Festivals of Harvest - an alternative view

[British Red]

Yesterday I got the carrots in. I harvested 50 square feet and got a yield of over half a pound of processed carrots per square foot. I could have got much more but we harvest and preserve the smaller, sweeter carrots that we prefer (and sow more densely).

Anyway so what?

Well it was a small amount. I started digging them up about 3pm.

I finished the canning just after 3am. I got to sleep at 4 and allowed myself a lie in till 8.

It occurred to me stumbling bleary eyed for coffee that I think historians and the preachy types have probably got the meaning of parties after the harvest all wrong. Now I don't mean if you call it samhraidhreadh, samhain, harvest festival or Meditrinalia, my point is I suspect that these festivals were not a pious celebration of religious observance or even showing gratitude to a deity that they would have enough to eat this Winter. I'm sure there was an element of thanks that grain harvests were "in", but they of course would have been stored away weeks before most of these festivals take place.

I think these festivals were a drunken part at the end of a physically exhausting,, time critical task that pretty much said "I'm d@mned glad thats over and done with for another year - now I'm going to get hammered and sleep for a week"

Just my thoughts based on a tired brain and being sick of harvesting and preserving

 

[Goatboy]

I pretty much agree with you Red, there probably was a religious element to it, but the thanks that a hard job was over and you were "safe" for another season would've gone a long way to making one want to have a party, plus there would've been some fresh surplus to have the party with. It would also give structure, helping to mark the times.
Good job on the carrots, can be pretty back breaking work, used to do tatties, neeps and carrots for the local farms. Was always fun and the getting together to do the work made it fun. Plus it meant I had pennies to spend afterwards as a kid.

 

[John Fenna]

I think that you are onto something there Mr Red!

 

[Toddy]

Yeah, no disagreement there.
Apples, apples and more apples, rasps, rasps and more rasps, here. The thought of digging tatties, carrots, onions, etc., redding up the beds afterwards, sorting out the veggies, processing them, organising storage.
Done and dusted needs a good soak, a good sleep and then open doors to good company

Babies conceived around harvest times are born in Spring.

M

 

[sandbender]

"...I think these festivals were a drunken part at the end of a physically exhausting,, time critical task..."

Yep, that is how I imagine it.

 

[British Red]

The thought of digging tatties, carrots, onions, etc.,
M

Bleeding Carrots :aargh4:

Barrow full of carrots by British Red, on Flickr

Carrots by British Red, on Flickr

Washed and prepared carrots by British Red, on Flickr

I dreamed of carrots

 

[cranmere]

I strongly suspect that all of the festivals are pretty much that. Midsummer, midwinter, harvest, spring festivals, all are at very clearly identifiable parts of the agricultural year, just after a time when there has been a lot of activity and there is a brief pause. The Christian Church made a deliberate decision to position its festivals on top of the existing festivals when it came to England so the religious aspects became mixed with the older Pagan practices.

 

[bigbear]

Yes, most of our Westen christian festivals are mapped on to existing pagan ones, its history being written by the winner I guess. And I bet for a long time the poor folk going to church had the older meaning in mind.
i like the tradition of sharing some of that surplus with the poor and needy, that to must have long roots in early society.

 

[sandbender]

Do you have a picture of the 'canned' carrots?

Still loving that wheelbarrow.

 

[British Red]

Do you have a picture of the 'canned' carrots?

Still loving that wheelbarrow.

I can take one easily if you like?

 

[sandbender]

I can take one easily if you like?

If you pass the shelves with a camera in hand in the coming days, yes. But please do not go out of your way.

My better half was curious to see the finished article, in her mind she's already canning her own carrot crop, but for now with no land we can only preserve what we buy at the market.

These is the umpteenth jars of gherkins this year, bubbling away this morning, which is also a long long process but the results are worth it.