Harvest Festival Weekend

Last weekend the CERES 2014 Harvest Festival celebrated the very ground we live on,  farmers and the cycle of the seasons. It was a great day of celebration with live music, performance, animal displays and activities for the kids,  food and craft stalls for the adults, and a cake baking competition for cooking enthusiasts.    Here is a link to a little video made by Helen Iles from livinginthefuture.org  about the festival, which showcases quite nicely some of what happens in the environmental park.

Our morning service continued  the Harvest Festival theme the next day where Jan inspired, informed and encouraged the gathered community in thoughts about our food and where it comes from. She delighted by re-instituting some old traditions (hearty singing of ‘Bringing in the sheaves’, accompanied by tamborines and percussion instruments) and instigating some new ones –  there is no way that soup she made while everyone watched is going to be allowed to be a ‘once off’!

This is Jan’s candle lighting liturgy:

A candle for thanksgiving for the bounty of the harvest
We give thanks for the grains, the fruits, the vegetable s and healing herbs.

We light a candle for the environment that nurtured our food.
For the rains, the sunshine, the bumble bees, the insects, the snakes who kept the rats at bay.

We light a candle for the people who produce our food.
farmers, the orchardists, the millers, bakers, butchers and herb growers.

We light a candle for the people who prepare our food
We give thanks for the Marthas in our life, for the people who put on the apron and prepare food with love.

We give thanks for the people who share food with us.
We give thanks for the gift of hospitality and the blessing of friends around the table. Amen

more pictures about Sophia’s Springs involvement in Harvest Festival will soon follow.