thing.

And with the queues at British food banks shamefully, shockingly growing longer each month, any associated food-related charity might be particularly important this year.

[ 10. September 2013, 20:54: Message edited by: dj_ordinaire ]

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Ours is on 29th September, very much slanted as you suggest. Harvest gifts will go our flourishing (!) local Foodbank (dry goods)and to a hostel for homeless men (fresh produce). Our Scouts/Cubs/Beavers come to this service, and usually make useful contributions in the form of readings, prayers, and gifts!

Ian J.

Posted by Barefoot Friar (# 13100) on :

The closest we will be getting is the Halowe'en "trunk-or-treat" held at the local restaurant (yes, THE restaurant), just down from my church. Because we live in a rural area, and because going door to door after dark is a risky and tiring proposition, people will gather there and kids can go from car to car getting their candy. There will be free food, games, prizes, and -- if I can work it out -- an inflatable "bouncy house" for the littler ones. Also live music. People will be costumed, and it will generally be a fun, happy, safe atmosphere.

We will also have an ecumenical service the Sunday evening before Thanksgiving at my church. Us, the Baptists, and the Church of God folks all come together for worship.

Posted by Gramps49 (# 16378) on :

Yes, it will be mid October for my congregation.

Posted by Zach82 (# 3208) on :

quote:
Because we live in a rural area, and because going door to door after dark is a risky and tiring proposition...

People never let kids have fun any more.

[ 11. September 2013, 02:26: Message edited by: Zach82 ]

Posted by Amos (# 44) on :

Of course! One in each of the four churches, and a school service for each of the two schools over the course of the month of October. Two Harvest Suppers. Collections for the local food bank and the Night Shelter.

Farm machinery parked on the corner outside one of the churches (this happens again on Plough Sunday) to the delight of the Sunday School.

Harvest loaf shaped like a sheaf--no, this isn't used for Holy Communion (muffin, monstrance, all that).

Traditional hymns. Schools get to sing 'Cauliflowers Fluffy,' 'Autumn Days,' and 'Big Red Combine Harvester.' Churches get to sing 'We Plough the Fields...,' 'We Gather Together to Ask the Lord's Blessing,' 'Now Thank We All Our God,' etc.

It's a very important part of the church year in these parts.

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
Ours is on 29th September, very much slanted as you suggest.

Which is St Michael and All Angels. When I spent time in a community for the care of the learning disabled following the principles of Rudolf Steiner, they made a very big thing of Michaelmas as a harvest festival. They regarded it as one of the four main festivals of the Christian year (the others being Christmas, Easter and St John’s, ie the solstices and equinoxes). They planted sunflower seeds on Good Friday and used the grown sunflowers as decorations at Michaelmas (Michael like Christ being a form of the great Sun spirit).

They seemed more interested in angels than God.

I’m not sure whether you could make an imaginative and orthodox Christian connection between the two. Or like Rome, just regard the Sunday as taking precedence over St Michael.

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Hmm. Interesting.......I'll have a word with Father, who will be preaching that Sunday!

Ian J.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

On this side of the Atlantic, of course, we have a national Thanksgiving Day, rather than locally scheduled harvest festivals (though some places may have those, also, I suppose). And while Thanksgiving Day began as giving thanks for 'the kindly fruits of the earth' it seems to have mostly degenerated into a celebration of football and Christmas shopping. Few churches even celebrate the day, though TEC provides liturgical propers. I think we've lost something very important along the way.

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

We have a Harvest Lunch rather than a Supper. The services are fairly traditional, although there might be a lighter selection of hymns in the morning when more young families tend to come; and more traditional Harvest hymns at the Festival evensong.

Until recently, people tended to bring fruit and vegetables, with only a few packets and tins - these were distributed by the church members to individuals in the parish. But now one of the local charities does the organising, and each church is allocated items to bring. So, for example, we might be instructed to bring teabags, tins of baked beans and packets of rice. I guess it's more practical that way, although it does rather take the enjoyment out of the situation - we used to like making up our own boxes with a mixture of home-made produce and carefully bought additional items. I have noticed fewer people bring things now.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Harvest is very important in our rural parish.
Morning and evening services to ensure that as many as possible can attend.

Local farmers bring to the altar their own produce during the evening service - very moving.

Harvest gifts distributed to local night-shelter and food-bank.

Harvest Supper using local produce always a riot, especially since a warden started his own micro-brewery... [Smile]

Posted by Anglo Catholic Relict (# 17213) on :

Mine has a Harvest Supper in aid of Mary's Meals and four separate Harvest services in one day, in early October, together with flower arrangements in church. Most local churches celebrate Harvest in a similar way; food contributions welcome, plus financial gifts to the Bishop's harvest appeal.

I am not sure if it is connected with Harvest, but the annual peace walk in the town is on Saturday, and that is also collecting contributions for the local food bank.

I do hope the weather remains fine.

[ 15. September 2013, 17:41: Message edited by: Anglo Catholic Relict ]

Posted by S. Bacchus (# 17778) on :

We had our harvest festival today. It was all very jolly. No 'All things bright and beautiful'* this year, but the other hymns were either harvest-themed or related ('For the beauty of the earth' during communion, for instance), the children brought forth their offerings of organic, Fair-trade canned goods for the food bank (can you tell that we're a middle class, liberalish congregation?), and the sermon managed to tie in Gerald Manley Hopkins, R.S. Thomas, and Nigel Molesworth.** We had a bring and share lunch afterward. All very nice, if a bit twee.

*And before we get on THAT tangent, no, we've never sung THAT verse, which indeed isn't even in the hymnal we use (rather than being omitted, it's replaced with an über-twee Dearmerite ditty about gathering rushes every day).

** Non-British Shipmates might not be familiar with this character, who is a fictional schoolboy at the equally fictional St Custard's School, and the narrator of such classics as 'Down With Skool!: A guide to school life for tiny pupils and their parents'.

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

I always thought the rushes were authentic Mrs Alexander.

Posted by S. Bacchus (# 17778) on :

quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
I always thought the rushes were authentic Mrs Alexander.

I've looked it up and think you may be right. For some reason, I thought they came in with the English Hymnal or Songs of Praise. In years when we have sung that hymn, it's been justified as 'for the really young and the really old', but I (who am neither) do have memories of singing it at school, and since I also enjoy singing 'When a Knight Won His Spurs' at the St George's Day Service, I can hardly complain about singing twee children's hymns for nostalgia's sake. (Not that we sang 'When a Knight Won His Spurs' at my school; like the Lay of Horatius, it was a schoolboy delight I only discovered later in life).

Posted by John Holding (# 158) on :

quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
On this side of the Atlantic, of course, we have a national Thanksgiving Day, rather than locally scheduled harvest festivals (though some places may have those, also, I suppose). And while Thanksgiving Day began as giving thanks for 'the kindly fruits of the earth' it seems to have mostly degenerated into a celebration of football and Christmas shopping. Few churches even celebrate the day, though TEC provides liturgical propers. I think we've lost something very important along the way.

Actually on your side of th Atlantic there are two separate and totally different legally ordained THanksgiving days -- the one to which you refer, which is for the USA and another in early October which applies to Canada and which is frequently observed as a Harvest Thahksgiving.

John

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

John,

OOPS! With an all-too-typical USA-mindset, I forgot about Canada (and our neighbors to the south). Mea culpa!

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

There is a 19th century hymn text by Greville Phillimore which begins
'Summer ended, harvest o'er'
and continues through various scriptural references (including reaping angels) through triumphantly
'Jesu, may we gathered be
In the heavenly barn with thee.'
8 four-line stanzas in all.

I only know it in an anthem setting by Charles Wood, but is this a hymn that is ever sung? I can only find it in 'Songs of Syon,' but most of my hymnal collection is elsewhere.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

Brazil usually celebrates the (maize) harvest on June 24th, Saint John the Baptist.

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
There is a 19th century hymn text by Greville Phillimore which begins
'Summer ended, harvest o'er'
and continues through various scriptural references (including reaping angels) through triumphantly
'Jesu, may we gathered be
In the heavenly barn with thee.'
8 four-line stanzas in all.

Another lover of Songs of Syon (sic)! Hymn 375 to the tune Freuen wir uns all in ein (7.7.7.7) last verse everybody:

Praise to thee! the toil is o'er;
Blight and curse shall be no more:
Lo! the mighty work is done;
Glory to the Three in One.

Posted by scuffleball (# 16480) on :

Some days are taken from the solar (agricultural calendar).

St John Baptist is the Summer Solstice.
Lammas (a grain harvest??) is half way between the Summer Solstice and Autumnal Equinox.
Michaelmas is the Autumnal Equinox.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

IMO the best verse in a harvest hymn is
We bear the burden of the day,
And often toil seems dreay;
But labour ends with sunset ray,
And rest is for the weary;
May we, the Angel-reaping o'er,
Stand at the last accepted,
Christ's golden sheaves for evermore
To garners bright elected.

Stops just this side of bathos and, when sung by locals who have gathered in their own harvest (which is the case at my place) very moving - helped, of course, by the splendid Sullivan tune.

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