| The
2007 Harvest Festival Service.
Part of Gift Festival Week |
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Ever since primitive
man learned to cultivate his own crops, harvest festivals,
thanksgiving ceremonies and celebrations for a successful
and abundant harvest have been carried out throughout the
world. The harvest home feast marked the end of weeks
of hard work in the field. In the UK there is no national
date for a harvest festival, traditionally they are held near
the harvest Moon (the full Moon which falls in the month of
September at or around the autumn equinox). The practice
of celebrating harvest festivals in churches began in 1843,
when the Reverend Robert Hawker, invited the members of his
parish to attend a special service of harvest thanksgiving
at his church in Morwenstow in Cornwall. This led to the now-widespread
custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce
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In preparation for this years festival,
senior pupils at Chaddleworth and Shefford federated primary
schools, had the chance to gain first hand experience in the
art of bread making. This was an inter-parish project as pupils
were from Chaddleworth, Shefford and East Garston. |
They first learned
about growing and harvesting wheat from local farmer, Anthony
Liddiard. Then former Shefford Master Baker, John Brittain,
whose family baked bread for the Lambourn Valley and surrounding
villages, for several generations, tutored the children on
aspects of bread making. They learned about the importance
of a successful harvest and its impact on plentiful supplies
of bread, as well as the importance of bread to a healthy
diet. |
| John
recalled as a boy, helping to deliver on a bicycle, 7,000
loaves of bread a week to the Downland Villages, including
the Lambourn Valley. His grandfather and great grandfather
made deliveries in horse drawn carts. John and a colleague
from bakery college days,Terry Alford, had baked Harvest Sheaves,
a Harvest Plaque, Cottage Loaves and Hedgehogs, to illustrate
the now, largely forgotten crafts of the bakery trade. |
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The children then,
to their delight, in teams of three, wearing white aprons,
and chefs hats, were taught to make harvest plait loaves.
This was a competition and John presented a cup to the winners.
The afternoon finished with a short service led by the Vicars
of the three parishes – The Revds Nigel Sands, John
Townend and Tony Cumberlidge to bless the bread. The cup was
presented to the winners and the children went home, happily
sampling the bread they had made. The sheaves, plaque and
loaves were preserved to form part of Harvest Festival decorations
at East Garston, Shefford, Chaddleworth, Leckhampstead and
Fawley Churches. |
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Sunday the 21st of
October when we saw around a hundred adults and children in
attendance for the annual Harvest Festival service. This was
followed by a buffet lunch in the church and a chance to take
a good look at the wonderful decorations/displays that had
been created within. |
| During the final hymn,
a collection was taken with the proceeds going to RABI - The
Royal Agriculteral Benevolent Institute. |
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Church and porch was adorned with the most beautiful of floral
arrangements and produce displays. |
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Seeing all this wonderful produce I
am reminded of a section of verse from the John Betjeman poem
about a lowly church mouse, it reads:- |
Christmas and Easter may be
feasts
For congregations and for priests,
And so may Whitsun - All the same,
They do not fill my meagre frame.
For me the only feast at all
Is Autumn's Harvest Festival. |
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I sincerely hope our
church mice enjoyed their time here as much as we did. |
All
Saints' Menu : Main Site
Menu : Harvest Festival Menu
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