Harvest Festivals.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume X, Issue 11, 1 April 1920, Page 274

Harvest Festivals.

It- is unfortunate that yd New Zealand the season of : Lent domes almost immediately after the ingathering of \ the; harvest, and "clergy are tempted to hold ■ their harvest services, either on one of the three Sundays be- y fore Lent or during Lent- itself . The Harvest Festival is a. thing of recent, invention designed to Christianise' the old Heathen observances of: the Harvest Home. The Jews had two such' f6stiy;als,- one the "otfering of the first, fruits '(Pentecost) and- the^ other, the ; feast of ■-•■ingathering;. (Tabernacles), but 'th"e,jformer: became m the ■ Ghiistiaia JChurch • tKe feast of the Holy Spirit^ the latter has no counterpart iv the .'Church calendar. It w^s durr ing' the early years of .the Oxford movement that Harvest Festivals were instituted m spite, of Protestant ppposition> but they .have become so Popular that they "threaien; to overshadow the reM Christian festivals. There may be. no objection, to the observance of such modern f estiyajsy buC the. tendency: to. exaggerate their inipprtaiice; is distinctly harmful, ©rt^ ; Sa^a^

Lent is, of-- course, a festival, but to break into Bent with a' Harvest Festival, with its excessive ceremonial and feasting, just whien -our minds shouldibe tuned to the penitenml season' is.;, surely ;■ most inappropriate. , Much;might' be*said of the absurdity,, and vulgarity of the usual decorations , it- Harvest f Festivals^— we would -only remark^here that to .dress^tbeJ^altjir u ; liker a :Chinaman 's -fruit shop :^qr~ a market gardener J s^.m gust i- the feelings; o.f ; any. man v who; reverences the Sanctuary? The lowest : depth of vulgarity is Reached when aj church is " decorated. with agricukl turai; implements borrowed ;from a^ lqcal hardware shop: and labelled! ''Kindly llent ' by Such an, abomination has actually oc-" curred m this diocese; > To make re--yerence impossible by > : the altar rails with; Squashy: tomatoes or > anytning else likely to distract the attention: or: prevent the proper<fcnejei; ■ ing, of communicants is unpardonable^ nor is it wise so to adorn (?) the pulpit witli vegetables that an. excited preacher having unconsciously grabbed a\' tomato, is compelled "to rid .himself of' it by hurling it at the^jbir ladies, or that m the course. pi hi| vigordus declamation he ; scatters • vegetables among the congre;gJ9tti()n.; The writer has seen both these things happen. From.the paro.chiai npiies of another diocese it appears 'that "Harvest ; Thanksgivings ■a*e"j)eing held; m many parishes on the fbtirth m. Lent and, m, qv^\ parish m various / centres on the fourth Sunday m Lent and ( ' pn the. -fojilbwing., Sundays : m Lent/'^tiat is 7 on Passion Sunday and Palm Sundays—the pehitenitiaP season being' completely, ignored. TO BTarvest Thariksgiying is' ript ;a -^ Festival of the (/hurc'h"- L -^t is merely a local and" private festival, unauthor- • ised by the s Church but' permitted.No festivals of private invehtibn shoujid be allowed to interfere: w^h tnej observanee^df the, Ghristiaii year as laid down m the Ghuren calendar.