In England, thanks has been given for successful harvests since pagan times. Celebrations on this day usually include singing, praying and decorating churches with baskets of fruit and food in a festival known as Harvest Festival.

In Churches and schools, people bring in food from home. The food is later distributed among the poor and senior citizens of the local community.

When is Harvest Festival?

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Harvest festivals are traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the Harvest Moon. This moon is the full moon which falls in the month of September, at or around the time of the Autumnal Equinox. Unlike the USA and Canada, the UK does not have a national holiday for Harvest Festival.

Customs and Traditions

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The tradition 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. Victorian hymns such as "We plough the fields and scatter", "Come ye thankful people, come" and "All things bright and beautiful" helped popularise his idea of harvest festival and spread the annual custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce for the Harvest Festival service.

In the early days, there were ceremonies and rituals at the beginning as well as at the end of the harvest.

• Church bells could be heard on each day of the harvest.
• A corn dolly was made from the last sheaf of corn harvested. The corn dolly often had a place of honour at the banquet table, and was kept until the following spring.
• In the West of England the ceremony of Crying The Neck was practiced. Today it is still re-enacted annually by The Old Cornwall Society.
• The horse, bringing the last cart load, was decorated with garlands of flowers and colourful ribbons.
• A magnificent Harvest feast was held at the farmer's house and games played to celebrate the end of the harvest.

English culture | Festivals