Harvest Service 2023
Our Church Council welcomed everyone to our harvest festival, to celebrate the wonderful produce that has been grown, harvested or created from the land.
King William pre-school joined our school.
After singing 'For the Harvest', Blue Whale sand a Harvest Time song alongside actions.
Puffin class then narrated and acted out an extract from 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' by Beatrix Potter.
Tiger class performed a choral poem: The Harvest Beat.
Panda class shared some Harvest traditions including:
Harvest Festival used to be celebrated at the beginning of the Harvest season on 1st August and was called Lammas, meaning 'loaf Mass'.
Harvest is celebrated by many religions. The Jews would give a tenth of the harvest to God. This was known as a tithe.
In this country, farmers used to give a tithe of everything that came from the ground. They would give their crops, wool, or milk, which totalled an agreed amount of their yearly profits. Tithes were often given to help support the local church and its clergy (i.e. church workers).
Panda class made a Harvest Loaf.
Polar Bear class then shared information about Harvest today where many UK churches have a Harvest Thanksgiving service. The church building may be decorated with a display of flowers and food, perhaps including a large loaf in the shape of a wheat sheaf. People often bring more gifts of food and household goods to add to the display during the church service. The sharing of food helps Christians to remember that all good gifts come from God. Giving is a way of saying thank you to God in a practical way whilst remembering that He commanded all people to love and care for others.
Zebra read the poem 'Autumn Bounty' in groups.
Leopard class explained the journey of our food from the soil to our plate, or the farm to our plate. They spoke about the days, weeks and months of preparation, sowing, weeding, watering and feeding: then the harvesting and the storing before manufacture into different products. For example, the flour becomes our bread and pasta, the milk becomes our butter or cheese. They did emphasise that if the food we eat is grown locally then the journey and therefore the impact on the environment is less.
The whole school singing and signing 'Harvest Samba'.
Church Council completed the service with a prayer.
For Harvest we collected food for the Salvation Army.
