hi everyone I'm Gina in September we harvest the crops that
have grown throughout the year and the harvest festival is a celebration of the
food that we have cultivated in the land in this lesson you're going to learn
about what the harvest festival means to the UK the word harvest comes from the
old english word hair first what does hair fest mean we'll show you
the answer at the end of this video traditionally the harvest festival is
held on or near the sunday of the Harvest Moon the Harvest Moon is a full
moon that is closest to the autumn all equinox two times out of three this
falls within September but on those rare occasions it occurs in October in the UK
the main places that celebrate the Harvest Festival
are churches and schools churches decorate with baskets of fruit and other
produce and say prayers and sing hymns to give thanks for previous successful
harvests and hope for continued success in the future it is not a public holiday
but it's still an important date in the calendar in the UK schools may hold
assemblies such as similar to the church services but they also asked students to
bring food to the school the food is then parceled up so that it can be
distributed to those less fortunate as a harvest festival is also about helping
those in need as much as possible
although harvest celebrations can be traced back to pagan festivals the
modern harvest festival began in 1843 when parishioners in Cornwall were
invited to a Thanksgiving service by the Reverend at that time and now I'll give
you the answer to the earlier quiz the word harvest comes from the old english
word hair fest what does half-assed mean hair fest is the old english word for
autumn the meaning evolved however and it came to mean the season for reaping
and gathering grain how is this lesson did you learn something interesting do
you have any harvest festivals in your country leave us a comment at English
class 101.com and we'll see you in the next lesson
you