Thanksgivings
Harvest festivals are pretty much universal in agricultural communities.
When your harvest is all you’ve got to eat a good one is a massive relief.
Traditionally many harvest festivals like Mardi Gras, Carnival or Saturnalia were wild steam-letting-off affairs with regular rules of behaviour going out the window.
Around the world people give thanks to the harvest and the good Earth in many different ways…
People in China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand have been eating mooncakes and giving thanks for a good harvest to the full moon at Mid-autumn or Mooncake festival for over 3,000 years.
In Germany Erntedankfest gives harvest thanks in a packed program starting with a Mass, a concert, followed by “oaf on a spit” (beef), a parade, wheelbarrow races and of course clog dancing.
At New Yam harvest festival Nigerian Igbo, Yoruba, and Idoma people give thanks for a successful yam harvest by eating all of last year’s yams and celebrating with feasts, music, dance, masquerades and fashion parades.
Guldize, Cornwall’s wheat harvest features a farmer holding up the final sheath of wheat while being regaled by a crowd chanting for the Crying the Neck ritual.
The farmer succumbs and the sheath is made into a “Corn dolly,” housing the spirit of the wheat until next harvest. This is followed by a fuggans (fruit pastries) and cider feast and singing old Cornish songs through the night.
Finally, in South East Queensland Kabi Kabi elder Aunty Beverly Hand has brought back Bunya Dreaming a celebration of the Bunya pine and its nuts (see pic above).
Bunya Dreaming was outlawed by colonial authorities in 1897 at a time when First Nations people were coming from as far away as Victoria to celebrate the Bunya harvest, to share food, yarn, dance and of course celebrate the Bunya pine!
Which brings us to CERES Harvest Festival that’s on next Saturday.
Harvest Fest is our annual bash to say thanks to the good Earth, our awesome farmers, and the changing seasons.
The word out of the farm is that it’s set to be a goodun:
There’s the smash-hit scarecrow building comp, farm tours & talks, lots of kids activities, storytelling, Eritrean coffee making, basket weaving, and Indonesian cooking.
The CERES Home Harvest Awards are back too, showing off cake baking, serious vegetable growing and there’s an online recipe comp with $50 Fair Food voucher prize.
All you need to do is write out your recipe, snap a pic of your dish next time you make it and email it to info@ceresfairfood.org.au with the subject “HARVEST RECIPE” before COB March 18th 2025.
All this plus local tunes, marketplace magic and lots of yummy local eats.
This Saturday 23rd March, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm.
Grab your tickets here:
Have a great week
Chris
